Health & Fitness 

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Q) What can you tell me about kidney stones?

A) Well they hurt ..... a lot. In fact they may be the most severe pain you ever experience (many women have compared it unfavourably with childbirth for those of you who are about to shout us down). 

The pain comes from jagged stones passing through our ureter, a straw-sized tube complete with lots of nerves that runs from the kidneys to the bladder. About 10 per cent of Canadians will suffer from kidney stones during their lifetime with men being three times more likely to develop them, particularly after the age of 40. 

If you've had them once, there is a strong possibility you will have to deal with them again at some point. Several factors increase the risk of developing a stone. These include being obese, eating a diet rich in purines (organ meats, anchovies, beer, etc..), dehydration (drinking less than 1.5 litres per day   increases your risk), and consuming excess salt. 

If you are diagnosed with a stone, there are three treatment options available. The first is simply to wait until you pass it. This is usually chosen if the stone is less than six millimetres in size. The patient will often be told to consume lots of fluids, take pain killers as needed (often narcotics), and may be given another drug (called an alpha-blocker) designed to relax the bladder so as to allow the stone to pass easier.

Shock-wave lithotripsy is another option that is used if the stones are still in the kidney. In this non-invasive operation, an ultrasound beam hopefully smashes the stone into smaller easier-to-pass pieces. This may require repeated sessions, unfortunately. 

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Monday, April 04, 2011