Public Forum
Default group for all members. Biological family sometimes get you down? Come join your logical family!
Organizers:
- Organized by
-
-
Kidney Stones
-
Kidney Stones
My son was visiting recently, and one sunny day we went for a swim. He mentioned that he’d had a pain in his side for a few days. After a brief swim, he started vomiting and the pain increased dramatically.
Now, our son played professional rugby and has a very high pain threshold, so when he said something was seriously wrong, we knew it was.
He went to the emergency hospital, had a scan and was told he had kidney stones. He was in severe pain for around four days before they finally passed. Until you see someone experience kidney stones, it’s difficult to appreciate just how painful they can be.
I’d heard of kidney stones, of course, but this experience sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole.
I learned there are several different types of stones, (who knew) and they can vary quite a bit in appearance and color:
🔸Dark brown or black — often calcium oxalate stones, which can have rough, jagged or spiky surfaces.
🔸Yellow, orange or amber — can be uric acid stones, which may appear smoother.
🔸White or pale yellow — can be calcium phosphate stones, which may look smoother or chalky.
🔸Pink or red — a stone can appear reddish when blood is present from urinary tract irritation.
🔸Dirty white or light gray — can be seen with struvite stones, which are associated with urinary tract infections.
🔸Yellow or pink — can occur with the much rarer cystine stones, which are associated with an inherited condition.
Knowing what the stone is actually made of may help identify why it formed and what could help prevent another one.
A friend also reminded me about Chanca Piedra, sometimes called “stone breaker,” and suggested a few things that helped with the bloating. I’m curious to hear about people’s experiences with this too.
Have you had kidney stones, and what have you learned about treating them or preventing them from coming back?
-
8 Replies
-
Thankfully I’m not suffering from kidney stones, but I am apparently at some elevated risk. I’ve been receiving IV high-dose vitamin C infusions twice weekly. My regular MD was appalled when I let it slip, and he insisted on monitoring my kidneys. He said the possibility of stones was increased. I’m tolerating the treatments well so far, but I have an interest in learning more about kidney health. I hope you get some substantive responses.
-
The Chanca Piedra is worthwhile but he will have to also learn about the ideal diet for avoiding the formation of more stones. As I recall, this involves drinking more liquids and eating less meat.
Having a stone is sufficiently painful such that it is WORTHWHILE learning about the diet to prevent them.
-
The article below may be of interest:
-
Awe yes the famous kidney stone episode. I have been the unfortunate victim of stones for a long portion of my life. At 40 I had my first kidney stone challenge. Very painful but it passed with the help of the hospital. It was very small, maybe 1/16″. Next stone at 50 and pretty much the same thing but by this time I was already 9 years into my vegan diet. All this did was change the nature of my stone from a calcium oxalate to a uric acid stone. At 65 I had my next stone which was the size of a golf ball in my bladder. Timing was great because Medicare just kicked in and I was able to deal with my BPH and the bladder stone removal all at the same time. My urologist was amazed at the size of my stone and how I managed to pee at all. Fortunately over the years all of my stones have been bladder stones rather than kidney stones. My most recent stone was another small bladder stone 5 years ago when I was 72. Right in the middle of Covid. Since that time I have been on a daily regimen of Potassium Citrate to alkalinize my urine to a neutral pH, something that my vegan diet is supposed to do naturally. But my body wants to be slightly on the acidic side so the citrate is a necessary part of my diet now. The plan is to keep uric acid from precipitating out into stone material and by remaining in solution making it easy to pee out. That is the theory anyway. It is a balancing act to keep well hydrated and urine with a neutral pH. Every once in a while I will pee out a small stone or a hematuria blood clot and my urinary symptoms will be resolved. But it is a constant battle that I have to deal with. So yes I have a great deal of familiarity with stones in my urinary tract, and it isn’t much fun.
-
So sorry @vegandan … I have suggested that we look at this topic to create a comprehensive guide for people, what do you think?
-
I like that idea of a guide. Stones in the urinary tract are a fairly complicated issue with lots of factors involved. Diet is clearly a driving force and with careful monitoring it can have a positive outcome on keeping stone formation a non-issue.
-
-
-
As an ex nephrology nurse practitioner for 20 years I agree that the diet is very important. There’s also a substance that’s called moonstone it is a powder that people can take. It’s offered on Amazon, which helps decrease the stone formation. However, you do need to get a diagnosis on which type of stone you have in order to taper your dietary intake.
-
Thank you for weighing in, will have a look at moonstone.
-
Log in to reply.