Kidney Stones and the Types of Kidney Stones
Kidney stone conditions stand to be no joking matter, as those with kidney stone conditions experience intense pain, with some conditions pain so intense some persons would actually faint in experiencing them.
Medically referred to as Renal Calculi, kidney stones are crystal aggregations, or solid concentrations, of materials in urine, in their most basic form. They stand to typically occur in one's body, and are exited through the urinary system, but become quite problems when kidney stones grow to rather large sizes, "clogging" the ureters or kidneys from normally doing their intended processes. Technically, there is no size standard which define the limits of kidney stones, but once kidney stones grow to 2 to 3 millimeters in size, they become the "problematic" variety. Kidney stones could grow as small as grains of sand, with some kidney stones growing to sizes as large as grapefruits.
There are symptoms related to kidney stone "clogging" conditions, one of the most common would be that of Renal Colic. As the distention with urine is prevailing in one's body due to the build up of kidney stones, the affected person experiences Renal Colic, which is defined by pain in the body's flank, lower abdomen and groin areas. Vomiting and nausea are also among the resulting conditions, because of the embryological connection between the kidneys and the intestinal tract.
Kidney stones come in various types, defined by the substances which compose the types of kidney stones. There is the Calcium Oxalate Crystals types of kidney stones, the uric acid types of kidney stones, the struvite types of kidney stones and the cystine types of kidney stones.
Low-calcium diets, as recent studies have shown, are known to cause the build up of the Calcium Oxalate Crystals types of kidney stones, and is theorized to be so because of the role in calcium in binding ingested oxalate in the gastrointestinal tract. With the amount of calcium decreased, the oxalate available for absorption into the bloodstream is raised, eventually leading to the build up of kidney stones.
Uric Acid types of kidney stones are often associated with conditions which cause high blood uric acid levels, examples of which would be gout. Struvite types of kidney stones are associated with urea-splitting bacteria, the most common of which would be Proteus mirabilis. Conditions like that of renal tubular acidosis and hyperparathyroidism are often associated with the calcium phosphate types of kidney stones. The cystine types of kidney stones is often associated with those suffering form Cystinuria, which is a condition were cystine is accumulated in their urine.
Indeed, kidney stones are no joking matter. So the next time you're due for a check up, you may want to have yourself checked for kidney stones. Just to be sure…
