Kidney Stones Causes and Natural Solutions

What causes kidney stones and how to get rid of them

How to treat kidney stones naturally

What are kidney stones? Kidney stones are symptoms of imbalances in the body. They are not a disease that can be resolved by a medical procedure no more than snipping the wire to the oil warning light on your car solve the low oil problem. If we understand what kidney stones are, why kidney stones form and what dissolves them we can now treat the underlying causes to “cure” the body of kidneys stones.

Types of kidney stones

The most common kidney stones are formed with the compounds calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate. The calcium type of kidney stones are the main topic of this article. Other kinds of kidney stones that are much less common are: Cystine stones which often run in family lines and can form in people who have cystinuria ; Struvite stones which are often very large stones that and can block the kidney, ureters, or bladder and mostly found in women who experience chronic urinary tract infection; Uric acid stones are more common in men and occur in conjunction with gout or chemotherapy treatment.

Excess calcium in the body can cause the calcium type of kidney stones and can also lead to Alzheimer’s disease and can harden arteries causing heart attacks and other pulmonary problems.1 Either a surplus of calcium and/or a deficiency in other minerals cause acid/alkaline and calcium imbalances which, in turn, causes inflammation in our tissues ultimately causing kidney stones to form. Limiting our calcium and balancing our potassium and magnesium can help dissolve kidney stones, but the problem is usually just a little more complex than “take this but don’t take that”.

Calcium supplements and kidney stones

The benefits of taking supplemental calcium decline rapidly above at 750 mg a day in seniors. Above 750 mg of calcium daily the risk of fractures, heart attacks, strokes and kidney stones increases tremendously. Eat a good diet and exercise and the rate of fractures, heart attacks, strokes and kidney stones decreases with no calcium supplementation. Conversely, eat a lousy diet, have a sedentary lifestyle, take no calcium and the rate of fractures, heart attacks, strokes and kidney stones increases with no calcium supplementation. We can conclude from this that people who actually need 750 mg of calcium a day are the ones with sedentary lifestyles and lousy diets.(2)

Other causes of kidney stones

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is loaded with highly refined and over-processed foods. Eating a diet that includes processed foods increases you risk of developing kidney stones. This includes high dietary intakes of refined salts, refined sugars, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, fructose, grapefruit and apple juice, sodas and high intake of animal proteins.

Dehydration is a huge factor that contributes to the formation of all kidney stones. Drinking plenty of clean room temperature water helps prevent, dissipate and pass kidney stones.

As we age our stomach acid production tends to decline. We depend on this acid to break down our calcium to make it bio-available. Taking more calcium or chewing Tums only serves to drive our acid levels lower and causes malabsorption of the initial calcium we need and ultimately contributes to kidney stones and even osteoporosis.

Treating kidney stones naturally

Avoid sulphates in food additives and medications, eschew pharmaceutical medications, exercise and eat right are all very important factors for maintaining calcium balance, avoiding kidney stones and maintaining bone health.

Apple cider vinegar is, by consensus, is one of the best things to take for kidney stones. The better apple cider vinegar will be organic and unfiltered vinegar that has a brownish tinge and tiny cobweb-like particles floating in it. These particles are known as “mother”, and when you see this it means the apple cider vinegar is of good quality with all the nutrients and health giving properties intact.

Just five grams a day of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) by itself, without any other treatment, is often enough to rid us of kidney stones that are composed of either calcium phosphate, or struvite. However, don’t fool yourself into thinking that drinking orange juice will give you enough vitamin C, unless you squeeze dozens of oranges a day for yourself. Also, because calcium is a major part of the problem, avoid the sodium C and calcium C forms and opt for ascorbic acid with rose hips. Build up to bowel tolerance by starting with 1,000 mg of ascorbic acid in the mornings and again in the evenings with food and increase by 1,000 mg every week until you reach 5,000 mg a day or more.

It is of note that a 150 lb mammal (close to the size of a human) makes 12,000-14,000 mg of vitamin C a day whereas a human makes none and depends upon diet to supply the need.

Kidney stones thrive in an acidic environment and tend to dissolve in alkaline ones. If you are too acidic in your body take ½ tbs of baking soda in the early evenings or before you go to bed. Also taking one or more Betaine HCL per meal for a few weeks can turn acidic pH around. You can test your pH with urine test strips. You should be around 7.4 in the late afternoon.

Also good for treating kidney stones

• Homemade naturally sweetened lemon juice helps the kidneys pass calcium oxalate without acidifying the body.
• Plenty of raw veggies in your diet will give you the right amount of calcium and help prevent the above-mentioned problems.
• Potassium and magnesium help dissolve excess calcium, preventing kidney stone formations and calcified tissues.
• Fish oil is full of omega-3 fatty acids were shown to decrease urinary oxalate output and also decrease the risk of kidney stone formation.
• Kidney beans are great. They are even shaped like little kidneys to make us think of their benefits.
• The substances contained in dandelion stimulate the stomach as well as liver activity and bile production, causing a high diuresis to help you to eliminate the toxic products of metabolism. Dandelion can be successfully used in cases of hypoacid gastritis, dyspepsia and for preventing the formation of renal calculi (kidney stones). Try some dandelion tea in the morning.

Medical treatment for kidney stones

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is a medical procedure used to treat the symptoms of kidney stones by using high-energy sound waves to break up the stones into tiny pieces. General anesthesia is often used also for this procedure which takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour. A tube may be placed through your bladder or into your kidney to drain urine and all the small pieces of stone out of your body.

A deficiency of pharmaceutical drugs does not cause kidney stones and drugs do not treat the underlying causes. Thiazides, potassium citrate (Urocit-K) and orthophosphate (K-Phos, Neutra-Phos) all have those pesky side effects that come with Big Pharma solutions. If you want a pill to make kidney stones “go away”, there is none. You earn kidney stones with diet and lifestyle habits and you only pay them off using diet and lifestyle changes as the foundation.

1 http://douglassreport.com/2011/05/09/dangerous-calcium/
2 http://www.webmd.com/heart/news/20100729/study-calcium-may-increase-heart-attack-risk

Authored by Cancer Nutritionist Craig Stellpflug NDC, CNC, Dayspring Cancer Clinic Scottsdale, AZ
Copyright 2012 Craig Stellpflug© Permission is hereby granted to copy and distribute this article but only in its entirety