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Got Kidney Stones? You're in Good Company

Kidney stones are one of the most common maladies to befall men, but lately women have been catching up. Over the past two decades, the incidence of kidney stones has doubled in both men and women -- more than 10 percent of men and 7 percent of women in the U.S. have had a kidney stone.

Your Diet is Likely the Culprit

In that time, we have learned much about the cause of kidney stones, and diet is the most important factor. What we eat will dictate what will ultimately pass into the urine and the concentration of these various chemicals becomes important in stone formation. A simple way to think about this is to imagine a glass of iced tea. We can add sugar…

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 My Kidney Stone

Many kidney stones pass through the urinary system naturally, while others respond well to medical therapy. Yet some stones require a surgical procedure to break up and remove them. Treatment depends on the type and size of your stone, its location in your body, and how your symptoms have progressed over time

 The Doctor and the Kidney Stone

I would advise my patients with kidney stones to find a good urologist, one who is skilled at lithotripsy and surgery, but not too eager to use them.

 What Causes Kidney Stones?

Urine normally filters out excess salts, minerals, and waste products resulting from the metabolic processes of building proteins and breaking them down within the body, he explains. But when there is too much waste and not enough liquid to dilute it, crystals can develop and combine with other elements to form a stone. “That’s why drinking enough water and having a high urine output is so important,” he says. “If you dilute your urine by drinking water or almost any other fluid, you are less likely to form a crystal or a stone. If your urine is dark yellow or orange, that’s a sign you are dehydrated and need more fluids.”

Articles of Interest

Medical Student Curriculum: Kidney Stones

Number of days to pass stone (mean} and % Likelihood of eventual need for intervention...2mm or less - 8days - 3%... 3mm - 12days - 14%... 4-6mm - 22days - 50%... > 6mm -- 99%...Two-thirds of ureteral stones that pass spontaneously pass within 4 weeks of the onset of symptoms.

Kidney stone analysis: “Give me your stone, I will tell you who you are!”

Routine morpho-constitutional analysis of stones by morphologic examination combined with FTIR or X-ray diffraction considerably improves information from the stone analysis to determine the cause(s) of stone disease. It should be recommended in all laboratories that provide stone analysis for helping physicians to identify the causes of urolithiasis. It is remarkable that stones with the same chemical composition exhibit distinct morphological characteristics according to their cause, in relation with the degree of metabolic abnormalities and the kinetics of the lithogenic process.

'I've seen big men reduced to tears'

Summer is kidney stone season and one in four of us now suffer from them. Kate Hilpern looks at how they are treated and the best ways of preventing them

Antibiotics May Raise the Risk for Kidney Stones

The prevalence of kidney stones in the United States has increased 70 percent since the 1970s, and a new report suggests that the use of oral antibiotics may be part of reason.

Christmas is peak kidney stone season. Blame dehydration, the heat and all that food

Christmas is a risky time for kidney stones for other reasons. Festive eating and drinking, plus altered travel habits, means this time of year has the ideal conditions for kidney stones to form. Excess alcohol leads to dehydration, which we know increases the risk of kidney stones. Sugary soft drinks and foods high in salt, such as meat, chips and cheese, lead to more stone-promoting minerals to aggregate into stones. Foods that contain high levels of oxalate, a naturally occurring chemical in certain plant foods, also increase the chance of a kidney stone if eaten regularly over a long period of time. Examples of foods high in oxalate include spinach, almonds and dark chocolate.

Doctors Take Aim At Epidemic Kidney Stones With Lasers

Doctors used to advise kidney stone patients to eat less calcium, but not anymore. Too little calcium can actually increase the risk of kidney stones because one of calcium's jobs is to bind a chemical called oxalate found in spinach, nuts and other foods. Too little calcium leads to too much oxalate, another frequent component of stones.

Here is an unexpected consequence of climate change: kidney stones

When one thinks of the warming climate, the phrases that pop into mind probably aren't “nausea and vomiting,” “sharp, stabbing pain,” and ...

How a painful operation inspired the 18th-century equivalent of a horror movie soundtrack

With a deceptively simple series of musical interludes, Marais describes the moment of first sight of the operating table, summoning up one’s courage, the restraints being tied, the incision and introduction of forceps, the drawing of the stone and the flowing of blood, through to the blessed relief of release and bed. Crossed your legs yet?

Kidney stone pain, as experienced by a man and a woman

A few months back, I had two patients, a man and a woman, present to our emergency department, within an hour of one another, with the same illness. Unrelated, they were both suffering with kidney stone pain. Pain that was sudden. Pain that radiated from the flanks toward their groins. Pain that they both graded a ten out of ten.

Kidney Stones Grow Just Like Real Stones, Recording Your Health Through Time

Recent research found that kidney stones have many more similarities with real stones than anyone previously thought. The team of both medical students and geologists were able to piece together how kidney stones form, their changes through time, and how they can record the health of a person's kidney.

Kidney stones under the microscope look like jagged spikes of pain

Kidney stones develop when your urine can't dilute all of the substances in it, like calcium and uric acid. Those substances stick together and form these terrifying, spiky crystals. If a stone pushes itself out of the kidney and into the ducts that take urine to the bladder, it can cause a significant amount of pain until its passed out of the body through urination.

Kidney Stones: Are They Part of a Team?

For example, many of us think of kidney stone disease as affecting only one organ and requiring a single treatment, but recent studies suggest that kidney stone disease is a complex disease which affects multiple organs and systems in the body.

Lessons From a Kidney Stone

My kidney stone ordeal lasted more than a month. I missed end-of-summer parties, my daughter's back-to-school family picnic, and the most perfect beach days. But I also learned a few things.

Nephrolithiasis on the National Stage: The Kidney Stones of President Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, was troubled with kidney stones for most of his adult life. Three times during his political career, he required either endoscopic or open surgical removal of stones.

Oh, Great: Rising Temperatures Will Give Us Kidney Stones

Warming temperatures means the "kidney stone belt" will expand across America.

One in seven kidney stone patients end up back in the hospital

At some point in their life, about 27 million people – 8.8 percent of the population – will have the unpleasant experience of passing a kidney stone. That makes the removal of a kidney stone one of the most basic, most common procedures in the United States – not the type of thing that you'd think would land you in the emergency room a few weeks later.

Suffering from kidney stones? Riding Disney's Big Thunder Mountain rollercoaster could help

The study was carried out at Disney World after one patient passed kidney stones after each of three consecutive rides on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Summer's worst gift to America is the kidney stone

Even if you watch what you eat and drink, though, there are additional contributing factors that are unavoidable: genetics and family history matters, and men are more likely to develop kidney stones than women; being white is also a contributing factor. Age matters, too: both sexes are more likely to develop them after the age of 40.

Summertime, and Risk Grows for Kidney Stones

Dehydration in hot, dry weather can encourage kidney stones to form.

The Sick Kidney Stone Patient

The combination of an obstructed stone with a UTI is a urologic emergency. About 8% of patients presenting with acute nephrolithiasis will also have a UTI. Patients with decreased renal function, previous urologic interventions, and symptoms of infection are historical features for poor outcome in patients with stones.

The Truth About Oxalates & Kidney Stones

More than 90% of kidney stones in developed Western countries are made up of calcium and oxalate. Plants, especially green leafy vegetables, are high in oxalates. You might expect kidney stones to be more common in populations that eat a diet high in plant-based foods. Paradoxically, these stones are found mostly in developed countries, where people eat a diet low in plant foods;

We Don’t Know Whether Roller Coasters Cure Kidney Stones

But we do tend to accept even the smallest, most preliminary studies as fact. We should stop.

What are kidney stones? A UAB expert breaks down the signs, prevention and treatment options for kidney stone disease

Kidney stones can quietly form in the urinary tract, often without any immediate signs or symptoms. While many people recognize kidney stone disease only when pain strikes, it is important to understand that the disease can have subtle, silent signs that go unnoticed. “About one in 10 people will have a kidney stone in their lifetime,” said Kyle Wood, M.D., associate professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Urology. “Most people have calcium oxalate kidney stones. When the stone starts to move out of the kidney into the ureter, the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder, this is when people experience significant pain.”

What Foods Should I Avoid to Prevent Kidney Stones?

Since most stones contain calcium, doctors historically advised patients to limit the amount of calcium in their diets. It was a logical recommendation, but it was wrong. Drink more fluids, consume less sodium and eat a diet that includes calcium-rich foods. The rest depends on the chemical composition of your stones.

What Kidney-Stones Are And How You Can Prevent Them

New study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives suggests that the earth’s changing climate, which is getting warmer and warmer, may signal more kidney stones in our future.

Resources

12 Facts About Kidney Stones

What kind of kidney stone you get depends on your diet, fluid intake, genetics, hereditary disorders, and even whether you take certain medications, but the vast majority of people get calcium oxalate stones.

4 Types of Kidney Stones and How They're Treated

All kidney stones begin as minerals normally present in your urine and are regularly excreted when you urinate. However, if you don’t drink enough water or consume too many minerals, your body can’t excrete the minerals completely. Instead, they clump together in your kidneys, creating hard and sharp stones that vary in size from minuscule to as large as a golf ball.

Kidney Stone Program, University of Chicago

The Kidney Stone website has resources for all audiences seeking to understand the truly complex nature of stone disease and its prevention. We include detailed materials, including videos, the kidney stone guide book, case examples, and more. If you have personal experience with the disease or want to ask questions or our team, you can also pose questions through the contact feature.

KidneyStoners.org

KidneyStoners.org is a non-commercial website that was started to help patients better understand their condition and the options available for treatment and prevention. The information contained in this website is based on available medical research and is accurate to the best of our knowledge.

Rare Kidney Stone Consortium

The Consortium facilitates cooperative exchange of information and resources among investigators, clinicians, and patients, and researchers in order to improve care and outcomes for patients with rare stone diseases. The consortium promotes ready availability of diagnostic testing, pooling of clinical experiences, and availability of tissue banks in order to advance the science.

National Kidney Foundation

You want to try to get to a normal weight if you are overweight. But, high-protein weight loss diets that include high amounts of animal-based protein, as well as crash diets can add to the risk of stone formation.

National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse

•Kidney stones are caused by high levels of calcium, oxalate, and phosphorus in the urine. •You may have a kidney stone if you ◦have pain while urinating ◦see blood in your urine ◦feel a sharp pain in your back or lower abdomen

Urology Care Foundation

Kidney stone disease is one of the most common problems of the urinary system. Race, gender and ethnicity play a part in who may get kidney stones. Whites are more likely to get kidney stones than African-Americans or other races. Men get kidney stones more often than women, but recent studies show the number of women getting kidney stones is rising.

MayoClinic

Kidney stones have many causes and can affect any part of your urinary tract — from your kidneys to your bladder. Often, stones form when the urine becomes concentrated, allowing minerals to crystallize and stick together

MedicineNet

Most kidney stones eventually pass from the kidney through the ureter and bladder and finally through the urethra on their own. However, treatment is often required for pain control from kidney stones as they pass. The consumption of ample fluids helps facilitate the passage of kidney stones, but even with plentiful fluid intake, most people require some type of medications for pain control.

MedlinePlus

Calcium stones are most common. They are most likely to occur in men between ages 20 - 30. Calcium can combine with other substances to form the stone. Oxalate is the most common of these. Oxalate is present in certain foods such as spinach. It's also found in vitamin C supplements. Diseases of the small intestine increase your risk of these stones.

NHS

Most kidney stones are small enough to be passed in your urine, and it may be possible to treat the symptoms at home with medication. Larger stones may need to be broken up with X-rays or ultrasound in hospital, or you may need to have them surgically removed.

Parathyroid.com

Kidney stones occur in about 5% of the population and are usually made of calcium. Hyperparathyroidism is the number one cause of kidney stones and thus every person with a kidney stone must be tested for a problem with their parathyroid glands. Nearly half of all people with kidney stones have a parathyroid tumor in their neck that must be removed or the kidney stones will return... and many other bad things can happen. Learn what kidney stones are and what you should do to prevent them from coming back. Most doctors do not do the correct tests.

Patient

Renal calculi are formed when the urine is supersaturated with salt and minerals such as calcium oxalate, struvite (ammonium magnesium phosphate), uric acid and cystine. 60-80% of stones contain calcium. They vary considerably in size from small 'gravel-like' stones, to large staghorn calculi.