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Kidney Stones Research Paper

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Every year more than 500,000 people go to the hospital emergency rooms for issues related to kidney stones. 1 in 10 people will experience some sort of issue with kidney stones and the complications that arise from them. The prevalence of kidney stones in the United States has increased from 3.8% to 8.8% from the year 1970 to the year 2000. (National Kidney Foundation 2015) Kidney stones can be related to various complications such as high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, and obesity but a majority of the cases seen in the United States, and especially more recently, can be caused and prevented with simple diet changes. (Nutrition MD 2015)
For patients that are prone to forming stones, making changes in their diet can be a primary control for prevention. In a lot of cases a patient that forms stones that are diet related have an excessive intake of foods and a low intake of fluids. (IKSI 2015) The number one thing that patients with kidney stones are told to do is drink for fluids to help dilute the urine and prevent the molecules from forming stones. The goad given to patients is to try and urinate 2 liters of fluid per day. If patients live in hot or dry climates, they tend to perspire more than normal, in which they lose fluid …show more content…

Kidney stones, if untreated, can cause blockage and atrophy in a kidney. If this happens, the kidney can become dilated, thinned out and will function very minimally. (Nguyen 2015) Another issue that patients see is a risk of kidney infections, which is caused by some stones due to their chemical makeup. Patients that have a history of producing Struvite stones can experience chronic urinary tract infections as a result of an enzyme that is secreted by bacteria and could possibly lead to sepsis if not treated. (Sepsis Alliance

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