Out of every thousand people in the United States, one person can say they have experienced one of the most painful episodes anyone can experience. Some have said that compared to this, pregnancy is easy. More than half a million people will suffer from kidney stones this year, and a third of them will be hospitalized. Kidney stones are hard, crystalline deposits in the kidneys. They are usually hexagonal and are eighty percent calcium. These calcium stones are two to three times more common in men and are more likely to recur. Calcium oxalate releases most likely result from eating specific foods. One percent of stones are cystine stones, linked to cystinuria, a hereditary disease. Struvite makes up another small percentage and occurs very widely mainly in women, causing kidney damage and urinary tract obstruction. Struvite stones are made up of magnesium, ammonium and phosphate and are also called infected stones because they only form in infected urine. An additional eight percent of stones are made up of uric acid, and half of men who get them also have gout. The size of these stones ranges from microscopic to an inch in diameter. There are several symptoms of kidney stones. One slowly increases pain in the lower back and pelvis area, eventually leading to the groin. A constant urge to urinate is also a symptom. One of the most obvious is blood in the...