All you need to know about kidney stones – causes, symptoms and treatment
Mukta Agrawal
A stone popping up here and there inside your body is not the big news in today’s time. People are suffering from such diseases very frequently and in plenty of numbers and that is definitely something to worry about. Nephrolithiasis or the kidney stone is not only painful, but most certainly a very dangerous scenario which better be avoided. The most common type disease where a stone is formed inside a body part or organ of a man is the kidney and in this article we will inform you the ways, the causes and the various treatments for kidney stones.
Excruciating pain in the kidney area or the general lower abdomen area should not be kept untreated. It often leads to a kidney stone. Now there are various reasons for the cause of this kind of a disease; and most of such stones if treated at the right time can be removed completely and there are certain ways in which you do not necessarily need to operate it out as well. Here are some of the important things which you need to know about kidney stones:
Symptoms of kidney stone
Before we know what the symptoms of the kidney stone are let us first know how this stone is formed inside the body. Although it is inevitable that this idea might pop into one’s mind, but the stone here in question is a kind of small yet very hard mineral deposit inside the kidney, which can mesh together and form a structure like a stone. These stones are not gigantic in size, but even the minutest of these stones can cause excruciating pain in the body. This blocks the ureter from being able to pass away the urine and that is what the most dangerous part is. Anyway, the symptoms may range from excruciating pains to vomits, here are some of them.
The flank pain which we are speaking of is not that which passes by with time, but it is like a chronic pain, coming back within a time interval of 20 to 60 minutes. It might start from the lower back gradually radiating to the groin area. It is known as renal colic pain and to be honest and as described by most of the people who have had this kind of pain, it is possibly the worst kind of pain that a man can ever experience. This pain occurs in such successions because the kidney tries to flush off the stone and this process creates this pain.
What accompanies generally with this pain is the urgent need to urinate, vomiting, the feeling of being nauseous, sudden pangs of restlessness and even hematuria or presence of blood in the urine. Hematuria is just the scientific name of the process in which red blood cells would be present in the urine. The urine might actually be cloudy or even foul smelling.
There might be a decrease in the volume of urine or the excess of the substances which forms the stones, in the urine.
Fever can also be one of the symptoms of the kidney stone.
It is always advisable to immediately seek help from the doctor when a pain so bad that you cannot sit still or even feel nauseous seems to bother you. An ultrasound, CT scan or IVP can diagnose the kidney stones clearly.
Reasons for kidney stone
Kidney stones might be formed due to an array of reasons:
People, bearing chronic medical conditions, such as gout as well as those who consume certain medications or health supplements are prone to the formation of kidney stones.
Dehydration, can lead to a major risk for the formation of stones in the kidney.
Hereditary factors as well as diet can be a reason for the formation of kidney stones.
The Diet for kidney stones
Instead of the diet let us speak of which factors are essential and what you can avoid keeping kidney stones at bay.
The kidney stones are affecting people so much because of one small reason and that is dehydration. With time and their hectic schedule, people are gradually reducing the ways they would take care of themselves and end of hurting themselves in return. Thus to keep your kidneys functioning in the right manner it is better to drink plenty of water and keep the fluids flowing.
Spinach, tomatoes, and even chocolates are oxalate rich foods. Why is oxalate so bad for you, you ask? The oxalate would allow the calcium to bind together to form calcium oxalate in the kidney while the formation of the urine, which is clearly something you would want to steer clear off and to keep that in check have spinach and tomatoes not more than once or twice a week.
When we were speaking of fluids, make sure tea is not one of them. Tea can make the stones to grow in size and cause enough damage to you and the bigger the size is the worse the condition is. Instead drink as much water as possible and keep yourself healthy.
Treatment for kidney stones
If and when diagnosed with kidney stones, the doctors will most certainly ask you to go under a thorough examination which will prove the risk factor. These tests will include a blood test, imaging, urine test and thus it will be determined, what the current situation of the stone is. This way, it will be easier for the doctor to either prescribe a medicine or ask you to go through an operation. There are sound waves emitted which creates strong vibrations to break the stone down into bits so that it is easier to pass them away with our urine. For larger and dangerous stones, it is better to operate and eliminate them out of your system. Fret not! Operations are not always required because there are certain medications which will allow the stone to break down or dissolve and then the urine will carry it and eliminate it from the body.
Here are all the necessary and important things that you would need to know about the kidney stones. From the diets for the kidney stone to treatment for the kidney stone, we have discussed it all. Now, it is your turn to keep yourself healthy and if suffering from any of the above mentioned symptoms of kidney stone, get yourself checked and let this be a myth in your life.