What Causes Kidney Stones?
There are many factors in “What causes kidney stones?” One of the major cause is Lack of Water in the Body known as Dehydration. Our body is composed of 65% water, thus water plays a very important role in maintaining health in each organ of our body.
The kidney plays a very important part in the urinary system. It is responsible for filtration, absorption and excretion of waste liquid in our body in the form of urine.
A kidney stone looks like a little rock in your kidney. Stones form when certain chemicals in the body clump together. These stones can either stay in the kidney or travel to your urinary tract.
Kidney stones can be the size of a pea and pass out of the body without any discomfort. Other times they can be huge and cause extreme pain, bleeding, and blocked flow of urine.
For better knowledge and understanding, I gathered different causes of kidney stones, such as the following:
* Lack of Water or Dehydration – insufficient volume of water in our body.
* Hereditary – it means you inherited a gene from your parents that causes kidney stones.
* Location – people who live in a poor water area or in a desert do not take in the proper amount of water everyday, which is 8 glasses a day.
* Medication – there are many medications that ignite the development of kidney stones, like acetazolamide (Diamox), indivavir (Crixivan), anti-acid tablets and aspirin.
* Wrong Diet – wrong consumption of food and overeating. There are foods that are high in salts, calcium and acid. Yes these minerals have other benefits in our body, but too much of it will cause kidney stones.
* Underlying Illness – these will trigger formations of kidney stones. This includes renal tubular acidosis, cystic fibrosis and inflammatory bowel disease. If you have any of these illnesses, you will need to be careful on what medicines you can take. There are medications that will put you in high risk of developing kidney stones. If you have a history of kidney stones, it is best that you tell your doctor.
* Water Fluoridation – this is a process of adding fluoride to the drinking water. It was proven that this process can contribute in developing kidney stones due to too much fluoride present in the water.
Anyone can get a kidney stone, but it is more likely for a person who is:
* Male
* Caucasian
* Very overweight
* Have had kidney infections before
* Has a family member with kidney stones
* Have had kidney stones before
* Eats a lot of animal protein
* Doesn’t drink enough fluids
Sometimes other conditions and medicines can also put you at greater risk for kidney stones.
Kidney stones are a common problem, affecting about ten percent of people in the United States. There are different types of stones, and a variety of reasons why they form.
Doctors have grouped kidney stones into four different families, based on their chemical composition:
Calcium oxalate stones — These stones are the most common and make up for more than 75% of all kidney stones. They are more common in men than in women, and are more common in adults than in children.
In fifty percent of people with calcium stones, kidney stones form because of an increase in the amount of calcium in the urine. (which probably is inherited) For other people, calcium oxalate stones are formed by another condition such as extra parathyroid hormone, high uric acid levels, bowel disease, surgery for obesity, or kidney problems.
Struvite stones — These stones are made of magnesium and ammonia, which are related to urinary tract infections caused by certain bacteria.
Struvite stones use to account for ten to fifteen percent of all kidney stones, but now they are becoming less common because urinary tract infections are better recognized and treated.
Struvite stones are more common in women than in men and they develop mostly with people who have long-term bladder catheters.
Uric acid stones — These stones account for five to eight percent of all kidney stones and are more common in men than in women. Uric acid stones form mainly because of high level of uric acid in the urine. They often occur in people who have gout, which is a disorder where uric acid builds up in the blood and joints.
Cystine stones — These stones are rare to get and make up only about one percent of all kidney stones. They are composed of the amino acid cystine, a building block of proteins, and they are caused by an inherited defect.
Life is beautiful and we should not let any illness spoiled it. Staying healthy means more time to enjoy life.
If you love your life, you should take good care of it. Loving your body is loving your life. Live life to the fullest by staying healthy and sick free. 
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