Prevent Kidney Stones from Recurring

Made up of minerals and acidic salt, kidney stones are hard crystals that form inside your kidneys. If they become large enough, they are difficult to pass and can cause extreme pain. If you have experienced this ailment in the past, you need to understand how to prevent kidney stones from recurring, because there is a 60 – 80% chance they will come back.

Steps

Targeting Your Type of Kidney Stone

1. Determine which kind of kidney stone you have had. Ask your doctor to identify your particular kind. It’s important to know which particular type you had so that you can work on specific ways to prevent it recurring. Make sure your doctor checks your parathyroid to rule it out as a possible mitigating factor in the formation of kidney stones.
   • Calcium stones are caused by unused calcium being collected in the kidneys and not flushed out with the rest of the urine. It then combines with other waste material to form a stone. The most typical kind of calcium stone is calcium oxalate, and overall the most common. Calcium phosphate stones are not as common but they are more problematic because they tend to be both larger and harder, making them more difficult to treat.
   • Struvite stones can form after a urinary infection and are made of magnesium and ammonia.
   • Uric acid stones are caused by too much acid. Cutting back on meat will help stop the formation of these types of kidney stones. These are often associated with gout, and respond to similar treatments.
   • The formation of cystine stones is not common and tends to runs in families. Cystine is an amino acid and certain people inherit large amounts of it.
2. Determine your future risk. Because you have had a kidney stone, you are already at higher risk for reoccurrence. See if there are risk factors that you may not be aware of. Download the app at http://www.qxmd.com/calculate-online/nephrology/recurrence-of-kidney-stone-roks for a quick way to assess your risk. You can and should talk to you doctor more about your risk factors.
3. Consult your doctor. Depending on the type of kidney stone you passed, your age, gender, and family medical history, your doctor should be able to help you develop a plan to reduce your risk of more kidney stones. Most will include dietary changes, lots of liquid intake, and in some cases, medication or even surgery (but only in very specific cases).

Using Diet to Prevent Kidney Stones

1. Drink more liquids. Liquids help flush out the substances that cause kidney stones to form. Water is your best choice. It helps prevent kidney stones by keeping the kidneys flushed out without adding any extra elements such as sugar, sodium or other ingredients found in other drinks. Drink at least ten 8 ounce glasses of water daily. Avoid caffeinated beverages, because they dry you out rather than hydrate you. You should aim to have two or more quarts of urine per day, and it should be a light, barely yellow color.
2. Avoid salt. One of the main causes of kidney stones is concentrated urine. Salt can dehydrate you, helping to create concentrated urine. If you do eat salt, you need to counteract its effects by drinking a big glass of water afterward.
3. Eat less meat. Animal proteins can cause concentrated urine, one of the risk factors for kidney stones. Waste from the proteins gets into the urine and can increase the possibility of forming kidney stones.
4. Consume more fiber. Some research indicates that insoluble fiber combines with calcium in urine and is excreted in stools. This helps decrease the amount of calcium left in the urine. Good sources of fiber include:
   • Whole grains like oatmeal, bran, or quinoa
   • Prunes and prune juice
   • Leafy greens like spinach, chard, or kale
5. Be careful of your intake of oxalate if you have experienced calcium oxalate stones. The best way to deal with your diet is to consume both calcium and oxalate at the same meal. This way the calcium and oxalate can bind together in your stomach, rather than waiting until your kidney begins to process it and possibly convert it into a kidney stone.
   • Spinach, chocolate, beets, and rhubarb all are high in oxalate. Beans, green peppers, tea, and peanuts also contain oxalate.
   • Milk, cheese, calcium enriched orange juice, and yogurt are all good forms of calcium that you can combine with foods high in oxalate.

Using Medication and Surgery to Prevent Kidney Stones

1. Take medication for calcium stones. The most typical prescriptions are a thiazide diuretic or a phosphate-containing preparation. Hydrochlorothiazide (a thiazide diuretic) decreases the amount of calcium released into the urine by helping retain it in your bones and helps reduce the chance of developing a calcium stone. This medication works best when you also curtail salt intake.
2. Get a prescription from your doctor to alleviate uric acid stones. Allopurinol (Zyloprim, Aloprim) keeps your urine alkaline and reduces the uric acid levels in both your blood and urine. Sometimes the allopurinol and some kind of alkalizing agent can be combined to completely dissolve the uric acid stone.
3. Take antibiotics for struvite stones. Taking short courses of antibiotics can keep the bacteria from forming in your urine that causes the struvite stones. Your doctor will typically not want you to take antibiotics over a long period, but short courses can help significantly.
4. Shrink cystine stones through alkalizing urine. This treatment typically involves a catheter and will inject an alkalizing agent into your kidney. The cystine stone typically will respond well to the treatment, particularly when coupled with drinking large quantities of water, both day and night.
5. Control the formation of calcium stones with surgery. This is an option only if you have hyperparathyroidism, or kidney stones caused by the parathyroid gland. Calcium stones can be a risk if you have this disease. Removal of one of the two parathyroid glands in your neck usually cures the disease and eliminates the chance of kidney stones.

Tips

• It isn’t always possible to know what kind of stones you had previously. The stones might not have been strained or passed without evidence, or the reports might be long gone. That being said, it is still possible to treat stones, the treatment will just be less focused and therefore less effective.

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