Do you have these bad habits? Be careful of this disease!

What are urinary stones? Urinary stones are a general term for stones in various parts of the urinary system and are a common disease of the urinary system. Depending on the location of the stones, they are divided into kidney stones, ureteral stones, bladder stones, and urethral stones.

The formation of this disease is closely related to environmental factors, systemic lesions and urinary system diseases. Its typical clinical manifestations include lumbar and abdominal cramps, hematuria, or symptoms of urinary system obstruction and infection such as frequent urination, urgency and pain.

Image source: Baidu

1. Why do you get stones?

There are many factors that affect the formation of urinary stones. Age, gender, race, etc. can affect the formation of stones.

So, what habits in our daily life make us prone to kidney stones?

1. Sitting for a long time and drinking little water

The incidence of urinary tract stones is related to occupation.

For example, pilots, office workers and other occupations often sit due to the nature of their work. If they drink less water on a regular basis, their urine will not be diluted, and the urine concentration will increase. Stone crystals will deposit in the urine, making it easy for stones to form.

In addition, for people who are not active, if there are small stones or mud-like stones in the kidneys, due to lack of exercise, these small stones are not easy to be excreted from the body, and they are likely to grow slowly over time.

Image source: Pixabay

2. Unreasonable dietary structure

As the saying goes, "Diseases come from the mouth," and the same is true for kidney stones.

In daily life, if you consume too much food containing oxalic acid, such as spinach, beans, tea, grapes, etc., it is easy to cause calcium oxalate stones.

Patients with urate stones should not eat foods rich in purine, such as animal offal, seafood, etc.

Excessive intake of protein and fat can also easily lead to the formation of calcium oxalate stones and calcium phosphate stones.

In addition, soft drinks such as soda contain high levels of sugar and calories, which can easily accelerate the loss of water in the body and increase the burden on the kidneys.

3. Differences in geographical environment and climate

Urinary stones have obvious regional and climatic differences.

The incidence rate is higher in mountainous areas, deserts and tropical areas, and is higher in southern regions than in northern regions.

High temperature environment is also one of the factors that cause stones.

(IV) Secondary factors

Urinary tract obstruction and infection are also important factors that induce urinary tract stones.

Common causes of urinary tract obstruction include congenital urinary tract malformations and senile prostatic hyperplasia.

2. What are the main symptoms of patients with urinary stones?

(1) If the stones are very small, the body may not have any symptoms.

(2) Pain: manifested as dull pain and colic. Dull pain is caused by the compression and friction of larger stones in the kidney or the accumulation of water; colic is caused by the movement and stimulation of smaller stones in the kidney and ureter, which manifests as sudden severe pain, like a knife cutting. Stones may also cause severe colic in the waist, back, flank, abdomen, and groin. Urinary stones can cause severe pain that can kill people.

(3) Nausea and vomiting: Severe pain may cause nausea and vomiting.

(4) Hematuria: Hematuria occurs after pain, and the degree of bleeding is related to the degree of injury.

(5) Frequent and painful urination: When stones remain in the bladder and urethra or are accompanied by infection, symptoms of frequent and painful urination may occur.

3. 5 tips to help you prevent it!

Image source: Pixabay

(I) Changing the environment for urinary stone formation

According to analysis, calcium oxalate is the most common urinary tract stone, accounting for about 80%. In some areas, urate stones are also quite common. These stones are mostly formed in an acidic urine environment. Calcium phosphate stones (accounting for about 9%) are formed in an alkaline urine environment. Therefore, analyzing the composition of the stones, determining their properties, and consciously changing the acid-base environment of urine are of great significance for preventing the formation of urinary tract stones and treating stone disease.

2. Pay attention to nutrition and diet

Don't eat or drink too much. Long-term high-protein, high-sugar and high-fat diets will increase the probability of urinary stones. You should eat more whole grains and vegetarian food.

If you are a patient with oxalate stones, after the urethral stones are cured, in order to prevent the recurrence of stones, you should avoid eating foods with high oxalic acid content, such as spinach, mushrooms, potatoes, chestnuts, strong black tea, coffee, chocolate, tomatoes, strawberries, persimmons, bayberries, etc. If you are a patient with urate stones, you should pay attention to eating less foods with high uric acid content, such as animal offal, seafood, black tea, coffee, chocolate and peanuts. Patients with calcium phosphate stones should eat less foods with high calcium content, such as milk. Obesity is also one of the reasons why urinary stones are prone to occur. Controlling weight can effectively reduce the occurrence of stones.

(III) Drink more water

Develop a habit of drinking water. Drinking more water can increase urine volume, dilute the crystals in the urine, and make it easier to excrete. At the same time, even if small stones have formed, they can be flushed out of the urine as soon as possible. Some scholars pointed out that it is best to drink more than 2500 ml of water every day to maintain normal urine color. If the local water source contains a high amount of calcium, it should be softened before drinking. It is best to drink magnetized water.

4. Prevention and treatment of urinary tract infections

Urinary tract infection is the main local factor in the formation of urinary tract stones and is directly related to the prevention and treatment effect. Urinary tract infections caused by Proteus, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus are most likely to induce urinary tract stones. These bacteria can decompose urea into ammonia, making urine alkaline, so urate is easy to precipitate and form stones. At the same time, bacteria and the pus and necrotic tissue caused by them can also serve as the core of stones and slowly form stones.

5. Treatment of the primary disease that may cause urinary stones

Hyperparathyroidism (such as parathyroid adenoma, adenocarcinoma or hyperplasia) can cause abnormal calcium and phosphorus metabolism and induce calcium phosphate stones. Therefore, patients should first treat parathyroid disease.

Once you find that a family member or yourself has urinary stones, you should seek treatment early to prevent the disease from progressing and causing ureteral obstruction, kidney hydrops, and even kidney damage.

Most patients can pass stones smaller than 4 mm by themselves. For stones larger than 4 mm, extracorporeal lithotripsy, ureteroscopy lithotripsy, ureteroscopy laser lithotripsy, etc. can be used according to the patient's condition. These are all minimally invasive treatments that cause very little damage to the patient.

Source: Chongqing Tianji Network Co., Ltd.

This article is compiled from Dingxiang Doctor, Yumiaotong, and Zhengzhou Central Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University

Statement: Except for original content and special notes, some pictures are from the Internet. They are not for commercial purposes and are only used as popular science materials. The copyright belongs to the original authors. If there is any infringement, please contact us to delete them.