The Stone Therapy

A young man, driver was profession, from rural area, got acute severe pain in abdomen and went to consult a doctor.

The young driver did not reach his home in night. His family members became worried. With increasing ticking of the clock their worry increased. In the end they decided to search for the young man.

Finally, they found him lying semi-conscious below a tree in their farm. A small puddle of urine and many empty beer bottles were surrounding him. Arousing him with great difficulty they asked him the meaning of this.

The young man told them that he first went to a doctor. He was investigated and found to be suffering from stone in ureter.

For Non-Medicos: Ureters are a tube like organ connecting the kidneys to the urinary bladder. Urine is continuously produced in kidneys lying one on each side in abdomen. The urine gets collected via the ureters and stored in urinary bladder (a bag like organ) lying in the midline in lowermost part of the abdomen. 

Stones if present in kidney do not cause much pain as there is plenty of space for the stone to move around. When the stone, with urine come in the ureter they cause severe colicky pain as the ureter is very narrow. Many stones, if small enough will pass out the body in urine.

The doctor prescribed him some medicines along with advice to drink plenty of fluids by mouth so as to produce a large amount of urinary flow.

On the way back to the village, the young man met one of his friends, who gave him the popular advice to drink beer as this help in passing out the stone (expulsion).

Please Note: This fallacious advice is based on the diuretic (urine producing) effect of the beer and the fact that young men prefer to drink it in large quantity as compared to plain water. Due to ill-effects of alcohol, it is not recommended to drink beer to remove stones.

The young man, who was in great pain, found the advice of his friend great and decided to follow it.

He thought that drinking beer will lead to immediate passage of the stone in urine.

So, the young man bought few crates of beer bottles, sat under a tree in their farm and started to drink beer one after another, passing urine in between and checking to see if the stone came out or not, and so on, till he had consumed more than 20 bottles of beer since afternoon.

Unfortunately, still the stone did not come out.

So, be careful in following folk-lore advice, and don’t take their meaning literally.

When advising someone, be careful to make sure that he understands it correctly.

(Based on true incident)
— NKD
© Author. All rights reserved. 
DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 
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