Wheathampstead Magazine

 

Most people have two kidneys, which ‘clean’ your blood by filtering out water and waste products to make urine. Kidney stones can form when there’s a build-up of salts or minerals in your urine. These minerals form crystals, which are often too small to notice and pass harmlessly out of your body. However, over time, the crystals can build up inside your kidney to form a kidney stone.

Most kidney stones (about four out of five) are made up of calcium salts (calcium oxalate or calcium phosphate or both). They can also be made up of other substances including uric acid, cystine and struvite. They vary in size from very small stones under 2mm to large ones over 1cm.

Kidney stones may stay where they’re first formed. But they can move out of your kidney into your ureter – the tube that carries urine from your kidney to your bladder. If they get stuck in your ureter, they can cause severe pain, known as renal colic. Depending on a stone’s size and position, it can stop you passing urine easily and lead to infection.

 

Types of kidney stones

Kidney stones come in a variety of sizes, shapes and colours. Some are like grains of sand, while in rare cases others can grow to the size of a golf ball.

The main types of kidney stones are:

calcium stones, the most common type of stone

struvite stones, usually caused by an infection, like a urine infection

uric acid stones, usually caused by a large amount of acid in your urine.

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Symptoms

A person with kidney stones doesn’t experience many symptoms until the stone is moving around in his/her kidney or passes through the ureter, which is the tube connecting the kidney and the bladder. In such cases, amongst the symptoms  are :

Severe pain in the side and back, below the ribs and pain in the lower abdomen and groin

Painful urination

Urine that’s pink, red or brown

Urine that smells very foul

Nausea

 

Treating and preventing kidney stones

Most kidney stones are small enough to be passed in your pee, and it may be possible to treat the symptoms at home with medication.

Larger stones may need to be broken up or removed with surgery.

It's estimated up to half of all people who have had kidney stones will experience them again within the following 5 years.

To avoid getting kidney stones, make sure you drink plenty of water every day so you do not become dehydrated.

It's very important to keep your urine pale in colour to prevent waste products forming into kidney stones.

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You should contact a GP or NHS 111 immediately if:

• you're in severe pain

• you have a high temperature

• you have an episode of shivering or shaking

• you have blood in your urine

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Informtion suppied by Bupa, Guts UK  and  NHS Choices 

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