Today, friends of Kidney Online, let's meet kidney calculi with the experts from Mayo Clinic, the first hospital in the United States!
How did kidney calculi come into being?
As we all know, the kidney is where urine is formed. Urine has many components, including various minerals! When our urine is concentrated, minerals easily precipitate to form hard deposits.
Let's take a look at the picture below. The kidney forms a small stone, which moves down slowly and can move to any part of the urinary system.
It can be stuck at the renal outlet, in the ureter connected with the renal outlet, and further stuck in the bladder. Of course, it may move. We excrete it.
Stones left in different places will produce various symptoms, such as hematuria, unbearable pain, fever, dysuria and so on.
So who does kidney calculi like best?
1) Family history of kidney calculi: If your relatives have kidney calculi's disease, your risk of getting stones is much greater than others. This is because relatives usually have similar genetic background and the same living habits.
2) I have been to kidney calculi before: If I have been to kidney calculi once or many times before, the risk of going to kidney calculi again is greater.
3) Dehydration: People who drink less water every day tend to have concentrated urine and are more prone to stones. People who live in a hot environment and sweat a lot have a higher risk of stones than others.
4) Bad eating habits: Eating habits with high protein, high salt and high sugar will increase the incidence of stones. In particular, high salt will increase the possibility of calcium-containing stones.
5) Digestive system diseases or surgical history: Suffering from inflammatory bowel disease or chronic diarrhea and having gastrointestinal surgery will lead to changes in the digestive process, affecting the absorption of calcium and water, and more likely to lead to the formation of stones.
6) Other conditions: including hyperthyroidism, commonly known as hyperthyroidism; Certain drugs; Urinary tract infection; Renal tubular acidosis.
How to prevent it?
Because kidney calculi has a preference, we can do something in life to prevent it from happening.
1) Drink plenty of water every day: If you know that you have high risk factors for stones, it is necessary to drink plenty of water. Doctors usually ask to drink plenty of water, so when the urine volume is about 2.5L in a hot environment or during physical exercise, it is even more necessary to supplement enough water.
2) low salt, reduce the amount of meat: a low salt diet will benefit you a lot.
3) Cautious use of calcium: Calcium supplementation is related to the occurrence of kidney calculi. Consult a doctor to supplement calcium, and you need to supplement it. However, calcium in food does not increase the risk of kidney calculi. On the contrary, a low-calcium diet makes some people more likely to form stones. Therefore, extra calcium supplementation should be cautious, but there is no need to limit foods rich in calcium.
4) Calcium oxalate is one of the types of stones. If there are calcium oxalate stones, eat less foods rich in oxalic acid, including rhubarb, beets, spinach, nuts, tea, chocolate and beans.