The book was very successful and sold out in record time with little more than word-of-mouth advertising. It was recommended by many fine doctors including former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D. The goal for this new edition is the same, but there is so much new information that needed to be added that the book was totally rewritten! A kidney stone sufferer wrote to me asking if this new edition would help her learn more about kidney stone prevention when she already owned the first edition. She asked me, "How will your new book differ from the first one?" A fair question-and the answer is, not only has medicine changed, I've changed.

First of all, as an author and patient, I've altered my attitude since writing the first edition. In the five years since its publication, I've had it up to here (she points to the top of her head) with physicians who allow their patients to become repeat stone formers, who do not provide their patients with lists of foods high (and low) in oxalates, who do not perform metabolic stone risk tests on their patients, who practice without a medical diagnosis, who don't inform their patients about specific medications to prevent stone recurrence, and, yes, with patients who fail to comply with proven methods which can prevent stones in up to 98 percent of all patients.

This second edition is the result of five additional years of research, study, and professional relationships with stone prevention medical experts from around the world. I've been in touch with thousands of kidney stone patients, and I am just now hearing from many patients who bought the first book and who are living life stone free.

I attended my second American Urological Association (AUA) convention in Dallas, Texas where it seemed that "Viagra" was more important and sensational than kidney stone prevention. While impotence and kidney stones are both medical issues which affect the quality of life, I walked away feeling that to some in the AUA, kidney stone patients were stepchildren. We don't complain loudly enough and we routinely accept the most extreme form of cruelty: severe, avoidable, recurrent physical pain.

While not included in the Top Ten Glamour Disease-of-the-Month Club, kidney stone disease still affects over 1.2 million additional people a year with excruciating and debilitating pain, is frequently preventable and poorly understood by most patients, their families and even many physicians.

I write a patient education newsletter on kidney stones. I believe one hundred percent in what I'm doing and I'm not afraid to tell patients that they have been the victims of medical mismanagement, neglect and ignorance when it comes to preventing their stones. To be fair, I don't usually hear from patients who found good doctors who've emphasized stone prevention techniques and helped them with understandable expert advice, testing and treatment. If you are lucky enough to have found such a physician with a genuine interest and expertise in stone prevention, please call or write me with your doctor's name, address and phone number so I can refer other patients.

This book is also different because I've become the first "official" kidney stone patient advocate in the United States! This is the only book written by both a kidney stone patient and stone prevention medical specialist. While I'm not a physician, I go to bat for "my" patients. I treat my book buyers like family. I refer them to stone prevention medical experts. I answer their questions. And if I don't know the answer, I'll find a medical expert who does. I am a library as well. I offer a virtual resource center if you visit my web site at http://www.readersndex.com/fourgeez. From that web site, you can access many medical articles on stone disease written by the nation's top stone prevention doctors and researchers. You can ask questions and request reprints of specific articles written just for us on topics of interest to most stone formers.

If you've had one kidney stone, you don't ever want to repeat that horrendously painful experience! The reality is that about 12 percent of all adult Americans will have a kidney stone at some point in their lives. While women run less risk than men, their chances of forming stones has risen along with their increasing life expectance and generally improved socioeconomic status.

Stones tend to run in families. If one family member has a stone, then the risk of another related family member developing a stone increased by an average of 62 percent! The likelihood of a person eventually forming a stone if his brother already had one is 50 percent. If even one parent had a kidney stone, then the risk of stones forming in their children doubles. Although there may be a familial tendency to form stones, the fact that your parents or siblings had them is by no means a guarantee that you will. You can take charge of your life and reduce your risk through education and knowledge. This book gives you that opportunity.

So why did I really write this book? I couldn't enjoy my life waiting for and worrying about the kidney stone pain that could (and would) return at any time. I was sick and tired of becoming another statistic! With each visit to the emergency room, I felt as if I were giving birth to glass shards through my urinary tract! And for months I passed stone after stone after stone. I became absolutely determined to find out how to stop making kidney stones. I wanted to learn as much as possible about them. My life became a quest for this knowledge. This book is the end result of that long quest to find answers about kidney stone formation, treatment and prevention. I just couldn't bear to watch others go through the same pain I had without trying my best to help them by sharing this vital information.

Desperate parents have stood at my front door pleading for a copy of the book "to end the misery" of their children. Some sufferers wanted copies sent overnight at rates twice the book's list price. I still receive some of the most heart-wrenching, personal correspondence from patients who need answers, who are afraid, who do not know what to expect and who are exasperated with repeated surgical and lithotripsy procedures because they continue to pump out one stone after another with little effort or investigation into the cause of their stones or how to prevent them.

Even though kidney stone attacks are possibly the most painful of all human conditions and patients continue to be classified as medical insurance risks, prevention is possible end highly successful with sophisticated medical testing and specific treatment. It's also quite cost effective. For example, :he cost for each extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (stone Fragmentation treatment) is about $7,500 while the average annual net cost savings for patients with active stone disease who have complete metabolic testing including all the extra Doctor's visits, medications and supplements is over $2,000 per year. Yet despite the proven cost savings involved, most health insurance companies are reluctant to promote true kidney stone prevention programs although most will cover if ordered by your physician.

As mentioned earlier, every year more than 1.2 million Americans will develop a kidney stone and the number is steadily increasing. More patients make kidney stones than hose who suffer strokes each year (400,000 - American Academy of Neurology); more than the 36,000 Americans who develop brain tumors yearly (American Brain Tumor Association) and the 250,000 Americans who suffer from multiple sclerosis (National Multiple Sclerosis Society). Yet, very few doctors or anyone else write about preventing kidney stones n language easily understood by their patients, their partners and families.

While a lot of good information is found on the Internet, host of it is not based on any formal studies or research. Some f it perpetuates myths and misconceptions regarding stone formation most is based on personal experience and lacks medical references and authorities. The information in this book is supported by scientific fact, including the most recent medical studies, articles and research .

Now, more than nine years after my last stone attack, my struggle continues as I fight, and so far, succeed in preventing any new stones from forming. After extensive research in countless medical and public libraries and with the advice and help of stone prevention medical practitioners and researchers throughout the world, I am now able to offer this completely rewritten "Kidney Stones Handbook: A Patient's Guide to Hope, Cure and Prevention." Thus, from a small nugget of information prior to the book's first publication in 1994 has grown this ultimate guide and resource for stone patients, their families and even the medical professionals who take care of us.

Over the last 16 years, dramatic advances in medical knowledge and research have improved the quality of care possible for people with kidney stones. There is no valid reason for any patient with the strong desire to prevent future stone attacks to be denied the opportunity.

If you have already formed a kidney stone, the following chapters will detail the treatments available to get rid of the stone, the causes for each stone type and encouraging news on the latest medical advances in preventing repeat episodes of those terribly painful little pebbles.

Detailed nutrition charts and other resources are among the unique aspects of this book and are included to assist you in choosing foods which will not predispose you to forming new stones. Carry this book with you when you shop for groceries and choose from among a wide variety of foods which can be enjoyed for optimum health and minimum stones.

This book represents a team effort among the most respected and educated medical professionals in the field of kidney stone treatment and prevention. We know your pain. We know your exasperation and fear. Our goal is to guide you through your stone experience and help you prevent future stones.

We wanted to provide you with the most complete patient information on kidney stones that exists to date. We believe we have succeeded.

One of the most significant changes from the first edition that I've taken on a co-author. He is Stephen W Leslie, M.D., an outstanding stone prevention urologist who lives and breathes patient education and who is one of the most knowledgeable and dedicated stone prevention experts I've met. He's a great teacher and a pretty good writer which is a rare combination to find! He is also a most compassionate fellow, as well.

So with this edition, I'd like to introduce you to a good friend of mine, Stephen W Leslie, M.D.