Kidney stones are small crystalline formations, sometimes looking like a stone, that pass through the ureter and cause great pain. (The ureter is the tube that connects the kidneys to the bladder).
Kidney stones are most often a combination of uric acid, calcium, and oxalate that have not diluted properly for any number of reasons varying from dehydration to a poor diet.
The symptoms of kidney stones include severe pain on the lower side of the body, the back, the lower abdomen, and pain when urinating. This pain may come and go as the stone tries to pass through the ureter and gets stuck.
If there are multiple kidney stones, as is often the case, one may pass making you think the worst is over, only to find a few days, weeks, or months later you suffer from similar symptoms.
Additional Symptoms Include:
- An urge to urinate
- Cloudy or foul smelling urine
- Pink, red, or brown urine caused by damage to the ureters as the kidney stone passes
- Fever and chills, especially if an infection accompanies the stone
- Nausea and vomiting
- Not urinating very much at one time (urge to urinate but little passes)
There are different types of kidney stones made up of the aforementioned substances:
- Calcium oxalate – this is the most common type and is caused primarily by diet.
- Uric acid stones – these kidney stones form when someone eats a lot of meat or who have gout.
- Struvite stones – these are caused by an infection of the urinary tract.
- Cystine stones – these stones are the least common. They are caused when the kidneys excrete too much cystinuria, an amino acid. This is thought to be a genetic disorder.
What Causes Kidney Stones?
There is not a single cause for kidney stones, but if you’ve ever had one you’ll know you want to avoid getting them at any cost!
Some can be so small that they will pass without causing any symptoms, and no pain. The pain associated with others has been described as worse than giving birth to a 10-pound baby.
The best method of curing kidney stones is to prevent them, and the following factors seem to contribute to their formation:
Diet
A diet high in meat, sodium, process foods, sugar, and unhealthy fats will all contribute to the formation of kidney stones. And it just so happens this type of diet contributes to almost every other major disease on the plant – from obesity to heart disease, to neurodegenerative disease. It’s no wonder that eating poorly will make it difficult for your body to process metabolic wastes – which is essentially what kidney stones are.
A high sodium diet, specifically, causes your kidneys to have to process more calcium – as the sodium leaches it from the bones and blood. The kidneys then cannot filter the urine as it should, making kidney stones much more likely to occur.
Foods that may encourage calcium oxalate stone formation include:
- Beer
- Black pepper
- Berries
- Broccoli
- Chocolate
- Spinach
- Black tea
You can prevent stones from forming by adding foods to your diet that have a high ratio of magnesium to calcium such as brown rice, bananas, oats, barley, and soy, and that are high in fiber such as oat bran, psyllium seed husk, and flaxseed meal.
Family History
A genetic predisposition may cause you to get kidney stones more easily than other people. There are rare metabolic disorders than can make your body have a difficult time processing metabolic toxins properly.
Dehydration
One of the easiest ways to prevent kidney stones is to be sure that you drink plenty of water. Water helps the kidneys and bladder filter toxins out of our bodies through our urine. If we don’t drink enough water, we become dehydrated, causing a greater incidence of kidney stones.
Obesity
Being obese contributes to kidney stones, especially if you are a woman. A higher body mass index can cause insulin resistance, which can result in higher calcium deposits (and other toxins) in the urine.
Digestive Disease
Anyone with a gut or bowel disease (Crohn’s), diabetes, weak kidneys (as is the case for many diabetics) will be more prone to kidney stones. Our gut health is directly linked to how well we can get rid of toxins and maintain a healthy balance of calcium and other minerals in our bodies. If you have a digestive disease, you may find you get kidney stones more easily.
Allopathic Cures for Kidney Stones
Allopathic medicine offers few remedies for kidney stones. You may be prescribed an alpha-blocker medication or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) to help deal with the pain, however, these medications both cause unwanted side effects.
Depending on the types of stone you have, you might also be prescribed:
- Potassium citrate
- Sodium bicarbonate
- Thiazides
- Orthophosphates
Natural Cures for Kidney Stones
There are numerous preventative and curative natural remedies for kidney stones. The first thing you can do to make sure that you don’t get kidney stones from an infection is to support good gut health. Your immune system can then fight foreign pathogens that would cause an infection in the kidneys or bladder.
If the case of other types of kidney stones, eat better, sleep more, and try some of the following natural curatives that will help the kidneys flush toxins form the body.
As with any disease, the lower your body’s toxic burden, the less likely you will be to suffer from any ailments. Eating well, and doing periodic colon and kidney cleanses can help make sure that you never get a kidney stone.
A salt water flush, for example, can flush the toxins which accumulate in the intestines. You can then follow this by a round of healthy probiotics to establish “good” gut bacteria.
A simple kidney cleanse can be a combination of juiced organic lemons, beets, and spirulina or chlorella. (You can also just eat a little seaweed everyday which contain the same compounds.)
Traditional Chinese Medicine for Kidney Stones
TCM views kidney stones as more than just a physical ailment, but the reliving of unprocessed emotions from trauma experienced in childhood.
Good kidney function can usually prevent kidney stones; however, if the qi or energy of the organ is depleted, it can make it difficult for the kidneys to work as they should.
Acupuncture, moxibustion, and Chinese herbs are usually prescribed to help restore kidney qi.
Lifestyle Choices that will Prevent Kidney Stones
- Drink 8-12 glasses of water daily so that you can help flush the kidney stones from your system. Add freshly squeezed, organic lemon juice to the water you are drinking. It is a natural diuretic, and contains citrate which can help prevent calcium stones from forming.
- Add a magnesium supplement. Low magnesium levels have been linked to kidney stone formation.
- Drink basil juice. It contains acetic acid which can help to break down kidney stones and lower uric acid levels in the urine.
- Add Apple Cider Vinegar to Water. About 2 teaspoons of ACV in a glass of water can help to break up kidney stones, alkalize the blood, and flush the kidneys. This should be a temporary remedy, however, because too much ACV can lower potassium levels and lead to osteoporosis. ACV can also interfere with some drugs given to diabetics.
- Juice celery. Celery juice is a natural kidney cleanser and can help to alleviate toxins which cause kidney stones.
- Drink pomegranate, cranberry and cherry juice. All of these juices help to flush toxins from the kidneys and act as a natural diuretic. Just try to purchase juices with no added sugar. Sugar can make your kidney stones worse.
- Support your adrenal glands. The adrenal glands (located just above the kidneys) can become overly taxed when you are stressed which can then cause havoc in your digestive tract, and kidneys. Slow down. Breathe deeply. Meditate or do yoga. Less stress is better for your entire body. Certainly, this is true for your kidneys, too.
- Drink horsetail juice in small amounts. This is another temporary remedy. If you drink it too often it can deplete your body of potassium and lower Vitamin B levels. Used for a few weeks, however, it will help to increase urine flow and flush out a stone.
- Drink boiled dandelion greens and dandelion root. This plant commonly known as a weed is an incredible kidney detoxifier.
- Get plenty of rest. It can be difficult to rest if you are experiencing waves of excruciating pain as your body tries to get rid of a stone, but especially if the kidney stones is caused due to an infection, rest will boost your immune system and help you get over the infection more quickly.
Herbal Medicine
Dehydration and presence of excess amount of minerals, salts & toxins (waste products) in urine make the urine concentrated. This increases filtration pressure on kidneys and leads to deposition of these waste products in the kidneys. The excess amount of waste products are released due to distorted pH, improper metabolism, uncontrolled diet, low fluid intake, certain medications, other disease etc.
VINIDIA works on the urinary tract and helps to reduce the filtration pressure on kidneys. It has nephroprotective properties. GC and ACIDIM help to correct metabolism and thus reduce the formation of waste products produced in the body.
Together VINIDIA, GC and ACIDIM have a dissolving effect on kidney stones which slowly get eliminated from the body. Simultaneously, these herbal medicines do not allow the body’s tendency to form Stones in future.
An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure in the case of kidney stones. Try to eat well, reduce foods that cause kidney stones, and stay well-hydrated to make sure you never have to pass a stone again.
