WIDE-RANGING EFFECTS: BONE, KIDNEY, EYE, BRAIN DISEASES 211- Stay physically active. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, go for
walks, jogs, bicycle rides. Swim, do yoga or aerobics every couple
of days and don't be afraid to buy barbells to use once in a while.
Playa sport or join a social group that incorporates exercise. The
possibilities are endless, and they can be fun. You'll feel better, and
your bones will be much healthier for the effort. - Eat a variety of whole plant foods, and avoid animal foods, includ-
ing dairy. Plenty of calcium is available in a wide range of plant
foods, including beans and leafy vegetables. As long as you stay
away from refined carbohydrates, like sugary cereals, candies,
plain pastas and white breads, you should have no problem with
calcium deficiency. - Keep your salt intake to a minimum. Avoid highly processed and
packaged foods, which contain excess salt. There is some evidence
that excessive salt intake can be a problem.
KIDNEYS
At the Web site for the UCLA Kidney Stone Treatment Center,28 you will
discover that kidney stones may cause the following symptoms:
- Nausea, vomiting
- Restlessness (trying to find comfortable position to ease the pain)
- Dull pain (ill-defined, lumbar, abdominal, intermittent pain)
- Urgency (urge to empty the bladder)
- Frequency (frequent urination)
- Bloody urine with pain (gross hematuria)
- Fever (when complicated by infection)
- Acute renal colic (severe colicky flank pain radiating to groin, scro-
tum, labia)
Acute renal colic deserves some explanation. This agonizing symp-
tom is the result of a crystallized stone trying to pass through the thin
tube in your body (ureter) that transports urine from the kidney to the
bladder. In describing the pain involved, the Web site states, "This is
probably one of the worst pains humans experience. Those who have
had it will never forget it .... The severe pain of renal colic needs to be
controlled by potent pain killers. Don't expect an aspirin to do the trick.
Get yourself to a doctor or an emergency room. "28
I don't know about you, but just thinking about these things gives me