The never ending story of kidney stones

An article by
Dr Asghar Ali Shah
Homeopathic Physician
Published in The News International on March 14, 2010


Kidney stones are as old as the human civilization. Scientists have found evidence of their existence in a 7000-year-old Egyptian mummy. Despite the passage of several millennia they still constitute one of the most painful urological disorders.
Three million people visit healthcare providers and more than half a million go to emergency rooms every year for treatment of kidney stone problems.
A kidney stone is a hard mass developed from crystals that separate from the urinary tract.
Normally urine contains chemicals that prevent or inhibit the crystals from being formed. These inhibitors, however, do not work for everyone. If the crystals remain tiny, they travel through the urinary tract and pass out the body in the urine without being noticed.
Kidney stones may be as small as a grain or as large as a pearl. Some stones are as big as golf balls! Stones may be smooth or jagged. They are usually yellow or brown. About 90% of stones that are mm or less in size usually pass spontaneously, however 9% of stones are larger than 6mm. (By the way gallstones and kidney stones are not related with each other. They form in different parts of the body. Someone with a gallstone is not necessarily more likely to develop kidney stones.)
Different studies on kidney stones showed that there are four types of stones. The most common type contains calcium that’s a normal part of a healthy diet. Calcium that is not used by the bones and muscles goes to the kidneys.
In most people the kidneys flush out the extra calcium with rest of the urine. People who have calcium stones in their kidneys. The most common combination is called calcium oxalate.
Infection in the urinary system may also cause the formation of stones in kidney. These stones contain the mineral magnesium and the waste product ammonia. Uric acid stones may form when the urine contains too much acid.
Genes also play a role in inhering the tendency to develop kidney stones in many patients. More than 70% of people with a rare hereditary disease called renal tubular acidosis develop kidney stones.
Usually, the first symptom of a kidney stone is extreme pain in the back, bloody urine, fever, chills, vomiting, the urine that smells bad or looks cloudy or a burning feeling when you urinate. Sometimes nausea and vomiting may also occur. Later, pain may spread to the groin.
Most people can think that getting rid of an existing stone in the end of the problem but stone formation can happen again and again. Kidney stones, acute as well as chronic, can be effectively treated homeopathic medicines.
Homeopathy recognizes that each person manifests his or her disease in a unique and slightly different way. That is way two people with the same disease will not necessarily receive the same homeopathic remedy. A homeopath chooses a remedy that uses the unique symptom picture of an individual.