Nothing can bring you to your knees faster than a kidney stone — sometimes only 2 mm big. What is about these little stones and how do we rid ourselves of them? Dr. Robert Wayment of Ogden Clinic offers some insight to these pesky pains.

1. What exactly is a kidney stone made of?

“Kidney stones are crystallized collections of salts and minerals that form within the urinary portion of the kidney,” said Dr. Wayment. The most common kidney stone is composed of calcium and oxalate. Other types of stones are calcium phosphate, uric acid, struvite, cysteine and matrix. Many of these are absorbed metabolic waste products from diet, some are affected by bacteria and very rarely are they produced from medication.

2. What does having a kidney stone feel like?

To the lucky people who haven’t been subjected to kidney stones, Dr. Wayment, a survivor of two kidney stones himself, describes it as the following:

“Stones can be asymptomatic or cause pain severe enough to drop you to the fetal position, which doesn’t help, and then requires pain control in the emergency department. Pain can start insidiously or hit you like a ton of bricks. It most often begins in your lower back and side and radiate around to your lower abdomen and even to the groin or genitalia (ouch!). It is most frequently a sharp stabbing pain that comes and goes.”

While many assume that these hard deposits scratch up your kidneys and bladder, the pain actually comes from the pressure caused by a stone obstructing urine flow, sending kidney stone patients to their knees. When they are lodged near the bladder they can even cause increased urinary frequency or urgency.

3. What if it doesn’t pass on its own?

For many, patience is required when passing a kidney stone. Physical activity can help move a stone, but in the end, “it is the peristaltic movement of the ureter (same type of motion that moves food through your digestive tract) and pressure from the urine that propels stones toward the bladder,” said Dr. Wayment. Small stones less than or equal to 3 mm have a 90 percent chance of passing, which decreases the bigger a kidney stone is.

You should seek help if it’s been four weeks and you still haven’t passed it and the pain is still persistent or worse. Other reasons to seek active treatment of a stone include:

• Stone too big to pass
• Uncontrollable pain
• Missing work or social obligations because of persistent pain
• Infection
• Decreased kidney function

4. What are some prevention tips?

Prevention is key when it comes to kidney stones, says Dr. Wayment. “After your first stone, your recurrence risk rises 50 percent within the first five years.” Even if you already had a kidney stone in the last five years, use these tips to keep them from coming.

• Keep hydrated. “Fluid intake is the most important. It’s recommended that you take in enough fluid (water is best!) to produce 2.5 liters of urine each day, meaning your input is at least 3 liters, if not more based on body size, temperature and activity level. “
• Decrease salt in diet. “A heart-healthy diet is a kidney healthy diet. The more salt the kidney filters, the more calcium gets in the urine.”
• Maintain average dietary calcium intake. “Restricting calcium will help very few people and most of the time it will make things worse.”
• Moderation in meat protein consumption, particularly fish and red meat.
• Decrease fluid intake from dark colas.
• Moderation with high oxalate containing foods. (Chocolate, some berries, nuts, spinach.)

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