Our Approach to Urinary (Kidney) Stone Disease

Urinary stones develop for many reasons, and the solutions can be complex. Doctors at Columbia University Department of Urology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital have had tremendous success treating kidney stones and prompting them to dissolve with dietary changes, and vitamin and mineral supplements. We are researching the most effective holistic therapies and herbal or natural medicines to treat metabolically active (recurrent) urinary stone disease.

Diagnosis of Urinary (Kidney) Stone Disease

To determine the underlying cause of recurrent stone disease we perform a metabolic evaluation and extensive blood and urine studies. This information helps us determine which dietary modifications and medications will prompt the stone to dissolve and most effectively prevent the stone disease from progressing.

Treatment for Urinary (Kidney) Stone Disease

Treatment for stones composed of calcium is limited to therapies that will not also affect the bones, which are also composed of calcium. Specific changes in diet along with medications and herbal and holistic remedies can prevent these stones from increasing in number and in size. Some people develop calcium phosphate stones because they have an endocrinological disorder called hyperparathyroidism. Their stones may disappear when the disorder is treated.

Why Stones Form

Many patients attribute their kidney stones to an excess of calcium in their diet, so they shun dairy products including cheese and milk. Not only does this raise their risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures, but most patients, even those with calcium oxalate stones, need more calcium in their diet to stop their kidney stones from forming and growing. This paradox can be explained by a recent discovery: if calcium and magnesium levels in the diet are low, unbound oxalate is readily absorbed in the intestinal tract. Increased oxalate absorption leads to more oxalate in the urine and to kidney stone formation. People who have had bowel surgery, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, intestinal problems, diarrhea, lactose intolerance, celiac sprue, and malabsorption syndromes are more likely to have this problem. Kidney stone formation can be arrested when patients supplement their diets with calcium or magnesium.

Stones composed of uric acid and cystine form in an acidic environment and become soluble when the urine pH (alkalinity) is raised. Doctors can sometimes partially or completely dissolve these stones with a combination of dietary change and medications. Some people develop uric acid stones because they have a citrate deficiency. We have successfully dissolved uric acid stones by having patients add 4 ounces of lemon juice to their diet each day. Lemon juice has a high concentration of citrate, a naturally occurring inhibitor of kidney stones that is found in everyone’s urine.

Prevention of Future Urinary (Kidney) Stone Disease

People who have had one kidney stone are more likely to develop others. Without preventive treatment or changes in lifestyle, patients can develop a new stone within a year or two of the first one. About half of patients develop another stone within 5 to 10 years, and 80% will at some time in their lives. To help lower the chance that a patient will develop another stone, doctors recommend the following measures.

Hydration:
People who have had a stone should drink 64 ounces of water throughout each day. Drinking plenty of fluids also reduces the risk of urinary tract infections – a major cause of struvite stones.

Dietary Changes:
Depending on the composition of the stone and the results of laboratory tests, doctors may advise patients to eat less of certain foods. Patients with calcium oxalate or uric acid stones may need to reduce the amount of meat products and table salt in their diets and increase fiber.

Medication:
Some patients with stones benefit from prescription medications. Doctors may prescribe diuretics such as hydrochlorothiazide to decrease calcium excretion. Potassium citrate binds calcium and helps to remove it safely. Allopurinol causes the body to produce less uric acid and is sometimes prescribed for patients with gout. It will also reduce their risk of forming uric acid or calcium oxalate stones. Doctors treat cystine stones with a combination of approaches: a drug called alpha mecaptoproprionylglycine (Thiola); potassium citrate, which makes urine less acidic; and they have patients drink four liters of water a day.

Source:

http://columbiaurology.org/specialties/urinarystones/natural-remedy.html

Comments from other blogs:

The only simple way to cure the kidney stones is that to drink plenty of water. If you drink 8-10 glasses of water along with the other kinds of fluids daily, the color of your urine will become clear.

Some of the remedies that can be done from home are:

1.Lemon juice and Olive oil

The combination of olive oil and the lemon juice is traditionally used as a home remedy to expel gallbladder stones, but it is also used to treat the kidney stone complaint.

2.Apple Cider Vinegar

It help[s to dissolve the kidney stones. It is also having alkalizing effect on blood and urine.

3.Pomegranate

Both the seeds and juice in this fruit contains the astringent properties that help in treatment of kidney stones (try to eat the whole pomegranate or drink 1 glass of juice daily.)

4.Nettle leaf

This helps to maintain the flow of water through the kidney and the bladder.

5.Watermelon

It is composed of calcium and magnesium phosphates and carbonates. It helps to treat the kidney stones easily.

– See more at: http://www.earthclinic.com/cures/kidney_stones3.html#sthash.53F3aThX.dpuf

From Dr Mercola:

Root Cause of Kidney Stones: Digestive Problem and High Blood Pressure

Two risk factors that elevate your chances of developing kidney stones include high blood pressure and digestive problems.

Signs and Symptoms of Kidney Stones

Most likely you’ll never know you have a stone until it moves into your ureter—the tube connecting your kidney to your bladder. At that point, common symptoms include:

• Pain in your side and back, below your ribs
• Episodes of pain lasting 20 to 60 minutes, of varying intensity
• Pain “waves” radiating from your side and back, to your lower abdomen and groin
• Bloody, cloudy or foul-smelling urine
• Pain with urination
• Nausea and vomiting
• “Urgency” (persistent urge to urinate)
• Fever and chills (indicates an infection is also present)

The pain you feel is a result of distention of the tissues above the stone, since it is blocking the passage of urine, rather than from the pressure of the stone itself.

To diagnose a kidney stone you can collect the kidney stone and have it analyzed for a definitive answer, or you can do a 24-hour urine test. This is a useful strategy to ascertain any imbalances in your urine that contribute and predispose you to develop stones.

Watch What You Eat if You Have Kidney Stones

There are a number of strategies you can use to treat this condition. If you suffer mainly from calcium oxalate stones, you’ll want to minimize the amount of oxalates in your body (as opposed to reducing your calcium intake).

Two foods in particular contribute to creating oxalates, namely soy, and beer. If you’ve read my newsletter for any amount of time, you already know I warn against unfermented soy products for a number of reasons, but preventing the formation of kidney stones is yet another.

Other foods that contain high levels of oxalate that you’ll want to avoid include:

• Spinach
• Rhubarb
• Chocolate
• Parsley
• Beetroot
• Strawberries
• Wheat flour
• Pepper
• Nuts

A diet high in sugar can also set you up for stones, since sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body by interfering with calcium and magnesium absorption.

Diets high in processed salt are also bad news as salt increases the amount of calcium and oxalate in your urine. Processed foods have notoriously high salt content and should therefore be avoided as much as possible.

Keep in mind that the salt referenced here is processed salt, like your regular table salt, not high quality, unprocessed salts that contain numerous essential minerals that your body actually needs for optimal health.

Naturally, eating fresh, whole foods according to your nutritional type is the best way to ensure you’re eating what your body needs for optimal performance, regardless of what health conditions you seek to avoid or improve.