Health Desk:
Are you experiencing frequent urge to urinate, and foul-smelling urine? Are you also noticing blood in urine and experiencing nausea and fever?

If yes, you probably have kidney stones. Also known as renal calculi, kidney stones can develop anywhere in your urinary tract which consists of kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra.

Having kidney stones is a painful medical condition that requires a doctor’s attention. These stones can be made of calcium, either uric acid, struvite, or cystine. This problem is most likely to occur in people belonging to the age group 20 and 50.

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, men are more susceptible to develop kidney stones than women.

Certain risk factors of this condition include dehydration, obesity, having hyperparathyroid condition, inflammatory bowel disease and taking calcium-based medicines. Also Read - Israel PM has kidney stones removed

Though certain treatment options are available for kidney stones, if you want to get relief from the condition naturally, here are certain home remedies that you can opt for.

Drink Plenty of Water
Dehydration is one of the risk factors of kidney stones. So, you must keep your body hydrated.

Drink plenty of liquid as fluids are known to increase the volume of substances that are responsible for forming stones, in the urine. This makes the substance less likely to crystalise.

According to the National Library of Medicine, a high intake of water, tea, and wine is associated with a lower risk of kidney stone formation.

Notably, certain drinks like soda must be avoided in this condition as it leads to the formation of stones.

Increase Intake of Citric Acid
If you have kidney stones, you should start eating citric acid-containing foods including oranges, lemons, grapefruits, limes, berries etc.

Doing this can prevent calcium oxalate kidney stones as citric acid reduces the formation of new kidney stones by binding itself with calcium in the urine. Also, it prevents existing stones from getting larger.

Oxalate is present in various plant food sources like spinach, kale, beets, etc.

Also, this anti-nutrient is produced by your body. A high level of oxalate in the body can increase the excretion of this molecule in urine and can lead to the formation of calcium oxalate crystals in your urinary tract. Source: india.com