Facts about kidney stones, nutrients & avoiding dialysis:
I remember my dad sitting in the bathroom moaning out loud “ohhh no ahh!”
We were sitting in the kitchen wincing as we heard his suffering.
He was trying to pass some kidney stones.
Incredible pain. Likened to the pain of childbirth.
I never wanted that to happen to me.
So early on I was very interested in avoiding renal stones and that exquisite pain.
Since then I’ve learned so much more.
Kidneys are precious.
They filter blood.
Help stabilize blood pressure.
Rarely appreciated is that kidneys also “drive” the health of the heart (with the newly emerging cardiac/renal axis appreciation).
How? The heart and kidneys work together. In a delicate balance.
They maintain overall health in a two-step dance.
Circulation is life.
Interchange, an ongoing dance, between the kidneys and the heart, helps maintain optimal circulation.
The heart pumps blood. Delivering oxygen & nutrients throughout the body, including the kidneys.
The kidneys, in turn, filter waste and excess water from the blood, helping control blood pressure & volume, directly impacting the heart's workload.
We don’t often think about our kidneys. Till we have issues with them.
Plus, kidney stones hurt.
A lot.
But removing these stones makes us “loose” precious renal tissue as the shock waves move through the kidneys to break the stones up.
The more stones, over time, the more lithotripsy over time (shock waves to break up stones in the kidney and parts of the ureters), the more renal tissue we loose.
Most folks that end up on dialysis are there due to diabetes, alcoholism and/or poor life style choices. Or bad luck.
But some end up there due to losing too much kidney mass from too many kidney stone removal processes.
I worked in a dialysis center (with Dr. Jack Moncrief, who co-invented the home unit of dialysis. Plus, we collaborated on a drug together) for many years.
Saw this first hand.
This got me diving more into the research of how to avoid recurrent kidney stones?
What really helps prevent recurrent stone formation, with solid nutritional science behind it?