Kidney stones are a relatively common occurrence, particularly in United States. This condition impacts approximately one in ten people throughout their timeline, and the incidence of kidney stones has really increased over the past few decades. If you have luckily not yet suffered from this condition, then you should know how to prevent kidney stones naturally beforehand. If you are suffering from it, then here VKool.com introduces to you some tips to prevent this problem from recurring. Check them out now!
I. How To Prevent Kidney Stones Naturally And From Recurring – Basics About Kidney Stones
1. What Are Kidney Stones?
Stones could be established from various substances, yet the most common stones are made of calcium and oxalate which has crystallized in the human urinary tract.
Besides, other kinds of stones contain uric acid, struvite and cystine. Whilst stones themselves are painful enough, actually, they might result in many other serious conditions like obstruction of the urinary tract, or permanent damage of the kidneys, or even some life-threatening infections.
Conventional medication experts take the multi-pronged method to cure kidney stones, containing surgical removal, passable pieces, using shock waves for breaking up the stone into smaller, and many other medications to prevent potential stones from forming. There are several conventional dietary instructions for preventing potential stone establishment, yet most of them are often based on the composition of the stone, not the real pathology behind the reason why stones actually formed.
2. Causes Of Kidney Stones
When it comes to kidney stones, it is exactly clear what results in this problem to form in some individuals and not others. Oftentimes, it requires concentrated urine that allows the minerals such as calcium to come in close contact with each other.
And, the changes in the acid-base balance (pH) of urine, the concentration of minerals as well as chemicals within the urine and how concentrated it are total factors that could start the formation of kidney stones.
In other words, crystals could establish the beginning of the stone and finally grow large enough to cause issues. Concentrated urine usually happens during an episode of dehydration, thereby setting the period for the starting of stone establishment. Those consequences of stones, when they are larger enough to result in obstruction, might happen in weeks, months, or many years later.
You can check out: healthy foods for good kidney function
3. Different Types Of Kidney Stones
As mentioned earlier in the previous part of this “How To Prevent Kidney Stones Naturally” article, there are many kinds of kidney stones.
The followings are the most popular ones:
- Calcium stones: the majority of kidney stones are calcium stones, often in the form of calcium oxalate
- Struvite stones: they form in response to the infection like a urinary tract infection
- Cystine stones
- Uric acid stones
- And other stones
4. Who Is At High Risk For Kidney Stones?
Over 80% of kidney stones sufferers are men. There is a genetic component in the risk of kidney stones. People from those families with history of kidney stones have the higher risk of suffering from this problem than those who are not. To put in detail, in families with history of difficulties in metabolizing some chemicals like oxalate, uric acid, and cysteine, the risk might be higher than those who are not.
Recommend reading: The effective guide for treating kidney stones – kidney stone removal
II. How To Prevent Kidney Stones Naturally And From Recurring – Top 7 Tips
1. Do Not Underestimate Your Sweat
Hot yoga, saunas and heavy exercise might be good for your overall health, yet they might also result in kidney stones.
It sounds ridiculous, yet it is true. Why? Because you lose water during exercising via sweating, this leads to less urine production. The more you sweat, the less you will urinate, thereby allowing those stone-forming minerals to settle and obviously bond in your kidneys and urinary tract. Thus, to fix this, you should hydrate your body with water. This is the best and easiest way when it comes to how to prevent kidney stones naturally. That way, you will urine a lot.
2. It Is Not Just About The Oxalate
Oxa-what? In fact, oxalate is naturally found in different foods, containing fruits and veggies, grains, nuts and seeds, legumes, and tea or chocolate. Several examples of foods which consist of high levels of oxalate are peanuts, spinach, rhubard, beets, sweet potatoes and chocolate. Thus, you should moderate the consumption of these foods to prevent the formation of kidney stones. A popular misconception is that cutting those foods with high content of oxalate in your current diet will decrease the risk of forming calcium oxalate kidney stones.
Though this theory may be true, this approach is not lucid from the overall health perspective. The majority of kidney stones are formed as oxalate blinds to calcium whilst urine is manufactured by the human kidneys.
To fix this, you should drink and eat those calcium-rich foods and drinks together. If so, calcium and oxalate might be blind to one another in your stomach and intestines before your kidneys start processing, thereby making it less likely those kidney stones will establish.
3. Calcium Is Not The Enemy
In fact, calcium is not your enemy when it comes to the formation of kidney stones. However, it continuously tends to get a bad reputation. In reality, there are many people with kidney stones cut down their calcium intake but still get recurring stones. Believe it or not, the diet with low content of calcium will increase the risk of growing kidney stones.
Rather than, you should not reduce your intake of calcium, but cut back the sodium intake in your diet and pair calcium-rich foods with those oxalate-rich foods.
4. It Is Not Just One And Done
The next tip on how to prevent kidney stones is that you should acknowledge types and influence of kidney stones. Passing kidney stones is usually described as the painful experience that a person could have, yet unfortunately, it is not always a one-time event. Many researches pointed out that having even one stone greatly will increase the chance of having another. The majority of people do not want to do anything to make sure that it does not occur again. Those individuals with kidney stones often do not heed the recommendation of their urinary specialists and nephrologists. Fact is, about 15% of people with kidney stones did not take prescribed drugs and about 41% did not apply the nutrition advice that can keep the stones from recurring.
To fix this, you need to take action. Keep in mind that without the proper medications as well as diet changes, stones will soon come back, at any time, and recurring kidney stones could be an indicator of many other serious problems, like kidney disease.
5. Pay Attention To What You Take
As the saying goes, “make lemonade”. Actually, it is crucial to think about dietary remedies alongside prescribed medications. Whilst it might seem easier to take just a drug for fixing a medical problem, you should also consider your lifestyle changes to create a huge effect on your overall health.
For better changes, the next time you go for a glass of lemon juice or limeade stand, you should consider your own kidneys. The chronic stones are usually treated with the potassium citrate, yet studies have shown that limeade, lemonade and other fruits as well as juices which are high in natural citrate might offer the similar stone-preventing effects. However, you need to pay attention to sugar, as it could enhance the risk of kidney stones. Rather than, you had better opt for sugar-free lemonade or even make it by yourself with sugar substitute.
See: low sugar foods to consume
6. Not Every Stone Is Created Equal
Aside from calcium oxalate stones, there is another popular type of kidney stones which is uric acid stones. Those high-protein foods and meat have high content of a natural chemical compound which is well known as the purines.
If you take a lot of purines, your body might produce uric acid more and produces a huger acid load for your kidneys to excrete. Normally, the higher excretion of uric acid will lead to the lower of urine pH. That means your urine will be more acidic. That way, kidney stones will be formed much easier.
Hence, to prevent the formation of uric acid stones, you should limit the intake of seafood and meat as well. Besides, you also need to reduce your consumption of high-purine foods, including liver, tongue, sweetbreads, sardines, beef, bacon, anchovies, and sea food like shrimp, lobster, coldfish, venison, and so on.
7. Drink More Water
The last tip on how to prevent kidney stones naturally and from recurring is to take enough water. When the urine becomes too concentrated, the minerals like calcium, oxalate, or phosphate might crystallize to build stones, causing server pain when they pass right from the kidneys to the bladders and lastly out. Thus, you had better drink from 6 to 8 glasses of water every day to keep the urine diluted and prevent kidney stones beforehand.
The above are all fundamental information about kidney stones and some simple yet effective ways on how to prevent kidney stones naturally and from recurring. You should consider and apply all of them right now to kick off the risk of this kidney problem once and for all.
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