When Should You Call Your Doctor
if you have symptoms that suggest you have a kidney stone, such as:
- Severe pain in your side, abdomen, groin, or genitals. It may get worse in waves.
- Blood in your urine.
- Signs of a urinary tract infection, such as pain or burning when you urinate.
- Severe nausea or vomiting.
- Severe pain in your side in the area of your kidney .
- Have been diagnosed with a kidney stone, and you need a stronger pain medicine.
- Pass a stone, even if there was little or no pain. Save the stone, and ask your doctor whether it should be tested.
How Can I Prevent Kidney Stones
The best way to prevent most kidney stones is to drink enough fluids every day. Most people should drink eight to 12 cups of fluid per day. If you have kidney disease and need to limit fluids, ask your doctor how much fluid you should have each day. Limiting sodium and animal protein in your diet may also help to prevent kidney stones. If your doctor can find out what your kidney stone is made of, he or she may be able to give you specific diet recommendations to help prevent future kidney stones.
If you have a health condition that makes you more likely to have kidney stones, your doctor might tell you to take medicine to treat this condition.
Never start or stop any treatment or diet without talking to your doctor first!
The Struvite Kidney Stone
Why they start
Because urine is filled with urea, soil bacteria that get into the urinary tract can;break it down to ammonia and create struvite from the magnesium and phosphate urine always contains.
You might wonder how soil bacteria get into the urinary system.
Because we eat them, with foods that are not cooked, and they become part of the intestinal bacterial population from an early age. In us and around us, they find a way into the urinary system, especially in women whose shorter urethra makes entry easier.;No matter how skillfully used, any;instrument put into the bladder can carry our personal soil bacteria with it.
What they do
Because they live among molds and fungi, soil bacteria easily mount resistances to antibiotics, so antibiotics given for a urinary tract infection will tend to kill sensitive bacteria and select out those that can resist them.
Soil bacteria can produce struvite stones de novo, or infect calcium stones to produce a mixed stone. Either way, struvite stones are infected by their very nature. They can become huge. Their bacteria can injure the kidneys, even enter the bloodstream and cause sepsis.
Treatment is a mix of thoughtful surgery and selection of antibiotics after such surgery to kill bacteria that remain. If the stones are;a mixture of struvite and calcium crystals, new calcium stones need to be prevented.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Kidney Stones
For some people, a kidney stone may just stay in a kidney and cause no symptoms. Other kidney stones may travel out of your body in your urine without you knowing anything about it. If symptoms do occur, they include:
- Pain from a kidney. A stone that is stuck in a kidney may cause pain in the side of your abdomen . This pain can be very severe and cause you to feel sweaty and be sick .
- Renal colic:
- This is a severe pain which is caused by a stone that passes into the tube draining urine from the kidney.
- The stone becomes stuck. The ureter squeezes the stone towards the bladder, which causes intense pain in the side of your tummy .
- The pain caused by renal colic may last from a few minutes to a few hours. The pain comes in spasms and between these spasms there may be intervals of no pain or just a dull ache.
- The pain may spread down into the lower abdomen or groin. You may sweat, feel sick or even vomit because the pain can be very bad.
- Blood in your urine. You may see blood in your urine . This is caused by a stone rubbing against the inside of your ureter.
- Urine infection. Urine infections are more common in people with kidney stones. Urine infections may cause high temperature , pain on passing urine and a need to pass urine more often.
Causes And Risk Factors
Nephrolithiasis has some systemic contributors, such as primary hyperparathyroidism.We always look for this because it’s one of the few curable causes of stone formation, Dr. Curhan said. These people have high serum calcium and at least a high urine calcium.
Increasing weight also probably plays a role in the increase in stone disease that’s been seen in the U.S., Dr. Curhan said. He pointed to data from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, the Nurses’ Health Study I, and the Nurses’ Health Study II showing that women who weighed 220 pounds or more had an 80% higher risk of stone formation than those who weighed less than 150 pounds; in men, there was a 40% higher risk.
Unfortunately we don’t have enough people who lost weight that I can tell you that losing weight would be protective, but I can at least say that weight maintenance is essential, he said.
Urinary risk factors for kidney stones include high concentrations of calcium and citrate, while higher citrate and higher urine volume confer lower risk, Dr. Curhan said. Urine uric acid was previously thought to be a risk factor for calcium oxalate stones, but that’s not the case, he noted.
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When Can Swl Be Used
SWL works better with some stones than others. Very large stones cannot be treated this way. The size and shape of stone, where it is lodged in your urinary tract, your health, and your kidneys’ health will be part of the decision to use it. Stones that are smaller than 2 cm in diameter are the best size for SWL. The treatment might not be effective in very large ones.
SWL is more appropriate for some people than others. Because x-rays and shock waves are needed in SWL, pregnant women with stones are not treated this way. People with bleeding disorders, infections, severe skeletal abnormalities, or who are morbidly obese also not usually good candidates for SWL. lf your kidneys have other abnormalities, your doctor may decide you should have a different treatment. lf you have a cardiac pacemaker, a cardiologist will decide if you can have SWL.
What Happens If I Get A Cystine Stone
The goal of treatment is to help keep stones from forming by reducing the amount of cystine in your urine. With less cystine in your urine, stones are less likely to form. It is important to work with your healthcare provider to reach this goal. ;Kidney stones can cause a lot of pain.; You may need to take pain relievers while you wait for the stone to pass out of your body.;
If a stone is very large and painful, or if it blocks the flow of urine, you may need surgery to remove it.; There are a few different types of surgeries to help get rid of the stones. These include:
- Percutaneous nephrostolithotomy : a procedure that involves passing a special instrument through your skin and into your kidney to take out the stones or break them apart.
- Ureteroscopy: a tiny instrument is passed into the bladder, and then up the ureter , to remove the stone.
- Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy :;a procedure that uses shock waves to break up large stones into smaller pieces. However, this procedure does not work as well for cystine stones compared to other types of kidney stones.
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How Common Are Uric Acid Stones
It is estimated that one in 10 people in the U.S. will have a kidney stone of one kind or another at some time in their lives. In the late 1970s, about 3.8% of the population had kidney stones, but this figure has now increased to about 8.8% of the population. Among men, the lifetime risk is about 19%; in women, it is 9%. Usually, the first incidence of kidney stones occurs after age 30. However, there are many cases that occur sooner, some in children as young as five years of age.
What Can The Patient Expect After Treatment
The recovery time is usually fairly brief. After treatment, the patient can get up to walk almost at once, Many people can fully resume daily activities within one to two days. Special diets are not required, but drinking plenty of water helps the stone fragments pass. For several weeks, you may pass stone fragments.
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Calcium Oxalate And Calcium Phosphate Stones
Calcium stones are the most common type of kidney stones, and can be either calcium oxalate or calcium phosphate. As mentioned, good hydration is important to prevent calcium stones. It may be surprising, but results of a randomized clinical trial show that people with calcium kidney stones should not cut back on dietary calcium. In fact, they should consume the recommended daily allowance of calcium . Why? Calcium binds to oxalate in the intestine and prevents its absorption through the gut, so there is less in the urine to form stones. Ideally, calcium should come from food. Talk with your doctor before taking calcium supplements, and increasing fluid intake might be beneficial depending on how much calcium you take.
Foods high in oxalates can increase the amount of oxalate in the urine. Consume these in moderation.
Calcium phosphate stones are less common than calcium oxalate stones. Causes include hyperparathyroidism , renal tubular acidosis , and urinary tract infections. It is important to understand if one of these conditions is behind the formation of calcium phosphate stones.
Good hydration can help prevent recurrence of calcium stones. In addition, thiazide diuretics such as hydrochlorothiazide can help the kidney absorb more calcium, leaving less of it in the urine where it can form stones. Potassium citrate is another medication that can bind to calcium and help keep calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate in the urine from forming into stones.
Reducing Kidney Stone Risk
Drinking enough fluid will help keep your urine less concentrated with waste products. Darker urine is more concentrated, so your urine should appear very light yellow to clear if you are well hydrated. Most of the fluid you drink should be water. Most people should drink more than 12 glasses of water a day. Speak with a healthcare professional about the right amount of water that’s best for you. Water is better than soda, sports drinks or coffee/tea. lf you exercise or if it is hot outside, you should drink more. Sugar and high-fructose corn syrup should be limited to small quantities.
Eat more fruits and vegetables, which make the urine less acid. When the urine is less acid, then stones may be less able to form. Animal protein produces urine that has more acid, which can then increase your risk for kidney stones.
You can reduce excess salt in your diet. What foods are high in salt? Everyone thinks of salty potato chips and French fries. Those should be rarely eaten. There are other products that are salty: sandwich meats, canned soups, packaged meals, and even sports drinks.
Some herbal substances are promoted as helping prevent stones. You should know that there is insufficient published medical evidence to support the use of any herb or supplement in preventing stones.
- What food may cause a kidney stone?
- Should l take vitamin and mineral supplements?
- What beverages are good choices for me?
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Symptoms Of Kidney Stones
Many people with kidney stones have no symptoms. However, some people do get symptoms, which may include:
- a gripping pain in the back usually just below the ribs on one side, radiating around to the front and sometimes towards the groin. The pain may be severe enough to cause nausea and vomiting
- blood in the urine
- cloudy or bad smelling urine
- shivers, sweating and fever if the urine becomes infected
- small stones, like gravel, passing out in the urine, often caused by uric acid stones
- an urgent feeling of needing to urinate, due to a stone at the bladder outlet.
Who Is More Likely To Develop Kidney Stones
Men are more likely to develop kidney stones than women. If you have a family history of kidney stones, you are more likely to develop them. You are also more likely to develop kidney stones again if youve had them once.
You may also be more likely to develop a kidney stone if you dont drink enough liquids.
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Risk Factors You Cannot Control
Things you can’t control include:
- Age and gender.
- Men between the ages of 30 and 50 are most likely to get kidney stones.
- Postmenopausal women with low estrogen levels have an increased risk for kidney stones. Women who have had their ovaries removed are also at increased risk.
Why Do I Get Kidney Stones
Kidneys are essential organs that filter out the waste traveling around the body in your bloodstream. The kidneys create urine to transport the filtered chemicals out of the body. Stones develop from buildup of mineral deposits in our urine that stick together in the kidneys. Typically, these stones develop because of a lack of water to dilute the accumulation of these minerals on the lining of our kidneys. Certain medications, medical disorders , and a family history of kidney stones can also increase your chances of suffering from them.
Because they are known to cause a great deal of pain, it is no surprise that those who suffer from kidney stones are willing to try just about anything to treat them and to prevent them from happening again. Known medicinal treatments include the use of alpha-blockers such as Flomax that relax the lining of the ureter to help stones pass more easily, and medications that treat the associated pain. Additionally, surgical procedures or other non-invasive means of surgical treatment may be prescribed to break up both calcium oxalate and uric acid kidney stones. These treatments include ureteroscopy and extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy .
Preventative measures used to halt the formation of kidney stones include dietary and behavioral changes. These involve decreasing sodium intake, increasing water intake to stay properly hydrated, stopping excessive exercise, stopping sauna usage , and eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.
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What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages Of This Treatment
The main advantage of this treatment is that it treats kidney stones without an incision. As a result, hospital stays and recovery time are reduced.
But, while SWL can work, it doesn’t always work. After SWL, about 5O% of people will be stone free within a month. In others, stone fragments of various sizes remain. Sometimes a repeat procedure is needed.
SWL has the potential to cause kidney injury. Whether or not SWL causes or leads to the development of high blood pressure and diabetes remains controversial. These possibilities are still being studied. You should ask your doctor about risks and benefits of SWL in your situation.
Dilution Is The Best Solution
The single most effective step to prevent recurrence is to increase your fluid intake. By drinking a total of 8 to 10 glasses of fluid per day, you will dramatically dilute your urine, making it less concentrated. This will keep crystals from forming, and reduce the likelihood of stone formation. At least half of the fluid intake should be water.
If you have trouble determining your fluid status, pay attention to your urine. Dark urine usually means that you are not getting enough fluid. The goal is to drink enough so that your urine is pale in color.
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Limiting Alcohol And Tobacco
Drinking alcohol in large amounts can make your blood pressure go up, which can lead to kidney disease. By drinking less, you can help keep your blood pressure under control. Here are healthy guidelines:
- For men, no more than two drinks per day
- For women, no more than one drink per day
;Do not smoke or use tobacco. Using tobacco can make high blood pressure and kidney problems worse. It also causes many other serious health problems such as cancer, heart disease and stroke. If you use tobacco, quitting can help lower your chance of getting kidney disease or help prevent your kidney disease from getting worse. Ask your doctor for help quitting.
The End Of A Very Long Post
Thats my parade.
The common animals and the rarer animals have gone by, and you have glimpsed the main ones, big and small.
The one point is what it was at the beginning. Each kind of kidney stone has its own ways, and treatment requires we know which one you have.
Likewise, for whatever that one may be, it is good to know as much about it as you can know. For long term prevention of stones is hard to come by and;ultimately what the patience and and consistency of patients themselves matters most.
Track down old reports and pull them together.
Keep copies and send everything to the doctors who care for you.
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Categories Of Stone Formers
Patients with kidney stones are generally classified in different categories according to the composition of stones and the history of previous stone episodes. This classification influences the diagnostic work up and preventive treatment. However, both of these aspects have limitations. For example, classification according to stone composition has the caveat that chemical methods are imprecise and do not distinguish the crystalline forms; infrared spectroscopy or X-ray diffraction are the preferred methods.
We suggest that stone disease should not be evaluated only in reference to stone composition and clinical activity, but the risk of complications should also be appraised in the diagnostic process and patient categorization .