What Causes Kidney Stones?

This is one of those cases where prevention is a lot more fun than cure:

This too shall pass

Passing a kidney stone is usually not on most people’s lists of favorite things to do.

But how and why do they form in the first place?

Urine naturally contains (amongst many other things) calcium, sodium, potassium, oxalate, uric acid, and phosphate, and when these compounds become too concentrated or your urine becomes too acidic or alkaline, they can crystallize and gradually grow into stones over weeks, months, or years.

Of these, most (around 80%) are calcium oxalate stones, while less common types include calcium phosphate, uric acid, infection-related struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate), and stones caused by certain genetic disorders or medications.

These don’t create symptoms at first, until they move into the ureters and, later, the urethra, where they can scratch the sensitive tissue, and cause a lot of pain and inflammation. It can get worse if the stone blocks the flow of urine, because then you have the regular kidney stone problems plus you’re now doing damage to your kidneys with backed up urine, plus this throws a large part of your body’s homeostatic system out of balance, which is very serious.

Fortunately, stones smaller than 5mm usually pass on their own, with doctors typically recommending drinking plenty of water and taking pain meds.

If that doesn’t work, there are more heavy-duty methods:

• First line options: alpha blockers can relax your ureter to help larger stones pass, while potassium citrate can make your urine less acidic and help dissolve certain stones.
• Second line options: extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy uses focused ultrasonic pulses to vibrate and fracture medium-sized stones up to about10 mm into smaller fragments that are easier to pass.
• Third line options: doctors may insert a ureteral stent, use laser pulses delivered through optical fibers to break up the stone, or surgically remove it through an incision in your back or groin.

As for how to prevent them, the video touches on this, but for much more information, see our “learn more” section below, as the same advice applies as for preventing kidney disease in general.

Meanwhile, for more on all of this, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like:

Keeping Your Kidneys Healthy (Especially After 60) ← there’s a lot more to it than just hydration!

Take care!