KIDNEY STONE OVERVIEW
If you want a comprehensive view of what kidney stones are and how they are made, I have put together various of the articles in this by now rather large site to make up a kind of story, or narrative, or, as I like to think of it, a walking tour. Read in the order I suggest, and take a look at the few narrator comments and I promise a nice overview of the topic. More will come if people seem to like this format.
Citrate and the Ostwald Limit
This article will take you for a ride and offer you some surprises.
It is about how urine resists crystallization, a property summed up in the forbidding term ‘Upper Limit of Metastability.’
But don’t be scared off.
The ULM is a powerful concept that will help you understand the real issues in stone prevention.
And, at the end of the article, you will find that quite possibly it is not the mysterious and giant collection of urine proteins which protect us against crystals but perhaps our familiar citrate molecule in league with another small molecule, inorganic pyrophosphate which is a close relative of the bone sparing and common bisphosphonate drugs.
Enjoy.