Foods To Avoid After Kidney Stones treatment

Kidney stones might sound like not a widespread disease but the lesser-known truth is that 1 out of 15 people in India get it during their lifetime. As such, proper treatment becomes a necessity. Apart from that, diet makes up an important part of well-being during and after the treatment. Most people will tell you what to include in your diet, but here are the top 4 foods to avoid after kidney stones treatment:

1. Salted foods

A high amount of sodium is not good for the body in general. It is even worse for people who have undergone kidney stones treatment. The body generally needs higher content of calcium for calcium oxalate stones. Sodium flashes out the calcium from the body along with urine. Calcium leakage increases the chances of the formation of kidney stones.

2. Meat and eggs

Eggs and meat are rich in a compound called purine. It increases the level of uric acid in the body. The uric acid makes the urine more acidic and puts an increased load on the kidneys. High acidity can increase the likeliness of the uric acid to form stones. People with ongoing kidney stones treatment should also steer clear from it.

3. Soft drinks and sweets

Fructose corn syrup is not filtered easily by the kidney. The high sugar content makes it difficult for the kidney to filter the liquids, especially for people who have undergone kidney stones treatment.

4. Alcohol

Another enhancer of uric acid in the body is alcohol. The acid content of alcohol not only damages the kidney but also increases the risk of formation of kidney stones.  These are the foods that can reverse all the good any kidney stones treatment has done. Although they are proven to be the catalysts of kidney stones formation, discuss with your doctor or a licensed dietician before implementation. 

Best Ways To Prevent Kidney Stones

Kidney stones are deposition of crystals of minerals and salts in your kidneys. Over time, they become solid, which makes it difficult and often painful while eliminating them through the urine. Usually, the fluid content of your urine prevents different constituents of your urine from coming in contact with each other.

Possible Kidney Stone Treatments: The possible kidney stone treatments available are as follows –

Reduce your intake of aerated products

Aerated products are considered to be extremely unhealthy and are loaded with excessive amounts of sugar. Some researches performed on kidney stones have highlighted sugary drinks such as those with high-fructose corn syrups as one of the critical reasons for kidney stone development.

Calcium-rich diet

Calcium has been one of the key contributors to the measures acknowledged for kidney stones treatment. A low calcium diet will only contribute to increasing your overall risks associated with the development of kidney stones.

Reduce your sodium intake

Salt contributes to excessive dehydration. When your body is low on water content, you are actually creating an atmosphere for the development of kidney stones.

Select your protein wisely

Not all proteins are essential and equally formed. Animal protein are more acidic in comparison with other proteins. This may lead to increasing your urine acid, which may further contribute to the formation of uric acid stones and calcium oxalate stones.

Apart from these necessary kidney stone treatment measures, people suspecting a kidney stone should immediately consult their medical practitioners. Although some people may experience no long-term adverse events from their kidney stones, others may witness extreme pain, which requires continuous medical monitoring.

In most cases, basic kidney stone treatment involves increasing your regular fluid intake, adhering to pain medications, which makes your urine less acidic in nature.

Understanding Kidney Stone And Its Treatment Options

The kidneys filter blood to remove waste and extra fluid which manifests itself as urine. Urine transfers to the bladder through twin narrow tubes (ureter). Once the bladder fills up, its contents are expelled from the body via another narrow tube (urethra). The kidneys and all its associated urinary tubing are designed to handle liquid only. Since all organs and systems of the human body have some tolerance for abuse, smaller stones (less than 5mm) will usually pass unimpeded and unnoticed. However bigger stones would almost certainly cause blockages somewhere from the kidney to the urethra, leading in turn to the simple and unremarkable act of passing urine becoming an exercise in extreme pain.

Symptoms of kidney disease include severe pain in the back-abdomen area (the dreaded renal-colic), blood in the urine (hematuria) and extreme pain while passing urine.

Why does it happen?

Like most diseases, genetics and environment conspire to create a situation where the risk of kidney stone disease becomes very high. Such is the stickiness of these underlying conditions, that more than 50% of patients will manifest a second stone within ten years of the first. Risk factors are obesity, high urine calcium levels, hyperparathyroidism, gout, not drinking enough fluids and intake of certain food/medications/supplements.

What is the treatment?

Prevention is better than cure: High-risk persons must drink lots of fluids (to produce more than 2 liters of urine in 24 hours) and avoid certain food and drink (phosphoric acid-rich cola drinks are to be avoided in particular). If this does not work then medication like thiazide diuretic and allopurinol may be prescribed by a qualified medical practitioner after the examination.

The cure since the stone has manifested itself: If a stone is causing no pain and all functions are normal, then there is no need for any treatment or kidney stone surgery. A misbehaving stone is usually managed with pain medication as a first step. Subsequently, attempts will be made to pass the stone (especially if it becomes larger) using medication (tamsulosin) or removing the stone using procedures like extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (application of high-intensity acoustic pulses to break up the stone), ureteroscopy (manual examination and removal of stones by use of an endoscope inserted via the urethra), Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (minimally invasive kidney stone surgery).

Three Ways to Treat Your Kidney Stones

Kidney stones or renal lithiasis are the hard deposits made up of minerals and salts that form inside the kidneys. The causes of this health condition are many and the same could affect any part of the urinary tract of your body. The stones in the kidneys are often formed when the urine becomes concentrated which later allows the minerals to crystallize and stick together with each other. Your urology doctor suggests a number of ways to treat the problem of kidney stones from the body.

The method of passing the kidney stones through urine is considered to be a painful affair; however, these stones do not cause any permanent damage when recognized at the earliest. Depending upon the gravity and situation of kidney stone, your urology doctor might suggest you follow a pain medication and to further drink enough water in order to pass the kidney stone.

In other cases, the following types of kidney stone surgeries are performed:

1.Lithotripsy:

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy makes the use of sound waves in order to break the large stones so that they could pass down easily from the ureters to the bladder. This procedure could be a little uncomfortable in nature and may require the administration of anaesthesia.

2. Tunnel surgery:

Under this form of kidney stone surgery, a surgeon removes the stones via a small incision on the back. This procedure is needed when the stone causes infection and obstruction or the same is damaging your kidneys. It is also used when the stone has grown very large and it becomes difficult to pass.
3. Ureteroscopy:

This form of kidney stone surgery is performed when the stone is stuck in the bladder or ureter. A small wire along with a camera is attached and inserted into the urethra and the same is passed into the bladder. The urology surgeon then makes the use of a small cage to remove the stone. These procedures to treat kidney stone have become very common in the present times.

Additional Read: Answering Your Question – What Are the Steps of Kidney Transplantation?