 What's up guys? Hi, this is Sriram Surya, a very special doctor joins us on the show today. We're going to be talking about kidney stones and what exactly are the causes and how one can go about treating. With us is lead consultant, urologist with Manipal hospitals, Yashwanpur and Hebar. He's none other than Dr. Ajay S. Shetty. Welcome to FIVA104 FM. It's so nice to have you here, doctor. Thank you. Thank you, Sriram. It's my pleasure to be here. I need to thank you for your services. Doctors have been frontline warriors of sorts and over the last two years the journey must have been incredible. There was no user manual as such. How are you doing and have you been able to catch a break overall? Yeah, I wish I could say I could manage to catch a break, but no, that's not the case. I think in our profession, we work six day weeks and oftentimes it's a seven day week. But yes, things are definitely better now. We've gotten about going about a normal routine, unlike the COVID times when every day was an emergency. I think now things, there's some sense of normalcy that has returned and we're back to a regular practice. So yeah, looking forward to this thing staying this way. Kudos once again to every single frontline hospital staff who are involved, who have been doing an incredible job. Thank you once again, doctor. Let's talk about kidney stones here. I want to get to the symptoms or what are the main causes of kidney stones? How are they even formed and what is the deal with kidney stones? So when it comes to kidney stones, obviously the communist reason is inadequate fluid intake and dehydration and dehydration setting in various circumstances. You know, people are lot into fitness these days. They tend to focus on the fitness but don't focus on the hydration. So I find the communist reason is dehydration. That being said, of course, there are other reasons and one of the things that I always tell patients is if you have a family history of kidney stones, then watch out because your genetics have something that will make you at increased risk. Dietary patterns, increased salt in the diet, increased protein in the diet, again from the fitness regimens have also led to increased incidences. So there's just not one reason. So either you have the tendency or you don't. I think that's just how it is. Focus on fluid intake. Okay. Is pain an indicator? How does one start to recognize that, hey, maybe I need to go to a doctor and get my kidneys checked? Correct. So as long as the stones are in the kidney, they're just silent. They will never give you any pain. But the day the stone decides to come out of the kidney and get stuck in that narrow pipe that connects the kidney to the bladder is when you experience, you know, nani yadajatia, that kind of a pain. The pain is typically in the back radiating towards the groin and it's second possibly to only labor pain. That's how severe the pain can get. Lovely. Let's talk about treatments here. What would be an ideal solution for kidney stones and how can one go about it? Medical and surgical treatments available. The key thing about surgery is that in today's day and age, stone surgery is no longer something that one would consider an open surgery on. Most of the surgical treatments are minimally invasive, oftentimes not even requiring a single cut on the body. Now kidney and ureteric stones can be dealt with a technology called flexible uretroscopy. Instrumentations have become increasingly miniaturized. And even if it's a three to four centimeter stone in the kidney, it would only require a small one centimeter incision in the back to remove such a large stone through a technique called PCNL. Wow. So it's minimal invasive and at the same time, one can actually walk out of the hospital in a matter of a day or two. If it's flexible, uretroscopy the next day fits PCNL in two days. That's and you're back to your routine activities in no time. Well, the amount of advancements we see in treatments as well. It's fantastic to see this kind of evolution that's happening in the medical field as well. We will talk about robotic and laparoscopic surgery in detail. But doctor, let's talk about prevention. How can one go about taking care of their kidneys and ensuring that I do not or I'll try my best to avoid kidney stones? I think motivation is the key here. Oftentimes, I find that when somebody suffers a stone attack, motivation lasts for a couple of weeks when people are hydrating and drinking 5566 liters and gradually that motivation goes down and they are back to their routine. I think so if important to prevent kidney stones is to ensure a fluid intake of at least three liters every day, cut down on all the fizzy pop Pepsi Coke. I'm sorry, but it's not good for kidney stones. Maybe add a little bit of lime into your water every time you have. Cut down the salt in the diet. And in case you have a tendency to forming kidney stones and get yourself checked up and make all the dietary changes possible based on what metabolic problem you have. And is there anything associated with hereditary and kidney stones? Yes, genetics play a big role and that's the only part that is not in your control. If you're genetically predisposed, then there is no substitute to water intake and making dietary modifications. But those are the things that are in your control. You can increase your fluid intake, make your dietary changes and just hope to God that you don't form stones. Well, thank you so much for all this information and regular health checkups definitely is key and it plays a very crucial role. Dr. Ajay Esheti, thank you for spending time with us. When we come back, we are going to be talking, keep it tuned because when we come back, we will be talking about prostate disorders and we're going to answer all the questions relating to prostate disorders as well. Dr. Ajay Esheti from Manipal Hospital in the studios of FIBO 104.