Kidney stones are one of the most painful of disorders to affect the kidneys and the urinary tract. Kidney stones have been affecting us for thousands of years and they have even been found in the remains of a 7000 year old mummy! Unfortunately, kidney stones are a common disorder that effects 3 million people every year in the USA with 1/2 a million of them visiting emergency rooms because of the intense and often sudden onset of the painful symptoms of a kidney stone.
What is a Kidney Stone?
A kidney stone is a solid crystalline structure that forms in the urine within the urinary tract. Usually, the urine contains substances that inhibit the formation of kidney stone. However, these inhibitors are not always working properly in everyone so stones will form. If we are lucky enough the kidneys stones that develop may be so small that we would pass them out in the urine without ever knowing they existed.
There are actually different kinds of kidney stones based on what minerals and salts bind together. Calcium based stones are the most common type of kidney stone. Most commonly calcium binds with oxalates but may also bind with phosphate or other substances.
A less common type of stone is called a struvite stone and is caused by urinary tract infections. Even less common are uric acid kidney stones and the most rare are cystine kidney stones.
The proper medical name for the formation of kidney stones in the urinary tract is urolithiasis. Other used terms for kidney stones are urinary tract stone disease or nephrolithiasis.
Who is at Risk of Kidney Stones?
Presently about 5% of the population in the USA will develop kidney stones. This number has increased by about 1% since the 1970's. Men between the ages of 20-30 are at a far greater risk of developing calcium based stones than females. Caucasian men are also more likely to be affected than Afro-Americans. Because struvite stones are caused by urinary tract infections then women are most likely to suffer from this kind of kidney stone. Women suffer from Urinary tract infections more often than men.
Fortunately there are natural remedies and methods for helping to prevent the formation of kidney stones. To read more about this visit have kidney stones symptoms? - try juicing.
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