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These are my own kidney stories, gathered from over the years. For the full information sheet, see Kidney Disease, and for the flushing routines and videos, see Kidney Flushing: From Light to Intense.
A Lifetime with Weak Kidneys
Kidney issues seem to have always been a part of my life. Kidney infections started in my childhood, and by sixteen an infection and high fevers put me in the emergency room in convulsions. Until I was introduced to herbs and natural healing in the early 1990s, prescribed antibiotics were a regular part of my life; I lived on them for fifteen years.
Since discovering the healing power of herbs, I have taken no prescribed drugs for infection. Combining the infection-fighting herbs into herbal extracts for my infections has proven effective every time I have used them. Kidney Support in my Kidney/Bladder Tea, along with my Hot Lemonade, have been my daily supports ever since, and I haven’t had a kidney attack or kidney pain in over 20 years. I know my kidneys are a weak spot, so I keep animal proteins very low, and I have no soda, sugary drinks or junk food. The body just doesn’t need that stuff.
Kidneys or My Back?
During this time of my life, when my back began to ache there were three possible reasons. One was my cycle, which was easy to rule in or out. The other two were trickier. In 1985 I was in a car accident that fractured my lower back. I could go long periods without any discomfort, then out of the blue it would begin to spasm. Since the fracture was in my lower back, right at the same level as my kidneys, I needed to figure out which one was talking to me. When my back began hurting I would do the three kidney drinks. Within an hour, if it was my kidneys, the discomfort would be gone. If it did not go away, I knew it was my back, and I began using the BF&C formula for my back along with Lobelia for the spasm. We were not yet making salves, so my only relief was hydrotherapy and the extracts.
Ground-Up Rocks and My Kidneys
Regular calcium supplements are nothing but ground-up rocks, and my kidneys cannot take that at all. A friend told me about a high-quality calcium supplement that would never affect my kidneys. Within four hours of taking only one capsule, I could not even walk straight; my kidneys were completely spasmed. I had to drink emergency kidney teas and Hot Lemonade to clear the congestion and calm it down. I never touched those capsules again. Then I discovered Dr. Christopher’s Calcium extract. My mentor at the time talked me into making it, as I was very leery. It has been amazing: no kidney issues.
Michael’s Kidney Stone on the Road
My husband, Michael, and I made a weekend trip to Dr. Tim Jennings’ class in Collegedale, Tennessee. While we were there, Michael had a kidney stone attack. He admitted to feeling a little discomfort before we left but did not think it would become a problem over the weekend. The lack of proper fluids during the four-and-a-half-hour car trip likely set the active stones off.
One of the worst things you can do with a kidney stone is let yourself become dehydrated. The walls of the vessels in the kidneys are lined with nerve tissue. When the fluid in the kidneys falls off, the vessels collapse around the stones, and all the rough edges rip and tear into the nerve tissue as they pass through. Staying hydrated fills the vessels with fluid, keeping the stones buoyant and floating in the center, with much less ripping and tearing.
I learned a lot over two days in a hotel with a husband passing a kidney stone. First, hot fomentations can be done very effectively in a hotel room. I wet and wrung out two small hand towels and put them in the microwave for a minute and a half. That made them steaming hot, and by the time they made it across the room to the bed they were the perfect heat to lay over his kidneys. The stone began in the back and moved to the front over the next few hours. The wet heat kept the kidney calm and the pain all but gone. He also took some Advil, an over-the-counter pain reliever, which was an added help with the pain. I massaged the area with our Anti-Spasmodic Salve too. Our M&L Salve is normally perfect for muscle spasms, but the Anti-Spasmodic Salve is a bit stronger and proved helpful that weekend.
Friday night into Saturday morning he slept well, but the pain began to build again in the morning, likely because he had not kept up his fluids while he slept. The hot fomentations were what really eased it. He has said they were the only thing that truly helped.
Michael’s pain routine. Michael has given birth to many, many stone children over the years, and he has worked out his own routine for the pain. When a stone starts moving, he takes a nighttime pain reliever, either ibuprofen or Aleve. If there’s no relief in an hour, he takes two gel Tylenol and waits another hour or so. All the while I’m keeping hot fomentations over his kidneys, or he’s soaking in a very hot bath. He usually only needs to go through the routine once or twice per stone attack, and between the heat and his routine he can get the pain under control without breaking into the heavy-duty pain pills. Those save us trips to the ER and those awful bills.
This is what works for Michael, whose kidneys are otherwise healthy. Ibuprofen and Aleve are hard on weak kidneys, so anyone with kidney disease should ask their doctor what is safe for them.
The Night at the Cabin Door
One night my husband’s boss showed up at our cabin door in severe kidney stone pain. His nephew was on the way to take him to the emergency room, but it would be over an hour before he arrived. I was setting him up for hot fomentations when he threw up blood all over my bathroom. I gave him an ounce of fresh-squeezed ginger root juice and an ounce of Cayenne extract. His stomach settled and the bleeding stopped. I left the mess, got him into bed and put the hot fomentations on his kidneys. About 15 minutes later he had fallen asleep, relaxed and exhausted from the pain. When his nephew arrived, he drove him, now comfortable, to the emergency room, where they could find no hole in his stomach lining and no internal bleeding at all. He later told me there was no way he had thrown up blood in my bathroom; I assured him I’d had to scrub the proof off the walls and floor. For as long as I knew him, he joked that I had tried to kill him with that ounce of Cayenne. It was the only part of the whole night he remembered. It worked.
I have had people rolling on the floor in agony from a kidney stone who were comfortable in 15 minutes or less with hot fomentations over the kidneys. They are so helpful.
A Member’s Bright Idea
So many of the healing truths I have learned have come from our members. A member called to order a Kidney Stone Dissolve Kit. When I asked if her stones were coming back, she said no: her blood pressure was ticking up without a real reason, and she knew that clogged kidneys full of sediment make the heart work harder to push the blood through. She wanted an intense kidney flush. What a brilliant thought, an ELF for the kidneys! That is how the Ultimate Kidney Flush was born.
More on the Kidneys
- Kidney Disease (the full information sheet)
- Kidney Flushing: From Light to Intense (routines and videos)
- Food for the Kidneys: A Daily Formula and Tea
This information is for education only. It is not meant to diagnose, treat or replace care from a qualified health professional.
