What are the Symptoms of Kidney Stones?
The unpleasant process of passing a kidney stone affects about 1 million Americans each year. This makes kidney stones a fairly common problem and anyone is at risk. The usual suspects for kidney stone formation are not drinking enough water, eating high protein diets, eating foods high in oxalates. There are also genetic, race and gender factors which increase the risk. African-Americans and men are at a higher risk and people with a rare genetic disorder that leads to kidney stone formation are at a very high risk.
Symptoms of Kidney Stones
One of the problems with kidney stones is that we usually have no idea they exist while they sit quietly inside the kidney. The symptoms of kidney stones are almost nothing until they make their way out of the kidney. A small amount of blood in the urine on an occasion may be the only tell-tale sign and then that is not the case for everyone. Even if one does get blood in the urine now and then it may be so weak as to go unnoticed.
However, when the kidney stone does leave the kidney and move into the urinary tract we are going to experience intense pain! It is this excruciating pain that is the fundamental symptom of a kidney stone; the pain will stay until the stone is passed. In some cases the pain will start as a slight ache in the kidney area that rapidly turns into intense pain. In other cases the pain will be 100% sudden. Either way the full force of the pain often brings people to their knees and can even cause them to pass out. At this point one should visit their doctor or the A&E department to be supervised during the passing of the stone.
At this point there is nothing that can be done but to ‘ride it out’. Your doctor will give you pain medication and tell you to drink plenty of water to help flush the stone out more quickly. Drinking lemon juices during this time is also considered helpful by some natural therapists because the lemon may help to dissolve the stone a little. In some cases the stone could be so big that it is impossible to pass and invasive methods like surgery might be necessary.