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Kidney Stone

What is Kidney Stone?

What are the tests for Kidney Stone?

What causes Kidney Stone?

What are the symptoms of Kidney Stone?

Prevent Kidney Stone through Diet

What are the treatments for Kidney Stone?

What is Kidney Stone?

Kidney Stone, just as its name implies, refers to stone in kidney. Kidney stone, also known as a renal calculus, can be clinically divided into four types and they are Calcium Stones, Uric Acid Stones, Struvite Stones and Cystine Stones. The unfortunate thing about Kidney Stone is that once patient has one there is a significant chance that you will have another one. Fortunately, there are things that you can do to prevent the occurrence of stones.

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What are the tests for Kidney Stone?

Many tests can be used to diagnose Kidney Stone and to have a definite diagnosis, patients usually need to do more than one tests. The followings are the tests that can help to diagnose Kidney Stone.

B ultrasound: B ultrasound is usually applied to have a primary diagnosis about Kidney Stone. CT: A noncontrast spiral computed tomography scan (CT) is a special type of CT scan that moves in a circle and it is the preferred test for kidney stones.

IVP: An intravenous pyelogram (IVP) is an X-ray test that can show the size, shape, and position of the urinary tract, including the kidneys and ureters.

Retrograde Pyelogram: A retrograde pyelogram is usually suggested by the doctor if CT and IVP fail to diagnose Kidney Stone.

Aside from these, Abdominal X-ray (KUB) which can give a picture of the kidneys, the bladder and the tubes that connect the kidneys to the bladder, also can be used to help diagnose Kidney Stone.

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What causes kidney stone?

Low fluid intake is the leading cause of kidney stone. When an individual does not drink enough water, the salts, minerals, and other substances in the urine can stick together and form a stone. An excessively acidic environment in the kidneys is very conducive to the formation of kidney stones. Therefore, drinking enough more is one of the methods to prevent kidney stone.

Medical condition is another dominant cause of kidney stone. Many medical conditions like urinary tract infections, renal tubular acidosis, hyperparathyroidism and medullary sponge kidney can affect the normal balance and cause the occurrence of kidney stone.

In addition, improper diet also increase the risk of stone formation include high dietary intake of animal protein, sodium, refined sugars, fructose and high fructose corn syrup and so on.

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What are the symptoms of Kidney Stone?

Compared with children, adults have higher risk of developing Kidney Stone, and also male is 2 to 3 times likely to have this disease. With Kidney Stone, we always experience some bothersome symptoms which not only affect our life seriously, but also threaten our kidneys badly. Therefore, if someone found his has some or all of the following symptoms, he needs to go doctor immediately to found out whether they are suffering Kidney Stone.

Kidney Stone Symptoms include:

Severe pain in the side and back, below the ribs.

Pain that spreads to the lower abdomen and groin

Pain that comes in waves and fluctuates in intensity

Pain on urination

Blood in urine

Persistent urge to urinate

Cloudy or foul-smelling urine

Fever and chills if there is infection

Decreased urination if urinary tract is blocked by kidney stone

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Prevent Kidney Stone through diet

If an individual is at high risk of developing, he needs to change his diet and a special diet sometimes is effective enough to help you prevent kidney stone.

1. Increase fluid intake

Drinking lots of water is the most important way to prevent kidney stone and also, if you have unfortunately developed kidney stone, these small stone can be discharged by increasing fluid intake.

2. Proper calcium intake

Without enough calcium, we suffer from bone disease easily. However, once we ingest excessive calcium, the risk that we developing kidney stone will be increased greatly. Some foods like milk, cheeses and yogurt provide us the majority of our calcium and other foods like dark green and leafy vegetables also contain calcium, but they contain other substances that prevent our body from absorbing it easily. Therefore, it is helpful for us to prevent kidney stone if we avoid eating them together.

3. Fiber

Insoluble fiber helps to reduce the amount of calcium in our urine. Therefore, in our daily life, we can eat more foods that are high in insoluble fiber like wheat, rye, rice and barley.

4. Sodium

Ingesting too much sodium may also cause kidney stone, so if you are on a kidney stone diet, you may need to keep far away from foods that high in sodium. Try to use little salt while you cooking and also not spice up your foods.

5. Oxalate</p>

Oxalate combines with calcium in our body, which can increase our risk of developing kidney stone. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid foods that are high in oxalate. Foods with high oxalate include chocolate, tea, peanuts, pecans and spinach and so on.

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What are the treatments for Kidney Stone?

For small kidney stones, patients do not need any treatment and what they need to do is to drink enough more fluids. But if the stone is big enough to bring us kidney damages, we need to receive medical treatment to dissolve and then discharge them. The following is the introduction about the commonly used treatments for kidney stone. Hope it is helpful for you.

1. Oral medicines that help our body pass kidney stone

In many cases, patients are prescribe some oral medicines to help our body pass the stone. These medicines include Thiazides, Potassium Citrate, Orthophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Allopurinol, Penicillamine and Tioprpnin and so on. What medicines we take usually depends on the type of stone that we have. These medicines show great treatment effects in helping us pass kidney stone, but unfortunately, they can not help us prevent the reoccurrence of kidney stone. Therefore, for people who develop kidney stone often, they will reply these medicines.

2. Chinese Medicines

Chinese medicines have long history and according to clinical study, some of them are proven to have effects in dissolving and preventing kidney stone. For people who develops Kidney Stone because of medical condition, Chinese medicines are more suitable, because Chinese medicines can help to adjust our healthy condition which can help to prevent the formation of kidney stone. Chinese medicines take natural herbs as medicine, so compared with many western medicines, Chinese medicines are safer. Traditional Chinese medicines are used orally, but recently, to protect our intestines and stomach, many Chinese medicines have been used externally, and this is also very helpful for avoiding any side effects. Although Chinese medicines have many advantageous in treating Kidney Stone, it is not a perfect treatment. Compared with many western oral medicines, Chinese medicines work relatively slower and if patients want to receive obvious treatment effects, they need to be patient.

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