Symptoms of kidney stones

Submitted by: ayushveda

The cause of most kidney stones is not known. A stone may cause no problems, but often it causes pain. Most kidney stones are small, and pass out with the urine. Kidney stones are made of salts and minerals in the urine that stick together to form small "pebbles." They can be as small as grains of sand or as large as golf balls. They may stay in your kidneys or travel out of your body through the urinary tract. The urinary tract is the system that makes urine and carries it out of your body. It is made up of the kidneys, the tubes that connect the kidneys to the bladder (the ureters), the bladder, and the tube that leads from the bladder out of the body

Kidney stones form

The kidneys filter the blood, and remove excess water and waste chemicals to produce urine. Urine travels from each kidney down a tube called the ureter into the bladder, then out of the body via the urethra when the bladder is full. Many waste chemicals are dissolved in the urine. The chemicals sometimes form tiny crystals in the urine which clump together to form a small stone.

Symptoms of kidney stones
The most common symptoms of kidney stones are blood in the urine or pain. Pain severity and location of pain might vary depending on such factors as stone location and degree of obstruction. Other symptoms include:
• Feeling the need to urinate often
• Inability to urinate (when a stone blocks the urinary tract)
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Urine that smells bad or looks cloudy
• A burning feeling when you urinate

Causes of kidney stones
Kidney stones often cause no pain while they are in the kidneys, but they can cause sudden, severe pain as they travel from the kidneys to the bladder. In most cases, there is no known reason why a stone forms. Most stones are made of calcium. However, in most cases, the amount of calcium and other chemicals in the urine is normal. You are more likely to form a stone if your urine is concentrated.

Dissolve kidney stones
The best way to dissolve kidney stones can be found in natural home remedies, followed by increasing your water consumption, lowering your stress level, and being more active. Calcium is the most common form of kidney stones which develop when there is a high level of calcium in the urine, lack of citrate or insufficient water in the kidneys.

Urine is composed of chemicals such as magnesium, citrate, and pyrophosphate which help to prevent the development of crystals that form kidney stones
Calcium and uric acid stones can be dissolved by giving the drug named allopurinol. Hyperuricosiria can be effectively controlled by this medicine. Similarly, the drug containing hydrochlorothiazide helps in decreasing the calcium amount released by the kidney. Therefore, it helps in breaking up kidney stones caused by excessive calcium consumption.

Treatment
In about 85 percent of cases, kidney stones are small enough to pass during urination, usually within 72 hours of symptom onset. The best treatment for these stones is to drink plenty of water (as much as 2 to 3 quarts per day), stay physically active and wait. Painkillers may be prescribed to help alleviate the discomfort associated with passing a stone.

Drink extra fluids
• Try to drink 2 glasses of water every 2 hours while you are awake. If you have kidney, heart, or liver disease and are on fluid restrictions, talk with your doctor before drinking more fluids.

Treatment for kidney stones is often simply measures for pain control rather than treating the stones themselves. Antibiotics may also be prescribed if it is suspected that the stones have caused an infection. In the majority of cases, doctors opt to allow the stones to pass naturally, however in instances where the physician decides this is not possible or desirable, there are a couple of options.