A kidney stone is one of the most painful urologic disorders that mostly affect adult people. It has been said that scientists have discovered the presence of kidney stones in a 7,000 year old Egyptian mummy. This just goes to show that kidney stones already exist in the early centuries. Nowadays, kidney stones are one of the most common disorders of the urinary tract.
In some people, the formation of a kidney stone begins when chemicals crystallize in the urine. When these stones are formed, they are very tiny and they are smaller than that of a grain of sand, but eventually they can grow over time to a 1/10 of an inch or even larger. The stones that are formed in the kidneys are referred to as nephrolithiasis, “nephro” means kidney and “lithiasis” means calculi formation. In recent studies it has been discovered that the size of the stone or calculi doesn’t matter that much, it is the location that is very important because when these stones sit in the kidney itself, this rarely causes problems. What causes problems is when the stones fall into the ureter because it acts like a dam. The kidney will still continue to function and it is still making urine, when this happens the pressure builds up just behind the stone and this will now cause the kidney to swell. So this pressure will now cause the pain that is being experienced when a person is diagnosed as having a kidney stone.
Most kidney stones can be excreted out of the body without having any intervention by a physician. Also some of the stones can be treated by using various techniques and most of which does not involve having to undergo a major surgery. Also, a lot of people are already aware of the many factors that may help in preventing stone formation.
If a person already has experienced having kidney stones, it is most likely that these kidney stones will form another stone even though the previous stone has already been excreted; this means that prevention must be given utmost priority. The physician will be ordering a lot of tests and laboratory exams such as: urine and blood tests to determine what really causes the stone formation. If a stone has already been removed or it is already excreted by the client, the physician will ask you to save the stone so that a stone analysis may be done because a laboratory finding may help the physician in treatment planning.
Thru recent studies, they have found out that a person with a family history of kidney stones would likely to develop stones. Also, some of the most common infections such as urinary tract infection can help trigger the development of a kidney stone.
The most inexpensive and easy way of doing your share in preventing kidney stone formation is thru lifestyle change such as: drinking lots of water – this is the best way in preventing stone formation because it helps produce at least 2 quarts of urine and it helps flush out the chemicals that had already been crystallized in the urine.
