Did you know that you can prevent
kidney stones?
Several weeks ago a patient brought
in two kidneys stones she recently passed.
How miserable and painful is passing
a kidney stone? Extremely!
Many say it’s the worst pain they
have ever had. Women who have experienced both labor and passing a kidney stone
say that a kidney stone is far worse than labor.
So wouldn't you think that people
who have had a kidney stone would want to do all they could to prevent kidney
stones from forming in the first place? I think so.
And half the people who have had one stone will have another over the next few years. Some people have many stones in their kidney just waiting to pass at some later date.
Those people who have more than one
stone we call recurrent stone formers.
Yet it's amazing that so few stone
formers are doing anything to prevent kidney stones from forming.
Maybe that's because they just don't
know any better.
Most people have been told that
drinking more fluids can help prevent kidney stone formation. That’s true but there
is a lot more that can be done.
Sadly, few doctors seem to take an
interest in or have knowledge of how to prevent kidney stones. Urologists are surgical
sub-specialists.
Urologists usually focus on
treating the stone once it’s there causing problems.
I often wonder whether urologists
would take more interest in how to prevent kidney stones if they themselves had
had a stone.
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Two Kidney Stones |
But besides knowing what to
do, it takes a lot of physician time and energy and working closely with each
patient in order to prevent kidney stones.
Just what steps to take to prevent
kidney stones depends on the stone composition.
For example, is the stone made up mostly
of calcium oxalate or uric acid or something else? The chemical makeup of the
stone former’s urine is the other key factor to understand in order to prevent kidney stones.
Detailed analysis of the urine can allow
us to design treatment to reduce the chance of another stone. Treatment for
each person is often different. No one size fits all.
Sometimes treatment to prevent
kidney stones involves modest changes in diet. But that does not mean
eating a low calcium diet like avoiding such dairy products as milk, cheese or
yogurt.
Did you know that low calcium diets
actually may make matters worse for stone formers? Experts do not recommend
reducing dietary calcium in those with calcium containing kidney stones.
Often safe, cheap medication is
needed to help prevent kidney stones. There is fairly good scientific evidence
for kidney stone prevention.
Not everyone’s kidney stones can be
prevented but specific treatment can reduce chances of another stone by up to 80%.
I offer kidney stone prevention to all my patients who have had one or more kidney
stones.
I would want that for myself.
Have you suffered from one or more
kidney stones?
Maybe we can help prevent your
next stone from forming.
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