# Can Your Kidneys Hurt? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 11, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362 "2012-09-11T00:37:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/21 "2012-09-11T10:04:29Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > What do you mean by this? Reflux? It is when urine travels the wrong way up the ureters and exerts pressure on the kidneys. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/22 "2012-09-11T11:41:39Z")
> [@Szlater](#): > > Not in my experience. Hence the use of the phrase, “tends to”. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/23 "2012-09-11T12:07:58Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > Or does my back just happen to be hurting all day right where my kidneys are? I had this when I took one particular anti-histamine. Checked the side effects and it was listed right there. Never took that one again. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/24 "2012-09-11T12:13:44Z")
> [@Szlater](#): > > It is when urine travels the wrong way up the ureters and exerts pressure on the kidneys. Whoa! I didn’t even know that was possible. Egads. When I hear ‘reflux’ I think ‘acid reflux’, not ‘urinary reflux’. Can that happen to both sexes? ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/25 "2012-09-11T12:37:57Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > Can that happen to both sexes? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/26 "2012-09-11T16:09:40Z")
99+% of the time when my patients tell me their kidneys hurt, there is no problem with their kidneys. It’s usually musculo-skeletal back pain. On occasion it’s ureteral pain from a stone. Your average “kidney” stone doesn’t cause pain until it leaves the kidney and enters into the ureter, but there are common exceptions to this. Once in a while, they get it right, and it’s due to actual kidney irritation from infection or stone, or similar (such as a completely blocked ureter.) ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/27 "2012-09-12T01:26:04Z")
> [@Szlater](#): > > It is when urine travels the wrong way up the ureters and exerts pressure on the kidneys. What causes it? (other than a few rather obscure ways I’m aware of related to spinal-cord injury) ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/28 "2012-09-12T01:35:47Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > 99+% of the time when my patients tell me their kidneys hurt, there is no problem with their kidneys. It’s usually musculo-skeletal back pain. On occasion it’s ureteral pain from a stone. Your average “kidney” stone doesn’t cause pain until it leaves the kidney and enters into the ureter, but there are common exceptions to this. > > Once in a while, they get it right, and it’s due to actual kidney irritation from infection or stone, or similar (such as a completely blocked ureter.) That’s why Doan’s Kidney Pills were so popular - lots of people were sure they were having “kidney pain”, and the anti-inflammatory in the “kidney pills” worked to alleviate the musculo-skeletal aches and pains they _were_ having. A win-win! 😉 That is, until the feds nixed the “kidney” pills thing. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/29 "2012-09-12T01:44:11Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > What causes it? (other than a few rather obscure ways I’m aware of related to spinal-cord injury) The term most often used for this is ‘vesicoureteral reflux’. Try [the NIH site](http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/vesicoureteralreflux/). [The Wiki one](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesicoureteral_reflux) doesn’t look too helpful to me. Bottom line is that kids can be born with it, whereas adults tend to get it secondarily from other problems in the urinary system such as prostate enlargement in men, bladder infections in both sexes, and as a complication of diabetes (“[neurogenic bladder](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurogenic_bladder)”). All of these things have in common an increase in pressure in the bladder which leads to a backing up of the urine (into the ureters and even kidneys, with the ureters being the tubes that connect the kidneys to the bladder). ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/30 "2012-09-12T01:47:39Z")
> [@Oly](#): > > Sounds like you passed a stone. Done it a time or two myself. Dull achy pain, coming in waves, worse and worse, then, Bing! Gone. Funny that I’ve always known that bing means it’s gone, not just another lull between waves. Great feeling. Until the next time. Once I actually went to an ER and they gave me narcotics. That was a great feeling too. Then a caught the stone in a little strainer. Hard little bugger about the size of a lentil. You do realize that is a kidney stone the size of Delaware, don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/31 "2012-09-12T01:49:20Z")
> [@j666](#): > > You do realize that is a kidney stone the size of Delaware, don’t you? That must be why kidney stone sufferers are always bent Dover in pain. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/32 "2012-09-12T02:28:00Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > That must be why kidney stone sufferers are always bent Dover in pain. Cleverness fail. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/33 "2012-09-12T02:29:45Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Cleverness fail. ☹ I appreciate your candor. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/34 "2012-09-12T02:31:03Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > That must be why kidney stone sufferers are always bent Dover in pain. Okay, do that with Rhode Island. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/35 "2012-09-12T02:32:59Z")
> [@j666](#): > > Okay, do that with Rhode Island. Only Providence could create such a stone! ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/36 "2012-09-12T03:00:03Z")
May I mention that many people consider back pain to be an annoyance and just something that comes with age. That’s what my husband and I thought with his back pain in his kidney region. He was Dx with renal cell cancer after about 3 mos. of it. ---
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/37 "2012-09-12T04:23:41Z")
> [@j666](#): > > You do realize that is a kidney stone the size of Delaware, don’t you? Delaware!?! No no no no. Texas, my friend. Before they took it to the museum I set it beside a penny and snapped a photo. Alas, gone when my dog ate my cell phone. But as I recall it was about 1/2 the size of Lincoln’s noodle. Even he was agog - just kept staring at it, speechless. Then two big fellas came and carted it off. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/38 "2012-09-12T06:01:32Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > The term most often used for this is ‘vesicoureteral reflux’. Try [the NIH site](http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/vesicoureteralreflux/). [The Wiki one](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesicoureteral_reflux) doesn’t look too helpful to me. > > Bottom line is that kids can be born with it, whereas adults tend to get it secondarily from other problems in the urinary system such as prostate enlargement in men, bladder infections in both sexes, and as a complication of diabetes (“[neurogenic bladder](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurogenic_bladder)”). All of these things have in common an increase in pressure in the bladder which leads to a backing up of the urine (into the ureters and even kidneys, with the ureters being the tubes that connect the kidneys to the bladder). Ahhh, I see. Thanks. (I must have missed this post in my initial rush to sarcasm ;)) ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/39 "2012-09-14T04:38:15Z")
Just to give you all closure, because I know you’ve been anxiously awaiting the status of my kidneys- the pain must have just been a foreshadowing of one of the worst episodes of back pain I’ve ever experienced. I have some smushed disks or something in my lower back, and once a year or so, it gets really bad, and I usually end up close to overdosing on ibuprofen and then in the ER for a shot of morphine, and that fixes me up for a good long time. This time I didn’t have to go to the ER- the ibuprofen seems to have worked. Whew, it was painful, and I’m glad that it seems to be over for now. But at least my kidneys are alive and well. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362/40 "2012-09-15T03:30:53Z")
OTC treatment…and kidneys that aren’t attacking you. Seems like a win to me! 🙂 Good news. -D/a [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-your-kidneys-hurt/634362.md?page=3)