What Makes Kidney Stones Painful?

Anyone who has had an attack of kidney stones rarely forgets the experience. It produces a sharp, stabbing pain that starts in the back, moves to the abdomen and later to the groin.

The pain is caused by the stone's journey from the kidney down to the ureter (the duct that carries urine to the bladder). Once it begins, ordinary painkillers can't stop it.

"Of the one million or so painful attacks suffered each year in the United States alone, 300,000 are severe enough to require admission to a hospital. Ask anybody who has had one, and he'll tell you the best treatment is that which provides immediate relief from pain - usually an injection of a narcotic like morphine or meperidine (Demerol). This is no time for a couple of aspirin or Tylenol," said Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld of the New York Hospital - Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in The Best Treatment.

The medical term for kidney stones is renal lithiasis. They're three times more likely to occur in men than in women and they appear to run in families.

The stones are usually deposits of mineral or organic substances in the kidneys. When high levels of certain minerals are in the urine, a chemical reaction takes place, causing these substances to crystallize and form hard masses or stones. The stones may be as small as a pebble or as large as a walnut.

"Kidney stones is a relatively common disorder. About five percent of women and 10 percent of men will have had at least one stone by the time they reach age 70. The tendency to have certain types of stones runs in families. Some types are associated with other conditions, such as bowel disease, ileal bypass for obesity, or renal tubule defects," according to Dr. David E. Larson, editor-in-chief of the Mayo Clinic Family Health Book.

The stones may be made up of calcium which accounts for 75 to 85 percent of cases. This type usually appears between the ages of 20 and 30 and is common in people with diseases of the small bowel or in those who consume plenty of calcium-rich foods.

Uric acid stones appear mainly in men, especially those with gout. This accounts for eight percent of cases. Less common are cystine stones that occur in those with cystinuria - a hereditary disorder in which excessive amounts of cystine and other amino acids are found in the urine.

Women, on the other hand, are often bothered by struvite stones which are the result of urinary tract infections. Other people may develop stones following overactive parathyroid glands or a tumor that has to be removed. In many cases, however, it is difficult to determine the exact cause of kidney stones.

"If you have a kidney stone, you should be checked out for the major conditions that cause it. These include a tumor of the parathyroid glands (parathyroid adenoma), too much vitami
D, gout and leukemia. The parathyroid adenoma is a benign tumor that produces too much parathyroid hormone, which sucks calcium out of the bones and into the urine where it forms stones. It is easily diagnosed by means of a simple blood test, which should be done on everyone with kidney stones made of calcium. Excessive vitami
D increases the amount of calcium absorbed by the gut from the food you eat which then ends up in the kidney as stones," Rosenfeld explained.

What are the complications of kidney stones? What's the best treatment for them? Find out in the second part of this series. To help you relax, take Sedamine, nature’s answer to a good night’s sleep. Visit http://sedamine.com for details.