rokhsar@lasspvax.UUCP (Dan Rokhsar) (01/19/86)
The other day I passed my very first kidney stone. It was not pleasant. Can anyone point me to a moderately sophisticated discussion of (1) the formation of stones - where in the kidneys do they accumulate and grow, etc. (2) the effect of diet changes on susceptibility to future stones (I know it depends on the composition of the stone, but more generally, how large a change in diet is necessary to make a significant change in susceptibility?) Dan Rokhsar
werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner) (01/22/86)
> The other day I passed my very first kidney stone. It was not > pleasant. Can anyone point me to a moderately sophisticated > discussion of (1) the formation of stones - where in the kidneys > do they accumulate and grow, etc. (2) the effect of diet changes > on susceptibility to future stones (I know it depends on the > composition of the stone, but more generally, how large a change > in diet is necessary to make a significant change in susceptibility?) > Dan Rokhsar Of course, you should bring the stone to your doctor and get a urinalysis, a step that hopefully took priority over posting to the net. Some stones are signs of Metabolic disorders, or kidney infections, and Uric Acid stones can form in some forms of cancer. However, most stones are just plain stones. It would take too much time to discuss everything about Kidney stones, but I would like to focus on several things. The most common stone is made up of Calcium Oxalate, and are termed "Calcium stones," an unfortunate term since Calcium Phosphate also forms stones in different pH urine, and is much more treatable. Furthermore, people hear Calcium stones and stop eating Calcium. This is a mistake. There is good evidence to show that a low Calcium diet paradoxically increases your chances of repeat stones. The culprit is Oxalate. It normally will bind with Calcium in the gut, form the insoluble salt and never get absorbed, passing harmlessly out. If you don't eat Calcium, the Oxalic Acid you do eat gets absorbed, and since the blood Calcium is maintained (at the expense of bone), you actually get higher levels of Ca Oxalate than if you didn't cut the Calcium out. Incidentally, Oxalate is found in Spinach, and lots of other vegetables and foods that any Urologist could recite from memory, but I choose not to look up. Oxalate is what to avoid. Of course some people respond to a treatment so trivial and simple as drinking one very large glass of plain water just before going to bed. Note also, that taking too much Vitamin D will cause an excessive amount of Calcium to be absorbed, and can also lead to Kidney stones in suseptible people, which answers a question someone else asked last week. I have also heard that passing a stone is 2nd only to Aortic dissection in terms of the amount of pain it produces, even surpassing childbirth (particularly in males :-) ). But of course, no discussion of Kidney stones by me would be complete without my paraphrase of Michael J. Doonesbury, oft repeated within days of upcoming medical school exams: "Like Kidney stones and the 1970s, this too shall pass." -- Craig Werner !philabs!aecom!werner "Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity."