Health and Beauty

Prevent Kidney Stones

Kidney stones are hard deposits of minerals and accumulation of them in

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the urine thus creating problems in passage of urine.Before knowing how to prevent the kidney stones, a brief understanding of its causes would help and the how to detect it would also help.

The symptoms indicating the presence of kidney stones are:

Severe Back pain

Pain in the sides

Gradual movement of pain in the back to thighs

Blood in the urine or presence of a foul smell while urinating

Nausea

Vomiting

Pain during the passage of urine

Fever

Presence of an infection in the urinary tract

A persistent feeling to urinate or frequent urination.

If one detects the above mentioned symptoms, he/she can start adopting the prevention techniques because formation of one stone easily leads to another. Therefore it is better to take a urine test. After the type of the kidney stone in the urine is detected, measures to prevent the development of the specific stone can be adopted. Let us look into the different causes and prevention terminologies.

Cause: Kidney stones are mainly caused due to the infections in the urinary tract. The infections in the urinary tract and kidney infection leads to the formation of ammonia and hence contributes to development of kidney stones which are called as struvite stones.

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Prevention: Once the infection is cited, immediate treatment should be administered before it leads to the formation of stones.

Cause: Calcium stones are formed due to the high intake of calcium.

Prevention: reduce the intake of food rich in calcium. Cranberry juice is believed to prevent the formation of kidney stones. However there is a controversy revolving this.

Cause: Break down of purine. Purine, one of the building blocks of DNA develops the uric acid stones.

Prevention: foods rich in purine and protein content must be avoided. Meat, which is supposed to contain a huge composition of animal proteins, is a major contributor for the formation of uric acid stones.

Cause: due to oxalates. Oxalate stones are formed by high consumption of tea, spinach, chocolates, etc.

Prevention: avoid foods containing the above.

However there is a rare cause which has no prevention technique. This is due to hereditary problems. People with a family history of kidney stones are more prone to the development of kidney stones. These are also called as cystine stones. Large amounts of cystine levels in the urine can lead to the formation of stones. These large amounts are inherited by birth. Cystines are actually an amino acid in proteins. These are hard to dissolve and hence accumulate to form stones. This cannot be prevented although treatment on the long run ensures that the person is safe. Simultaneous treatments of increasing the solubility and decreasing the concentration of cystine should be meted out in order to treat these kinds of stones.

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In general kidney stones are attributed to the high consumption of:

Protein

Calcium

Sodium

Purines

Vitamin C

sugar

oxalate

The kidney stones can be prevented by prevention of the high intake of the above mentioned items.

Food rich in animal proteins like the meat, red wine, etc should be avoided.

Foods rich in purine content should also be avoided.

Food rich in calcium like the milk and other dairy products should be avoided. The advisable intake of calcium for men is 800mg and for women is 1000 to 1200mg a day.

Sodium increases the amount of calcium excreted in the urine. So intake of sodium must be reduced.

Vitamin C produces oxalate which causes kidney stones and hence should not be consumed. Therefore high intake of citrus fruits like the orange can be avoided.

Sugar also increases the amount of calcium stones in urine. Therefore it is advisable to prevent preserved foods and packaged foods with excess sugar and to reduce the intake of sugar in beverages and milk.

Oxalate when combines with calcium, the ability of calcium to be absorbed reduces. And oxalate is excreted via the kidneys. Maximum intake of oxalate should be 50mg per day. Avoid high consumption of plant foods.

Chocolates, tea, fruitcake etc are also need to be avoided.

Kidney stones can be prevented by high intake of the following items:

Fluids: drink plenty of water. This reduces the concentration of urine and dilutes it. Drink 8 to 10 glasses of water a day. People consuming large quantities of water have 40% reduced chances of developing kidney stones.

Insoluble fibers: these combine with the calcium in the urine and get excreted in the stools thereby reducing the amount of calcium and hence the calcium stones. Take high quantity of wheat, barley and rice.

Other methods are:

Avoid cola drinks.

Avoid too much of salt.

Avoid grape juice.

Increase the consumption of magnesium

Increase the consumption of potassium