Are Kidney Stones Causing Stress to You or Yours?
By Frederic Baker | April 28, 2008
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Whether you or someone you love has been diagnosed with kidney stones that can be an unnerving and stressful time for you. When you re dealing with treatments, and even the possibility of surgery, you’ll find that there is some comfort in learning a little bit about the culprit at the bottom of it, and it can be a relief to understand a little bit more about kidney stones and their causes.
Kidney stones most often form in the kidney or the bladder and they are essentially crystallized particles of minerals that occur in your kidney. They can be as small as a grain of sand, and in extreme cases, have grown to be as large as golf balls. If they grow to significant size before being passed through the system, they can block the urethra and cause a great deal of pain, nausea and vomiting. While men are more likely to have this affliction than women, women do make up about 25% of all kidney stone patients.
Kidney stones have a number of different causes, and for some patients, the cause is simply unknown. They can be a result of conditions that involve a disruption in the metabolic process; for instance, people who suffer from renal tubular acidosis, Dent’s disease or medullary sponge kidney are known to be candidates to kidney stones.
Essentially, because kidney stones occur due to an aggregation of minerals in the urine, they are often defined by what salts they are composed of. The most common type of kidney stone is called the calcium stone, and in structure, they can range from smooth to spiky. They can grow fairly large, and they are typically made of calcium phosphate or calcium oxalate. Calcium stones can be a problem for people who have too much vitamin D in their bodies or who have an overactive parathyroid gland. They will also frequently occur in people who have kidney diseases or cancer.
Compare this to sturvite stones, which develop when there is too much ammonia in your urine. This can be a result of a urinary tract infection, and they are most commonly seen in women.
Uric acid stones, on the other hand, can be caused by eating a large amount of meat. They can be exacerbated by gout and chemotherapy to treat cancer, and they tend to be softer than calcium stones and relatively soft.
Cystine stones, like calcium stones, are crystalline, and yellow, and they are fairly rare, only developing in people who have an inherited disorder called cystinuria. While most kidney stone sufferers tend to be older, cystine stones can occur in people who are as young as ten.
As you can see, there are quite a number of different causes when it comes to kidney stones, so make sure that you get good treatment immediately if you suspect that you might be suffering from one.
And now I would like to offer you free access to two Chapters of my Kidney Stones Guide when you subscribe to my free Health Coaching Minute Newsletter.
Frederic Baker - Professional Health Coach
Topics: Stress Reduction |
Comments
« Tip to Reduce Stress - Learn about the Many Effects Adrenaline can have on your Body | Home | The problem of depression »
