Kidney Disease & Health Archive

There are a lot worse things than kidney stones. But, oh my, they can cause a lot of pain as they pass through the ureters, the tubes that connect the kidneys to the bladder. And the number of Americans getting kidney stones is increasing, perhaps because of the increasing prevalence of obesity. Once you get kidney stones, the chance of getting them again is high, and much of the prevention advice is aimed at fending off a recurrence, but it may also help some with avoiding kidney stones in the first place. Here are a few pointers:

Keep your fluid intake up. Kidney stones form when certain minerals concentrate in the urine and form into crystals. Drink plenty of fluids (water is the safest bet) and you'll increase the amount of water in the urine, so those mineral concentrations don't get too high. This is old advice: recommendations to increase fluid intake to prevent kidney stone recurrence go back to the time of Hippocrates.

Unnecessary blood transfusion can do more harm than good.

Blood transfusion deserves a prominent place in the pantheon of medical advances. It has saved countless lives on the battlefield and in hospital emergency departments. It is a life-prolonging treatment for people with conditions that prevent the body from making blood or blood components, from kidney disease and cancer to disorders such as hemophilia and sickle cell anemia. But whether blood should be routinely transfused during or after heart surgery is a question that more and more people are asking. The answer is tilting toward "no."

Urinary bleeding can be dramatic and frightening, prompting an appropriate call to your doctor. But sometimes the call travels in the other direction; many people are surprised and alarmed to get a call from their doctors reporting that the urine that looked clear in the specimen jar actually contains red blood cells (RBCs). Either way, blood in the urine, known technically as hematuria, requires medical evaluation. Although the results are often reassuring, hematuria is a warning symptom that you should never ignore.

Blood can enter the urine from any place in the urinary tract. So the first step in understanding hematuria is to understand your anatomy.

Recently, I had a pelvic ultrasound to evaluate uterine fibroids. During the procedure, the radiologist found a cyst in one of my kidneys. Should I be concerned about kidney cancer?

Surprising factors influence urine color and odor including food and medication

Many things can alter the look and smell of your urine. When should you be concerned?

Nearly six and a half cups — that's how much urine the average person produces a day, usually in four to eight trips to the toilet. The ritual is so routine that most of us pay little attention to our urine — that is, unless it happens to look or smell different than usual.