Initially, a person who suffers from kidney stones will not experience any severe symptoms of the ailment. Kidney stone symptoms become more severe as time passes and can turn fatal if neglected for a longer duration. These stones are hard concretions which may include foreign substances, as well as dead tissues produced from the body itself.

As kidney stones grow in size and the urinary tract remains the same, you can well imagine that the larger stones start blocking the passage of urine. Depending on the volume of the stones, they also affect the operation of the kidneys by stopping them from performing their primary function.

The first symptom is usually pain in the abdominal region varying from mild to severe. The second symptom that the owner of kidney stone faces is pain during urination or menstruation when the stone or a group of them block the flow of urine form the kidney to the urinary tract. This pain also varies in degree depending on the size of the blockage.

People will feel severe pain or aching in the back on one or both sides, bloody, cloudy or smelly urine or suffer an abnormal increase in the frequency to urinate. Sometimes, the only symptom manifested is a sudden extreme pain in the stomach area which may be mistaken for food poisoning.

Some other common symptoms of the presence of kidney stones include feeling chills or fever or an increase in infections which were absent when the stones were the size of a grain of sand and could easily pass through the urinary tract. A minuscule kidney stone will usually be eliminated from the body within 48 hours, but attacks have been known to last for over 30 days.

As any sufferer of kidney stones will tell you, drinking water in large quantities will help preventing dehydration of your kidney and help the kidney stones to dissolve or pass through the urinary tract. Ask your doctor about the effects of changing your meals to exclude any food or drink containing oxalate. Here are a few to avoid: rhubarb, spinach, beets, peanuts, okra, chocolate, black Indian tea, sweet potatoes.

Many individuals take supplements on an empty stomach, before having breakfast. If these contain calcium and oxalates, experts suggest that they be ingested after a meal rather than on an empty stomach to reduce the direct intake into kidney. The quantity of these supplements is also of prime importance. When dosages reach 2 grams a day and more per day, research has proven a direct relation between this intake and the increase in sizes of kidney stones. One study has even indicated some women may be at risk when they ingest more than 1.2 grams a day.

The larger the stone, the more an intervention will be required. Surgical removal during an operation is the last step in an upgrading line of medical technology that fights kidney stones by turning them into residue, removing by the use of straw-like devices and scopes. For the lucky ones, stones will go through the urinary tract naturally by having the body having ingested water and fruit juices in large quantities.