Medicanet   conditions and treatments   Kidney Stones

What Are Kidney Stones?

The internal organs inside your body are very essential, especially when it comes to keeping you healthy and free from diseases.



Some of the most important organs inside you are: the heart, liver, stomach, intestines and the kidneys. Your kidneys strain waste materials from your blood, and pass these to the urine which the kidneys manufacture. But when these waste materials do not disintegrate completely, these have the tendency to turn into crystals or kidney stones.

A kidney stone, which develops in your kidney, is a mineral deposit that hardened due to some factors.



These come from particles which are so tiny that a microscope is needed to see them. As the particles keep on accumulating, they are likely to turn into stones. According to medicine, the development of the stones is referred to as renal stone disease.

These stones inside your kidney, which are also called as nephrolithiasis, can be very discomforting when they pass out from your body.



No matter the size of the stones, they may still pass out from your kidney. These may get stuck inside the tube wherein your urine goes through. Because of this, the flow of the urine is blocked, leading to the build up of pressure within the kidney and the ureter.

The kidney stones have chemical compositions which vary according to your urine's chemical imbalance.



These stones have a lot of types, however, the most common are:
  • Uric Acid stone – this is due to the high level of uric acid in a person's urine. When the process of digestion excretes too much uric acid which can't be disintegrated, the stones will develop. An estimated ten percent of kidney stone patients have this type of disease.
  • Calcium stone – an estimated eighty-five percent of kidney stone development consists mainly of calcium compounds.



    When there is too much amount of calcium in a person's urine, it mixes together with other waste materials and develops into stones.
  • Cystine stone – this kind of kidney stone disease is hard to treat. When a person develops this type, he or she may need therapy all throughout his or her life. This is due to the production of cystine which is present in proteins.



    Cystine is a kind of amino acid which does not disintegrate well.
  • Struvite stone – this is due to the person's infection to the urinary tract which affects the urine's chemical balance. When an individual has UTI, the bacteria excrete chemicals which set off the urine's acid level. Because of this, the bacteria will spread rapidly, resulting to the development of the struvite stones.

 
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