What to do for Kidney Stones

Kidney stones are caused by minerals normally located in the urine solidify in the kidneys which remove unwanted or waste products from the blood. Mo...

 

Kidney stones are caused by minerals normally located in the urine solidify in the kidneys which remove unwanted or waste products from the blood. Most of the time, waste products are passed through your system via urine, when your kidneys are over used stones form in your kidneys. There are instances wherein these stones are sufficiently small that they can pass normally. However, the stones are larger they will be a lot more difficult to pass. So what to do for kidney stones to pass or be treated? Here are some tips.

Drink at least eight to ten glasses of water every day. Water will help flush out the kidney stones through the ureter, bladder, and urethra with relative ease. Drinking three liters of water each day will be even better. Fill a three liter bottle with water and drink it every day for best results.

Exercising daily will help your body break down the kidney stones. If the kidney stones are smaller than 6 mm you remove them with exercise. Your best bet is cardiovascular exercises. Take a daily walk outside or on a treadmill for at least 30 minutes. You can also reinforce that by doing push ups, jumping jacks, and crunches. Aerobic workout on television or through DVDs, are some resource you can have for following aerobic exercises.

Extracorporeal shock wave therapy is a treatment that will help you break down kidney stones if they are stuck or is causing extreme much pain. During this procedure, the doctor uses a device that sends shock waves within your body to break down kidney stones. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy is the most common procedure for breaking down kidney stones. See your doctor about this option whenever necessary.

Ureteroscopy is a procedure where a doctor or surgeon will insert a thin telescopic tube through the urinary tract to where the kidney stones are located. The surgeon then uses the instrument to break down the kidney stone or remove it completely. This procedure is only applied when the kidney stones are already in the ureter.

What Causes Kidney Stones?

 

Kidney stones are substance in excess that are not flushed out of the system through urine that gets collected in the kidney. These substance form crystals and harden into stones. There a four different types of kidney stones based on the chemical composition.

First type of kidney stone is the calcium type. Calcium builds up in the human body due to excessive intake of calcium through food and vitamins. After calcium is absorbed by the bones the excess calcium is excreted through the urine. There are instances wherein excess calcium combines with other substances such as oxalate and phosphate to form calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate stones. Calcium stones are the most common type of kidney stone.

A cystine stone are another type of kidney stone and is a rare hereditary disease. Cystine stones are formed because of genetic abnormality. Amino acids are needed to produce protein. However because of defective genes, amino acids are not absorbed properly by the kidneys. These unabsorbed amino acids form cystine stones.

Struvite stones are another type of kidney stones. Also known as infection stones because they primarily occur due to urinary tract infections. These stones grow faster and dwell in large parts of the kidney. Antibiotics may help in alleviating struvite stones, but this infection stone is still common in 20% of kidney stone sufferers.

The bacteria producing urinary tract infections and thereby struvite stones are proteus and klebsiella. Conditions that cause struvite stones or infections stones have the ability to produce ammonia which will is a factor struvite formation. Since the bladder has some stagnant urine, the risk of bacteria increasing is more.

Uric acid stones are another type of kidney stones. Excessive uric acid in the urine forms uric acid stones. When there is excessive purine production in the system, uric acid stones are formed. The excess uric acid gets lodged on the inner walls of the kidney that form uric acid stones. Uric acid stones are frequently associated with diseases such as gout.

The sizes and shapes of the kidney stones vary from person to person. It does not look like a smooth, round ball. The shape is irregular. The size may vary from millimetres to centimetres. The color and texture also vary from person to person.

Now that you have an understanding of the different types of kidney stones, you may well be able to determine what type of treatment or prevention you need in order to stop kidney stones from growing or preventing them altogether.

What are the Symptoms of a Kidney Stone?

 

Symptoms of a kidney stone are one of things that would never wish you would experience. The extreme pain it causes can make you think you are dying because of the pain. If you think you are suffering from one, then here are some of the common symptoms of a kidney stone.

Pain is the foremost symptom of a kidney stone. Where the pain is located depends on where the kidney stone is located and how big it is. For smaller stones you may experience little to n pain at all. For larger stones however, you may experience extreme pain in one area of the back, reaching down the front. The pain is pulsating that is experienced wave after wave.

Experiencing painful urination is another symptom. Your body is trying get rid of the stones. This causes you to go to the bathroom almost continuously. This is painful. This symptom however can also be a symptom of bladder infection. If you ever experience this it is better to seek the doctor for immediate diagnosis and treatment.

Blood in the urine is another indication that you may be suffering from kidney stones. The stones can actually graze the inside of the kidney and the ureter, which in turn causes in blood when you urinate.

Nausea and vomiting are another symptoms of kidney stones. This nerve cluster will make you experience sickness in your stomach. This results to vomiting.

When you experience these symptoms of a kidney stone, you need to go to the doctor immediately to ensure that it is a kidney stone and not something else or something worse. What doctors do is give you an ultrasound to be able see what is going on. Usually the doctors will wait to give the stone time to pass on its own if it is small. However if it is larger, it may require surgery or treatment.

Your best bet into preventing or treating kidney stones is to drink lots of water. This allows the kidney stones to pass much quicker. A lot of people have benefitted with the natural methods of preventing and curing kidney stones.

What are the Different Types of Kidney Stones?

 

Kidney stones are substance in excess that are not flushed out of the system through urine that gets collected in the kidney. These substance form crystals and harden into stones. There a four different types of kidney stones based on the chemical composition.

First type of kidney stone is the calcium type. Calcium builds up in the human body due to excessive intake of calcium through food and vitamins. After calcium is absorbed by the bones the excess calcium is excreted through the urine. There are instances wherein excess calcium combines with other substances such as oxalate and phosphate to form calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate stones. Calcium stones are the most common type of kidney stone.

A cystine stone are another type of kidney stone and is a rare hereditary disease. Cystine stones are formed because of genetic abnormality. Amino acids are needed to produce protein. However because of defective genes, amino acids are not absorbed properly by the kidneys. These unabsorbed amino acids form cystine stones.

Struvite stones are another type of kidney stones. Also known as infection stones because they primarily occur due to urinary tract infections. These stones grow faster and dwell in large parts of the kidney. Antibiotics may help in alleviating struvite stones, but this infection stone is still common in 20% of kidney stone sufferers.

The bacteria producing urinary tract infections and thereby struvite stones are proteus and klebsiella. Conditions that cause struvite stones or infections stones have the ability to produce ammonia which will is a factor struvite formation. Since the bladder has some stagnant urine, the risk of bacteria increasing is more.

Uric acid stones are another type of kidney stones. Excessive uric acid in the urine forms uric acid stones. When there is excessive purine production in the system, uric acid stones are formed. The excess uric acid gets lodged on the inner walls of the kidney that form uric acid stones. Uric acid stones are frequently associated with diseases such as gout.

The sizes and shapes of the kidney stones vary from person to person. It does not look like a smooth, round ball. The shape is irregular. The size may vary from millimetres to centimetres. The color and texture also vary from person to person.

Now that you have an understanding of the different types of kidney stones, you may well be able to determine what type of treatment or prevention you need in order to stop kidney stones from growing or preventing them altogether.

Steps in Preventing Kidney Stones

 

Preventing kidney stones is essential especially if you are someone who has already experienced or suffered from one. The ting with kidney stones is that if you’ve had them in the past, you have higher chances of having them again.

Kidney stones are the result of bad eating habits. But you can employ ways on preventing these kidney stones from building up within your body, or if you have suffered from one already, prevent yourself from suffering from it all over again. Here are some tips on how you can do exactly that.

Drink lots of water. Dehydration can lead to kidney stones. It is ideal that you should drink 8 glasses of water a day. This will help in flushing out unwanted toxins that can cause kidney stones from your system. If the colour of your urine is clear, then it is a good indication that you are drinking sufficient amounts of water.

Stay active and exercise regularly. You don’t have to train like an Olympic athlete, you just need to maintain a strict exercise regimen, or if you don’t know any, then jog every morning for about 30 minutes. Do this three to four times a week and this will not only help in preventing kidney stones, but also improve your overall well being.

Lessen your salt intake. High amounts of salt and sodium is responsible for many health problems, including kidney stones. Cutting on salty foods is a great start. Try to reduce the amount of salt that you punt in on the food that you cook, as you will be surprised that most of them already have inherent salt attributes.

Eat as much fresh fruit and vegetables as possible. These are great sources of fiber. Fiber is responsible for regularly flushing out unwanted toxins within your body. The best type of fiber is soluble fiber as there is plenty of water in it.

By starting out with these simple tips, you can gradually reduce the occurrence of kidney stones within your body. If you haven’t suffered from kidney stones yet, then doing these simple things will prevent you from suffering from it. Remember that preventing kidney stones is better than curing it.

Smart Diet for Kidney Stones Prevention and Cure

 

Knowing which type of kidney stone you are highly likely to suffer from is very essential for creating a diet for kidney stones prevention. The two common types of kidney stones, calcium stones and uric acid stones, react differently to different diets. Your goal is to find out which diet will prevent you from suffering one form of kidney stone especially once you find out which of these stones has a high possibility of you suffering from it.

Drinking lots of water is your first line of defense against kidney stones. Water decreases kidney stones by flushing away unwanted toxins and substances in the kidneys that can contribute to kidney stone formation. Drink eight to ten glasses of water each day.

If you are at risk of calcium kidney stone formation, reducing your sodium intake can help a lot. According to research, excessive sodium intake can cause calcium to mix with urine. This contributes to the formation of calcium kidney stones. The recommended daily allowance of sodium should be at 2,400 mg. If you want to reduce sodium intake, you have to check nutrition labels on packaged food for sodium levels and avoid too much salty food. Avoiding foods such as hot dogs, frozen dinners, and fast food, will help in reducing your sodium intake.

Further diet for kidney stones prevention, specifically for calcium stones involves avoiding caffeinated drinks, peanuts, dark green vegetables, dark red fruit like cranberries, beans, tofu, draft beer, sweet potatoes. These foods contain a lot of oxalate, also a contributor to the formation of calcium kidney stones.

If you are at risk of developing uric acid kidney stones, avoid eating meat-based products as this will decrease the risks of suffering from this type of kidney stone. Diet for kidney stones specifically for uric acid stones involves limiting your consumption of meat to 6 oz. each day. Also avoid organ meats as much as possible. These organ meats are rich in purines which can cause uric acid kidney stone formations. Diet composed of soy, dairy and healthy greens reduce purine levels. Include in your diet legumes, whole grains, and vegetables and all the while avoiding alcohol consumption can significantly prevent the formation of uric acid kidney stones.

Kidney Stones in Women

 

Kidney stones in women are less prevalent than kidney stone in men. However, these past few years, kidney stones in women have been increasing in number due to the fact that a lot of people, both men and women, have poor dietary habits. Nowadays the way people live their lives have also taken a toll on their eating habits, especially to women.

During menstruation women feel pain in their lower abdomen which usually they think is a regular occurrence of menstruation. However there are instances that women overlook this pain as a symptom of kidney stones. It is almost impossible to tell the difference between the pain caused by menstruation and the pain caused by kidney stones. If the pain is followed by urinary complaints, high fever, vomiting and nausea, then it is important to have yourself checked in order to identify if this is in relation to menstruation or kidney stones. If the abdominal pain lasts longer than 24 hours after the end of the menstrual cycle, you should have it checked by a doctor to see if it is kidney stones or not.

Most of the time, around 80 percent of the time, kidney stones are composed of calcium stones. Calcium is something that is taken in by women or included in their diet to prevent other conditions from occurring within their bodies. However, this increases the likelihood of women to develop kidney stones.

It has not been agreed upon yet by all doctors and medical practitioners, but women have higher chances of developing struvite stones, another form of kidney stones. This type of kidney stones is caused by the woman having recurring urinary tract infections. Struvite stones are severe since they can damage the kidney due to the larger sizes that they form compared to calcium stones.

If the woman is experiencing recurring pain in the abdominal area, it should be reported to a doctor since kidney stones and menstruation are not the only things that can cause these pains. It is better to have it looked immediately for early diagnosis and treatment.

Important Information on Uri Acid Kidney Stones

 

It is imperative that we know a lot of information on kidney stones, how it comes to be, what are the causes, symptoms, prevention, and treatment. Kidney Stones is the build up of minerals and crystals that have separated from the urine within the urinary tract. Kidney stones have different types and one of them is the uric acid. Uric acid kidney stones are one of the less common types of kidney stones, and develop due to high levels of uric acid in the body.

Uric acid accrue as cells break apart and is caused by eating certain foods containing high levels of purines, such as beans, peas and animal liver. Normally the uric acid should be passed out of the body through the urine.

Consuming high amounts of purine rich foods, such as some seafood and animal organs may increase the risk of developing uric acid kidney stones. Other factors such as diabetes and gout can also lead to the formation of uric acid kidney stones as they hinder the process of taking out uirc acids from the system and contribute to its formation.

In a lot of cases there are no early warning signs of a kidney stone. Once the kidney stone leaves the kidney and begins to make its way through the ureter to reach the bladder, a sharp cramping pain will suddenly occur in the lower back.

Most kidney stones pass without any painful occurrences. But for those that are causing extreme pain or blood in the urine, x-rays and ultrasounds can often tell specifically the location of the stone for better and proper treatment.

Once the stone has passed or removed, the doctor will still perform tests in order to determine its composition. For uric acid stones, medication is necessarily prescribed or a change in diet is in order. Foods like meat, fish or poultry are suggestively decreased.

Regular milk and yogurt consumption can help lower uric acid levels in the body in order to avoid the formation of those kidney stones. Stay hydrated in order to keep your urine diluted and prevent the various minerals from becoming too concentrated in your kidneys. Drinking plenty of water daily is key.

How Long Does it Take to Pass a Kidney Stone?

 

Kidney stone formations are caused by the calcium and salts and acids that do not dissolve and get flushed out from the kidneys. As time passes, these minerals crystallize and bond together, forming a kidney stone. Because the kidney stones are difficult to expel from the body, they are extremely painful as they move through the digestive tract.

Once developed in the kidneys, the kidney stones move into the ureter that connects the kidneys and the bladder. This is a very small tube, and the movement of these stones and the strain it puts on the ureter causes extreme pain.

Symptoms include pain in the back or below the ribs. This pain escalates then disappears on a 60 minute cycle. Other symptoms include nausea; frequent urination; and fever or chills.

When you begin to suffer from these symptoms, it is best to see the doctor about it. The doctor may CT scan or X-ray, to determine the size, the number of the stones, and their location.

Once the doctor has evaluated and have found out all the information he or she may need to figure out your kidney stones, the doctor should be able to estimate how long does it take to pass a kidney stone in your case. The doctor will also give you a strainer that allows you to catch the stone when it passed. This allows the doctor to further analyze your kidney stones.

There is no exact science on how long does it take to pass a kidney stone. From the start of the symptoms it can take hours, days, or even weeks to pass the kidney stone. But the larger the stone is, the longer it will pass.

Kidney stones that are 6 mm or greater in size takes a lot longer to pass especially if medical methods of treatment are not applied. Since the time frame is longer, doctors may at times require the use of surgical methods to break up the stone. This is essential since the longer a kidney stone stays in the body, the higher the chances that he or she may suffer from an infection. Therefore, the immediate removal of the kidney stones is in order.

Different Procedures for the Removal of Kidney Stones

 

Kidney stones aren’t life threatening. However they are one of the most painful diseases anyone may experience. Good thing there are several procedures for the removal of kidney stones. Most of these treatments do not require surgery.

The first treatment is a conservative treatment, one in which is the simplest way to flush the stones out. It is by drinking lots of water, around eight to ten glasses a day. This will be sufficient enough to push the stones down the urinary tract and out of your body. Exercise along with water, can also help removing the kidney stones.

Another procedure for removal of kidney stones is ureteroscopic stone removal. This process does not require incision. What the surgeon does is thread a ureteroscope through the urethra and bladder and up to the ureter. Once there the surgeon either pulls out the kidney stones or applies ultrasonic or energy to break down the stone into smaller pieces

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy is the most common procedure for the removal of kidney stones that are just too large to flush out from the body. It does not require surgery as well. What is done is a machine sends shock waves into the abdomen, and these shock waves where they break down the kidney stones until they are dissolved into smaller pieces that can pass through the urine. It does not involve the use of scalpel as well but it does have its side effects. It can cause bruising and some abdominal pains.

Another type of procedure for kidney removal is the percutaneous nephrolithotomy. This is used when sound waves can’t reach the kidney stones. It is done by making a small incision at the back of the patient. Then the surgeon inserts an instrument called a nephroscope that enters the kidney removes the stones. After percutaneous nephrolithotomy, patients need to stay in the hospital for a few days. The definitive advantage of this operation is that the surgeon is able to take out all the kidney stones. So the patient does not have to undergo the process of urinating the broken down kidney stone pieces.