Renal Stones: What Medications and Lifestyle Changes Help Prevent Them

Renal stones or kidney stones are composed of small deposits of minerals and can occur secondary to a number of different conditions. Except for causing pain that may be quite severe, they usually don’t cause any permanent damage to the kidneys. Most of the times renal stones can be managed effectively by simply drinking plenty of water and using pain medications. However, in other circumstances, you may even need to undergo surgery.

Kidney stones are found to recur. The current data suggest that renal stone will occur once again at some point in their life in more than 50% of the patients who have renal stone once. Together with the combination of certain medications and lifestyle changes we can significantly decrease the risk of recurrence of renal stones.

Lifestyle Remedies to Prevent Renal Stones

Drink Plenty of Water

The compensatory response to a decreased intake of water at the level of kidneys is that they start to make concentrated urine. It simply means that kidneys try to preserve water and to do so they decrease the amount of water lost in urine. Once it happens the relative concentration of calcium and other chemicals such as uric acid etc in the urine is increased. These chemicals kind of start coming together resulting in the formation of tiny crystals which coalesce over time to form stones.  Having said that, drinking plenty of water will keep the urine diluted, simply inhibiting the clumping of the chemicals and preventing the formation of stones.

Reduce the Consumption of Oxalate Rich Foods

The oxalate containing calcium stones are found to be one of the most common types of kidneys stones and this is why most of the doctors, as well as urology specialists, in order to prevent the risk of recurrence will advise you to decrease the use of oxalate-rich food products such as raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, spinach, green beans, almonds, and peanuts etc once you are diagnosed with an oxalate containing stone.

Medications

The medications that are found to prevent the recurrence of renal stones vary according to the chemical nature of the stone.

Thiazide Diuretics

This class of diuretics includes medications such as chlorthalidone and hydrochlorothiazide. They decrease the amount of calcium in the urine and this is how they decrease the risk of calcium stone formation.

Allopurinol

Allopurinol decreases the concentration of uric acid in the blood by decreasing its synthesis. This decrease in the quantity of uric acid in the blood will also decrease the amount filtered by the kidneys, thus decreasing the risk of uric acid stone formation.

Do you suffer from renal stones? Come to Century Medical and Dental Center (Downtown Brooklyn, Gravesend, Flatbush, Fort Greene and Midtown Manhattan) to find out more about your treatment options.