Kidney stones affect mostly middle-aged and older men. You increase your risks if your diet is low in phosphates or protein or you eat a lot of food that's high in substances known as oxalates. Among the foods that have oxalates are coffee, black tea, rhubarb, sorrel, spinach, lamb's-quarters and purslane. Herbal formulas with rhubarb or sheep sorrel may contain more oxalates than would be beneficial.

Physicians usually don't treat kidney stones--they just medicate the pain until the stones pass on their own. Until recently, if a stone did not pass, surgery was necessary. Now a noninvasive procedure called lithotripsy usually breaks up the stones so that they can pass. During lithotripsy, which is done under anesthesia, shock waves are directed at the stone to pulverize it.

Gallstones form when cholesterol and bile pigments become so concentrated that they form lumps inside the gallbladder. These lumps may be as small as a pinhead or as large as a golf ball. Gallstones that remain in the gallbladder rarely cause symptoms. But you can expect major problems if a stone blocks either the cystic duct (the tube that leads from the gallbladder to the bile duct) or the bile duct (the tube running from the liver and gallbladder into the intestine).

Gallstone symptoms include sudden, intense pain, usually in the upper right abdomen, accompanied by fever, nausea and sometimes vomiting. After attacks subside, usually in a half-hour to four hours, some soreness may linger for a day or so. About 20 percent of women and 8 percent of men over 40 have some gallstones, and these figures increase with age.

Physicians treat gallstones primarily with surgery, removing the gallbladder to eliminate the source of the problem. In the past few years, however, doctors have had promising results with a less invasive form of surgery called lap-aroscopy, which involves inserting a viewing device and tiny instruments through a small incision. In addition, some cholesterol gallstones can be dissolved with the use of bile acid drugs such as ursodeoxycholic acid (Actigall), given as tablets.