WHAT ARE KIDNEY STONES?
Kidney stones form when minerals in your urine crystallize, forming a "stone." Typically, compounds in your urine inhibit these crystals from forming. Some people form stones when their urine contains more crystal-forming substances, such as calcium and uric acid, than the available fluid can dilute. This can happen when urine is highly acid or highly alkaline.
DO KIDNEY STONES REQUIRE MEDICAL HELP?
If the stone remains small, it will pass through your urinary tract unnoticed, but if it is large it can be one of the most excruciatingly painful conditions you can experience. Kidney stones can range in size from a grain of sand to larger than a golf ball, and if a stone fails to pass, permanent damage to your urinary tract can result.
WHAT ARE THE TIPS TO PREVENT KIDNEY STONES?
Many people mistakenly believe that there's nothing you can do to prevent kidney stones. In reality, many risk factors are under your control, and many are remarkably simple.
- Drink Plenty of Water: The number one risk factor for kidney stones is not drinking enough water. If you aren't drinking enough, your urine will simply have higher concentrations of substances that can form stones. Every person's water requirement is different, depending on your particular system and activity level, but simply keeping your urine light yellow will go a long way toward preventing kidney stones. Remember to increase your water intake whenever you increase your activity, and when you're in a warmer climate.
- Get Adequate Magnesium: Magnesium helps prevent calcium from combining with oxalate, which is the most common type of kidney stone. Green leafy vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard are excellent sources of magnesium.
- Avoid Sugar: A diet high in sugar can set you up for kidney stones, since sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body by interfering with calcium and magnesium absorption. The consumption of unhealthy sugars and soda by children is a large factor in why children as young as age five or six are now developing kidney stones.
- Exercise: Exercise helps the body to resolve high blood pressure, a condition that doubles your risk for kidney stones.
- Eat Calcium-Rich Foods: A diet rich in calcium actually blocks a chemical action that causes the formation of the stones. It binds with oxalates (from foods) in your intestine, which then prevents both from being absorbed into your blood and later transferred to your kidneys.
WHY KIMS?
KIMS, one of the best kidney stones treatment hospitals in Hyderabad, offers a multidisciplinary approach to manage and treat kidney stones of all sizes. Our integrated team of best kidney stones specialist doctors in Hyderabad and nephrologists have specialized expertise with a wide range of non-invasive and minimally invasive procedures to give even a 7 mm kidney stone treatment.
Doctors at KIMS have pioneered many of the methods in kidney stone surgery including kidney stone surgery stent to manage and treat kidney stones. KIMS uses the latest technological advances for the treatment of kidney stones, including state-of- the-art lasers. In case of extreme damage to the kidneys, even transplant is available at KIMS, one of the best kidney transplant centres in Hyderabad.