Is there anything less fun than kidney stones? Not a whole lot … “The most painful thing I’ve ever experienced” is a phrase that comes up a lot when people talk about their experiences with one. I bet I can think of one thing less fun though: Getting one when there’s no option of good medical treatment. For example, during an emergency.
Please understand I’m no physician, so this isn’t medical advice. It’s meant as an information source, no more.
What is a kidney stone?
These crystals are kidney stones:
These are not fun to pass through soft tubes richly supplied with nerves. Thanks to Jakupica* for the image.
They form in your kidneys, and to get rid of them they have to pass through not only the urinary bladder but a couple of soft tubes chock full of nerve endings (a ureter and then the urethra). The smaller ones (half a cm or less) can exit through these tubes, although it hurts a lot. Bigger ones mostly stay put without medical treatment. There’s a chance you can get them to shrink (more on that later), but it’s really better not to get them at all. A lot better.
There are different kinds of stones made of different minerals. Calcium oxalate are most common, then calcium phosphate. There are others, but as these two make up about 3/4 of all stones, I’ll concentrate on them.
Why do some people get kidney stones?
First, the big one: Dehydration. Crystals form when there’s more of a mineral than can stay dissolved in the amount of water available. When a person’s dehydrated, their kidneys make less pee to save the water, and there isn’t enough to keep all the minerals dissolved.
Next, the double-down: People who’ve had one kidney stone are 50% likely to get another within the next ten years (probably because they get the first one in part due to genetic or metabolic quirks that don’t go away when the stone does).
How much of the mineral you have to get rid of and the pH of the urine also play roles, which is why they’ll be back under the How to Avoid section. Genetics is a factor and men grow twice as many stones as women (I’m just going to leave that statement lying there…) but there’s not much to be done about the latter factors. Overall, nearly 10% of all Americans get at least one stone sometime in their lives.
Sounds unpleasant. How do I avoid them?
Drink plenty. The people talking about how to avoid recurrences (such as Han et al. 2015 and Parmer 2004) want people peeing 2.5 L per day. Good reason to have plenty of water purification power on hand, isn’t it?
Having plenty of convenient purification makes one less tempted to skimp on water .. and maybe grow a stone.
Diet can also help. Low in sodium helps – hard news for preppers with all the salt in many stored foods. We can choose lower sodium options though. Keeping protein intake moderate instead of massive is recommended (around 50 g/day, Palmer 2004). Make sure to get enough Vit D, although there is no obvious benefit to getting More than the normal daily amount. High in fruits and vegetables is good. Avoid taking Vit C supplements: People who took a gram a day of Vit C or more were 40% more likely to get stones (Grases et al. 2000). Oddly, although there is calcium in the most common stones, eating a lot of calcium makes those stones less likely. The calcium helps get rid of the oxalate or phosphate before the kidneys have to. The fact may not be of much use to preppers unless they live near a bog, but cranberry juice is protective. (Cranberries like to grow in bogs; they grow wild in them near the coast in the northeast.)
You wouldn’t want jerky to be your only food option if you’re worried about kidney stones…lots of protein and salt.
Avoiding Type II diabetes and Crohn’s disease also help; and both of those can be avoided or reduced somewhat by diet and exercise.
If you’ve had a stone before and know what it was made of, it can help. Oxalate and uric acid stones are less common if one it taking potassium citrate tablets (which can be part of a prepper’s stores), but they make phosphate stones more likely so you don’t want to take citrate if you’ve had a phosphate stone already.
How do I know if I have one, and what can be done about it if I do?
We’ve already established that they hurt, a lot. More specifically, the pain radiates from the side/lower back area of the affected kidney, or in the region of the genitals if is farther down the tubes. Nausea and vomiting usually come along, just to make the experience more pleasant. There’s blood in the urine, although it may be too little to see with the naked eye (chem tests pick it up). You may feel you need to pee often, and when it hits feel you’ve got to get that done RIGHT NOW.
If I developed the signs above, I’d be hydrating like crazy (despite not wanting to because of the nausea and vomiting). Most stones under half a cm – roughly the size of a small pea, no pun intended — can pass right on through if there’s enough flow. You can’t tell from the outside how big they are, so I’d be drinking like a fish and hoping for the best.
I’m reminded how much I’d rather just have plenty of purified water and avoid these things in the first place. Here’s to being stone-free!
Some of my sources:
Grases F, March JG, Prieto RM, Simonet BM, Costa-Bauzá A, García-Raja A, Conte A. Urinary phytate in calcium oxalate stone formers and healthy people–dietary effects on phytate excretion. Scand J Urol Nephrol. 2000 Jun; 34(3):162-4.
Han, H., Segal, A. M., Seifter, J. L., & Dwyer, J. T. (2015). Nutritional Management of Kidney Stones (Nephrolithiasis). Clinical Nutrition Research, 4(3), 137–152. http://doi.org/10.7762/cnr.2015.4.3.137
McHarg T, Rodgers A, Charlton K. Influence of cranberry juice on the urinary risk factors for calcium oxalate stone formation. BJU Int 2003;92: 765-8.
Parmar, M. S. (2004). Kidney stones. BMJ : British Medical Journal, 328(7453), 1420–1424.
Taylor EN, Curhan GC. Diet and fluid prescription in stone disease. Kidney Int. 2006;70:835–839.
*By Jakupica (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Oddly enough Mother Nature gave us a reasonable cure-prevention for Kidney Stones. Corn Silk. You know the silky stuff you have to clean off your fresh ear of corn to eat it?
Fresh or dried as a Tea has given many of my Grandparents relief from that situation. So far knock on wood it’s been years since I “Enjoyed” a Kidney Stone attack.
If your prone to stones a daily glass of Corn Silk Tea cannot hurt you and might prevent or reduce that next painful situation.
I’ve never had kidney stones, but I can imagine it is pretty nasty. I have had gall bladder attacks and can tell you all that it is no picnic either. Think of what it feels like having a wooden stake stuck in your sternum…it is continuous pain which does not change in intensity like other afflictions.
Brian,
I’ve had gall bladder attacks and know of what you speak. I’ve also cared for people having nasty kidney stone attacks when I was a paramedic and it seems to me the pain is somewhat similar in intensity in a bad kidney stone attack. Either problem can create serious issues in a SHTF situation. The pain for both requires serious opioids (Demerol, morphine, etc), and gall bladder problems almost always require surgery.