Prevent and Dissolve Kidney Stones

Kidney stones are a curse to those who have them; you never know when one will strike (usually 3am).  They never know when one is going to start, how bad it will be, or how bad it will hurt.  Every twinge of back pain has to be taken very seriously.  I have spent years relieving the pain and infection caused by kidney stones.  Only recently have I started to think about how to prevent them in the first place.

For kidney stone sufferers I have found that there is very, very good news.  If you have a kidney stone lurking in your back right now, you know that when it gets big enough, and when it moves, it will ruin your day, maybe even your week.  Now for the good news; existing kidney stones can be dissolved, and new ones can be prevented.  Why more doctors don't proclaim this great news to their kidney stone patients is beyond me.

I'm going to share several key concepts with you, then several products that will help.  I have to be careful because some of these things are not FDA-Approved and thus I am not allowed to officially recommend them.  First, you need to know that kidney stones are mis-named.

A Good Book

Kidney stones are not stones, they are crystals.  They form in a concentrated urine.  You may remember a high school experiment in which you dissolve lots of sugar in water, heat the water and dissolve even more, put in a wooden stick, and as the water cools "rock candy" will form on the stick.  This is simply the sugar crystallizing out of the concentrated solution.  This same thing happens in the urinary system when a kidney stone is produced.  So the first rule is to never let your urine become too concentrated, or yellow.

Any time your urine is more than just a little yellowish in color, it is too concentrated and you are at risk of magically forming one of these crystals.  You want to drink enough water to keep your urine almost clear.  Any time your urine is dark yellow, you might as well get down on your knees and pray, "Please, dear Lord, give me a kidney stone today."

A Good Book

Decreasing your intake of salt, meat or dairy products is common advice, even sometimes given by a doctor, but I found out that multiple studies have proven this advice NOT to be helpful.  It also seems to make sense that decreasing your calcium/dairy intake should decrease the chances of a stone, but calcium metabolism in the body is much more complicated than that, and it has been shown time and again that lowering dietary calcium intake can actually increase your chance of a stone.  So what can you do that will help, without needing a prescription?

It is true that you can decrease the frequency of kidney stones by taking certain kinds of prescription diuretics, or "water-pills".  However, they also do many other things in your body and really should be used as a last resort, not the first;.  These pills, however, are FDA-Approved and thus are usually what you will hear about from a doctor.  But if we look deeper we should find something that is natural and doesn't have two pages of documented side effects on the sheet from the pharmacy, right?  Right. 

Recommended

Several studies have shown that Phytate (IP-6) can dissolve kidney stones in the urinary system.  You can see summaries of the studies here and here.  The best formulations of IP-6 come from brown rice.  This completely natural substance is virtually side-effect free, inexpensive, and interacts with no medicines.  I have nine patients who have had multiple episodes of kidney stones, or documented stones on xray or cat scan, who all agreed to take IP-6.  It seems that once you have had a stone, you are Very eager to try anything to prevent another...  Since beginning this natural supplement, not one of them has had another kidney stone attack.

I have not ordered repeat cat scans to document the stones have dissolved due to the extra radiation exposure, but two of the nine had to have cat scans for other reasons, and the stones we had seen before were gone.   I have to admit I was really amazed at just how well it worked.  It's not often that you find a natural substance that can help the human body like that. 

So, unless you are allergic to rice, I really think you should try IP-6 for your kidney stones.  I trust the formulation of IP-6 that you can buy HERE.  My patients tell me the price is much cheaper than pain medicines and emergency room visits!  Also, here is a good book that will make you smarter than most doctors when it comes to kidney stones.  If you have a loved one who suffers from kidney stones, please share this link with them, or post this on your Face Book; I think they will really appreciate the info...
kb.

Thanks to Bill Sardi for some of this information.