Art Through Photography

Understanding and Preventing Kidney Stones

Kidney stones are common in men and women who have or had abnormal amounts of chemicals in their urine, or for those who have had lower levels of fluid intake for an extended time. You can help your body by making sure that you drink plenty of fluids, and make sure that you see your doctor at the first sign of pain.

Symptoms of Kidney Stones

Kidney stone symptoms can be a pain that is focused on the back and groin area. Kidney stones that have passed into the ureter, the small tube that runs from the kidneys to the bladder, are the cause of this sometimes severe pain. It is important that you have localized or general pain checked out by a medical professional, since there can be other causes.

You may also notice a small amount of blood in the urine that is caused by the kidney stone, along with some nausea, vomiting or even sweating. These symptoms will disappear as soon as the kidney stone enters the bladder, where it can be removed from the body in the urine output.

Treatment of Kidney Stones

For kidney stones treatment, first thing that your physician will do is to run tests to make sure that the symptoms you are experiencing are caused by a kidney stone. There are several tests, such as ultrasounds and scans, which will help your doctor figure out what is happening in your body. If you do in fact have a kidney stone, the most common treatment is to simply wait it out, and allow the stone to leave your body naturally.

Some people, especially those with complications or severe pain, will need to be admitted to the hospital for care until the kidney stones have passed out of the body. You will be given medications to help control the pain, and an IV to help make sure that you stay hydrated. Other doctor’s would also prescribe StoneCLR, which is a natural medicine for dissolving and flushing out kidney stones.

Prevention of Kidney Stones

The best way to prevent kidney stones is to make sure that you drink plenty of water on a daily basis. The average person needs at least eight glasses of water per day to stay hydrated, but your needs may be different if you have a particularly demanding schedule.

If you have already had a kidney stone, your doctor may prescribe a medicine to help prevent future stones. The medication will help you reduce the chances of having future kidney stones, but you will still want to make sure you drink plenty of water and have regular checkups.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 11:13 pm and is filed under Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.