This topic is probably talked about as much as how many times a week you take a poop, but its a very important topic. I found out when I was 20 that I was passing a kidney stone. The cause of it was a calcium build up and taking in too much caffiene. I went to doctors, specialists, my mother, anyone I could to try to relieve some of the pain, even a little. When I found out that the begining stages of passing a kidney stone usually involved having a kidney or bladder infection I started to look into possible ways to make those infections better. We have all tried medications for certain illnesses or diseases. I dont like medications.I dont like the responsibiity of taking them either. So I found something that really worked for me. Corn husk tea. Yes seriously. When you go to the grocery store and see fresh corn on husks, that part you take off and throw into the garbage is what you want to make this tea. Its really simple too. Take the husks, put them at the bottom of a coffee pot, run the water threw as if you were making coffee. repeat with the same water 3 or 4 times, or until a desired strength. You can put lemon, sugar, or sugar substitute in this. Or nothing at all. Make it to suit your taste. In about an hour and a half youll be sure to have gone to the restroom at least once. Not saying this wont be painful, at least the first couple of times, but repeat this process over the course of a 24 hour period and you should start seeing some major changes in the infection itself. Kidney and bladder infections are painful enough, but if youre anything like me youll do anything to avoid the hospital or doctors office. I hope this helps...

That is very interesting. i like natural remedies for health myself. Just an interesting sidenote: When you drink a lot of any liquid, it helps to flush out the kidneys, whether it's herbal tea, fruit/vegetable juce, water, ect.

I was hospitalised with a kidney infection when I was 6 months pregnant with my daughter. I had to be put on longterm preventative antibiotics as if I got another infection, my kidneys would've been pushing up the daisies. I think in the end the antibiotics caused more trouble than they were worth. But at any rate by midwife at the time recommended cranberry juice which I had until I discovered cranberry tablets. I take a brand that contains 10,000mg of cranberry plus horsetail and vitamin c. That was over 6 years ago and I'm still taking it - works amazingly well for preventing infections. My only problem remains that I get Cystitis (bladder inflammation) and urinary tract inflammation very easily after the first kidney infection.
The midwife I had for my second pregnancy recommended lemon and barley juice which when I tried, blew me away by it's efficacy.

My recommendation - Cranberry tablets (Red Seal brand Cranberry Power if you can get it) and Lemon and Barley juice (just make sure it contains real barley flour and not just flavour as otherwise it won't do anything). Works like a dream! Now anitbiotic, kidney infection and virtually cystitis free

This is interesting, I've never been in that situation but thanks for sharing how we can get rid of it

This post has been edited by AnGeL KiSS: Sep 14 2006, 12:03 AM

My mom and sister get these all of the time and Thorned Rose's solution is the one that they use. Cranberry juice/pills and plenty of water. Flush it all out.

No caffeine. That's got to be the toughest part of all.

I've usually found that caffeine and too much chocolate (which also has caffeine in it) are pretty big culprits for UTIs and Cystitis. Although taking antibiotics for an unrelated illness will almost assuredly cause one so make sure as well if you are taking antibiotics to have a probiotic to replace the good bacteria in your digestive system.

This is really a helpful and great post. I dont really like medications either and that method you shared with us will definitely help some people out. I wonder if it would be recommended for people who dont even have those diseases yet but would like to prevent something minor just in case, cause I have been having a good amount of caffeine lately and lots of calcuim because I drink milk almost after every meal.

Flakes, your post concerns me slightly and I know most people won't believe me when I say this, but milk is really bad for you. Dairy products cause things like kidney and gall stones. Milk also causes osteoporosis (no that is not a typo - it does the opposite of what the dairy industry says it does). And because unfortunately most people believe the drivel the dairy industry touts, please go to www.notmilk.com and do some reading. It is a BIG eyeopener!

You should really cut down on both, if you're looking to prevent kidney stones. Here's something i found while reading about kidney stones:

I think i read something, somewhere, that kidney stones is generally common between the ages of 20 and 30.

Another thing to take note of is to not go overboard with sodium and vitamin C intake. Too much of these two can cause kidney stones; though they can also cause other problems--which may be worse than kidney stones.