Causes

Kidney stones are made of salts and minerals in the urine that stick together to form small "pebbles." They can be as small as grains of sand or as large as golf balls. They may stay in your kidneys or travel out of your body through the urinary tract. The urinary tract is the system that makes urine and carries it out of your body. It includes your bladder and kidneys and the tubes that connect them (ureters).

Kidney stones form when the normal balance of water, salts, minerals, and other things found in urine changes. This can happen if you do not get enough fluids (dehydration) or if you eat foods high in oxalate, such as dark green vegetables.
Kidney stones may also be an inherited disease. If other people in your family have had them, you may have them too.

Symptoms
Kidney stones often cause no pain while they are in the kidneys, but they can cause sudden, severe pain as they travel from the kidneys to the bladder.

Call a doctor right away if you think you have kidney stones. Watch for severe pain in your side, belly, or groin or for urine that looks pink or red. You may also feel sick to your stomach (Nausea) and may vomit.

Treatment

Kidney Beans

Kidney beans, also known as dried French beans or Rajmah, are regarded as a very effective home remedy for kidney problems, including kidney stones. The method prescribed to prepare the medicine is to remove the beans from inside the pods, then slice the pods and put about sixty grams in four litre of hot water, boiling them slowly for six hours.

This liquid should be strained through fine muslin and then allowed to cool for about eight hours. Thereafter the fluid should be poured through another piece of muslin without stirring.

A glass of this decoction should be given to the patient every two hours throughout the day for one day and, thereafter, it may be taken several times a week. This decoction would not work if it was more than twenty-four hours old. The pods could be kept for longer periods but once they were boiled, the therapeutic factor would disappear after one day.

Basil

Basil has a strengthening effect on the kidneys. In case of kidney stones, one teaspoon each of basil juice and Honey should be taken daily for six months. It has been found that stones can be expelled from the urinary tract by this treatment.

Celery
Celery is a valuable food for those who are prone to getting stones in the kidneys or gall-bladder. Its regular intake prevents future stone formation.

Apple
Apples are useful in kidney stones. In countries where the natural unsweetened cider is a common beverage, cases of stones or calculus are practically absent. The ripe fresh fruit is, however, more valuable.

Grapes
Grapes have an exceptional diuretic value on account of their high contents of water and potassium salt. The value of this fruit in kidney troubles is enhanced by its low albumin and sodium chloride content. It is an excellent cure for kidney stones.

Pomegranate

The seeds of both sour and sweet pomegranates are useful medicine for kidney stones. A tablespoon of the seeds, ground into a fine paste, can be given along with a cup of horse gram (kulthi) soup to dissolve gravel in kidneys. Two tablespoons of horse gram should be used for preparing the cup of soup.

Watermelon
Watermelon contains the highest concentration of water amongst all fruits. It is also rich in potassium salts. It is one of the safest and best diuretics which can be used with beneficial result in kidney stones.

Vitamin B 6
Research has shown the remarkable therapeutic success of vitamin B6 or pyridoxine in the treatment of kidney Stones. A daily therapeutic does of 100 to 150 mg of vitamin B6, preferably, combined with other B complex vitamins, should be continued for several months for getting a permanent cure.