FAQ

You may have had a kidney stone before or maybe you have heard stories from friends or relatives who had one. You know this is a very painful situation and you definitely want to avoid it, but you don’t know what to do…

If you already had a stone, you are at greater risk for having one again. There is no ‘recipe’ that fits every patient, because there are so many factors that play a role and can lead to a stone. There are however some golden rules that you have to follow so that you can minimise the risk for having a kidney or ureter stone.

Drink a lot

Try to drink at least 2,5-3 liters every day. Carbonated water is thought to be more protective than plain water. Orange juice, lemon juice and grapefruit juice are also protective. Avoid tea and coke. You can enjoy drinks with caffeine, however more that 500ml of coffee at the same day is thought to be too much. When drinking coffee, drink it together with a lot of water. If possible, try to drink 300-500ml of fluids before going to bed, because the stone forming procedure is at night at its peak.

Body Mass Index

Keep yourself healthy. Try to lose weight or at least not to gain more weight by having a proper diet and exercise. Obese individuals are at higher risk for having stones. It is also tougher to treat stones by obese patients and the results are not that good as by patients with a normal body mass index.

Eat Healthy

Consume a lot of fruits and vegetables. Avoid products that contain oxalate. Some of these products are asparagus, strawberries, tea, dark chocolate and spinach. Try to consume not too much protein (eggs, meat, sausages). The intake of more than 50gr. of protein every day, can importantly increase the risk for kidney stones. Although many stones are made of calcium, it is a mistake to avoid the intake of calcium (milk, yoghurt). The calcium free diet increases the risk for kidney stones exactly that much as a diet which is very rich in calcium. Moderation!

Treat a urinary tract infection, check your urine pH

A urinary tract infection can lead to a kidney stone formation. If the infection persists or not treated properly the risk is even higher. Drink a lot, visit your urologist and ask him to perform a urine culture so he knows exactly against what bacteria you have to fight and which the appropriate antibiotic is. If you have an infectious stone, which is not completely treated through an operation or an ESWL (extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy), you need to be continuously treated with antibiotics until this stone is completely removed or crashed. Ask your urologist if he can controls the urine pH. If the urine pH is too low, you might have or be at risk of having a uric acid stone. By infectious stones is the urine pH too high. With appropriate medication the urine pH can become higher or lower by making the urine more or less acidic. Through this procedure the urologist is able to stop, avoid or slow down the stone formation. The uric acid stones can be turned into dust through such a chemical treatment.

Have your Parathormone controlled.

If you are suffering on repeated calcium kidney stones, you need to ask your urologist to check the function of your parathyroid glands. That can be done by controlling the parathormone value in blood. If there is a malfunction of the parathyroids glands, you may need a hormone substitution or some other appropriate treatment.

Although you may have a proper diet and an increased fluid intake you may suffer on kidney stones. In that case, especially when having a cystine stone, you need to have some special examinations of your metabolic status. However these stones are very rare.

Follow-up

Εven if you don’t have any pain, you should visit your GP (family doctor) and have your kidneys controlled with ultrasound once a year. If you have flank pain or if there is any suspicious finding by the ultrasound examination, you need to undergo an x-ray. If there is eventually a stone diagnosed, visit your urologist as soon as possible.