Kidney stones

Kidney stones and renal colic

Kidney stones can go unnoticed as a chronic stone disease over a long period of time. However, if there is a migration and entrapment of small kidney stones, a renal colic can cause severe and painful symptoms. The stones may also be in the area of ​​the bladder, ureter or urethra with similar symptoms (as urolithiasis). Although the causes are not fully understood, some beneficial factors, namely diet and metabolic dysfunction are well known. Conventional measures consist in removing or destroying the kidney stones, while practitioners of natural healing want to stimulate favorable changes in the metabolism, in particular through targeted nutritional changes.

Kidney stones:
Kidney stones
Synonyms
Symptoms of chronic kidney stones
Complaints in kidney stones
Genesis factors and causes of kidney stones
Nutrition as a therapy
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Synonyms

nephrolithiasis; Stone suffering, kidney stones

Symptoms of chronic kidney stones

Chronic, very large kidney stones, which are less likely to get stuck in the renal tubules and sometimes fill the entire renal pelvis, usually cause few symptoms. Those affected complain of rather unspecific dull or oppressive back pain and groin pain. Complications are caused by bacterial infections in the form of pyelonephritis, urosepsis or contracted kidney.

Complaints in kidney stones

Small kidney stones can start moving and get trapped. This leads to acute renal colic with severe cramping pain that can occur over minutes to hours. For stones in the renal pelvis, the pain radiates in the back and flanks, while ureteral stones may cause pain over the pubic area and inguinal artery to the legs. Other symptoms in acute stone attack are discomfort in urination (dysuria), blood in the urine (gross hematuria) nausea and vomiting, an incipient intestinal obstruction and the increased urge to move.

Genesis factors and causes of kidney stones

In renal tubules, renal pelvis and urinary tracts (urolithiasis) form deposits that crystallize from previously dissolved substances into a solid mass and called concrements. In addition to the diet, severe sweating, lack of exercise, e.g. in fractures, hormonal disorders of calcium metabolism, such as hyperparathyroidism, Disturbances in the uric acid metabolism (which also leads to gout) and even stress as promoting factors in the formation of kidney stones. Depending on the mechanism of formation, the kidney stones are either calcium-containing stones, uric acid stones, magnesium ammonium phosphate stones or cystine stones.

Nutrition as a therapy

The diet is an important factor and their conversion as a therapeutic measure suitable. An important factor, which favors the formation of stones, is the way of life and nutrition. Thus, a fat and protein-rich diet and a low intake and low mobility are known as contributors to kidney stones. This is also supported by the fact that the - already known - stone disease developed in the prosperous post-war years to a true widespread disease.

In most cases, kidney stones consist of calcium oxalate (between 60% and 80% of cases), the formation of which can be explained either by an increase in the intake of oxalide or an increase in calcium metabolism. Foods containing larger amounts of oxalic acid are among others. Spinach, star fruit, rhubarb, sorrel, sorrel, chard, coffee, black tea and chocolate. High sugar and meat consumption also causes large amounts of uric acid, which the organism tries to neutralize by using calcium from the bones (which also leads to osteoporosis). In addition, stress is said to reduce the formation of substances that inhibit stone formation (e.g., magnesium). Magnesium-containing foods that counteract this process in addition to beneficial stress management include, for example, brewer's yeast, soybean meal, wheat germ, wheat bran, almonds, bananas, kohlrabi and celery.

Uric acid stones form with supersaturation of the urine with uric acid and result from the excessive consumption of meat and salt-rich food, which should be replaced by vegetarian-basic diet. In contrast, phosphate rocks usually develop on the floor of repeated urinary tract infections, e.g. of cystitis. Here, the alkaline urine should be acidified as a favorable habitat of the germs by medication or by dietary change. Finally, cystine crystals are more common in renal dysfunction and can be reduced by alkaline diet. (Dipl.Päd. Jeanette Viñals Stein, non-medical practitioner)

Picture credits: Stephanie Hofschlaeger / pixelio.de

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Strehlow, W.: Hildegard Healing from A-Z, Weltbild 2005
Pschyrembel Naturopathy, de Gruyter 2006
Bierbach, E .: Naturopathic practice today, Urban & Fischer 20016351a2cc0b08c03ie Hofschlaeger, Pixelio.de.