I also had a case of kidney stones myself and a resulting weakened immune system, in December 2008. Very painful. You definitely have empathy from me! The best remedies I know of for boosting the immune system include WATER, EXERCISE, stress reduction, meditation, and getting adequate sleep (neither too much nor too little). And there are also some herbs and dietary changes that help. Regular aerobic and weight bearing exercise (but not too much exercise) is vital to keep an immune system healthy and strong! We need about one hour of walking every single day to keep an immune system healthy. Go at whatever pace your energy level allows- if you are in pain and tired from all the recent illness it'll be necessary to walk slowly. In addition to the walking, 30 minutes of weight bearing exercise every 2 to 3 days will strengthen the body and this will also strengthen the immune system. Drink 3 gallons a day of reverse osmosis water. Reverse osmosis is best if at all possible. Filtered tap water from a Brita or Pur filter, etc. *still* contains the dissolved ions that your body has been turning into stones. And most spring water also has dissolved ions in it. Not kidding about the amount. At least 3 gallons of reverse osmosis water per day. 3 gallons seems like an awful lot of water and I know personally that it is difficult to drink this much. Nonetheless it's VERY important to drink this much despite the difficulty. The only way to drink this much each day is to CONSTANTLY drink. If you do something that makes you sweat, drink more after you sweat. Each time you go to the bathroom you lose some water, so drink then too. And anytime you are bored or on a work/study break or stuck in traffic, drink. If you ever *actually* feel thirsty it means you haven't been drinking often enough. No matter where you go, you gotta bring a liter of reverse osmosis water- churches, parks, libraries, school, offices, jobs or interviews, amusement parks, restaurants, movies, sports events, bars (if you go to those), malls, and inside your car. Even to places that try to disallow people bringing in water or 'beverages' so they can sell you their drinks. They will have to be shown a doctors note telling them they HAVE to let you bring in your own water. And if these places still don't let you bring water in, don't go inside. Boycott them and tell others not to do business with them because those places are disrespectful of public health. Go somewhere else instead, your health has to come first. It's a hassle to drink this much AND it is necessary to do so anyway. To boost the body's ability to fight infections and to heal damaged kidney tissue, the body needs LOTS of water. Also water is vital to strengthen the immunity overall, and it also will really help pass the stones faster so you spend less time suffering as they are trying to come out. In my experience, I agree that there really is no herbal remedy that can 'dissolve' kidney stones. I have practiced herbalism for over 20 years as an unpaid volunteer. It goes against my spirituality and culture to accept payment for helping others with my herbalism. There are, however, herbal remedies and dietary modifications that can make it faster and less painful to pass kidney stones by reducing inflammation. Good herbs to reduce pain and inflammation from kidney stones include uva ursi, joe pye weed, sugar free cranberries, polygonum persicaria, and some others. There are also remedies and dietary modifications that can reduce the likelihood of kidney stone formation- especially if the stones are calcium oxalate. Stage_rat Annette has already provided a link to some of that info. :) Unfortunately since your stones were formed during a time when you drank a lot of soda and also drank insufficient water, odds are high that your stones are calcium phosphate which are much harder to treat than the common calcium oxalate kidney stones. IMHO your stones are likely to be calcium phosphate because sodas have a lot of excess phosphates in them (in the form of phosphoric acid). Take a good B-complex vitamin supplement daily, which contains pyridoxine (vitamin B-6). B-6 deficiency produces kidney stones in experimental animals. In high doses, B6 is used medically to treat kidney stones. Remember- B-6 deficiency is very common in humans. Yogurt and other probiotics are a good idea too, and in addition to that I also really recommend Dr. Berger's Immune Power Diet for you.

I don't usually show up on the conversations side but for some reason, did tonight. Try and tell my dog that homeopathic is placebo or quackery. Its worked on his bladder stones. My experience with classic homeopathy started when I needed an alternative for my thyroid as all conventional medicine that I tried failed. I was unable to tolerate any form of thyroid gland. I tried Synthroid, Armour, Naturethroid. I read extensively about it and found a doctor who used synthroid in drops so that I could use just one watered down drop. I could not tolerate one drop. The tiniest amount of synthroid OR descicated thyroid made me feel thyrotoxic and drove my thyroid stimulating hormone down to hypo levels within only a couple of days on the meds. My finger nails were peeling off and a I had a host of other symptoms. My TSH without being on the hormone at one point, got up to 40. (VERY high). I was miserable. I had tried at that point with Western medicine for many years. I contacted a classic homeopathist. At that time my dog was having blood in his urine upon emptying his bladder when he would mark. Dr. Alan was willing to advise me on my dog. He suggested a particular remedy. My dog had the remedy, and the blood ceased that day. He was symptom free for the next three months. He did need the remedy again, and had more results upon taking it.( It later came back here and there and right now is much better when he takes glucosomine, because that helps with the mucus on the lining of the bladder.) Next I took my assigned remedy. With no other treatment, my TSH went from 40 down to about 5.9, then down to 3.9, then 2.9. It remained there for over a year, and when it went up a bit again, I went back to the doc and we tried another remedy or two. It was better, but not optimum, and so the doc and I agreed that would try Chinese medicine. I switched to an Asian doctor and am taking Chinese tea and getting results there. And as with valinsv, the least amount of money I spent on docs was for the homeopathic one. I have also had full blown flu instantly leave once upon taking a homeopathic remedy. A lot of people find that hard to believe because it is true that the original substance is not in that vial or sugar pill. It is the essence of it or the energy, or vibration that is there. I would totally use Western medicine for certain things that it is good for, but I am not married to it at all. Pharma has a lot at stake and pays big money to disprove vitamin studies and show that vite e is "bad for you", etc. They have PR men that figure out how to promote diseases so that you will except the "cure" that they are selling. My brother is a pathologist and does not believe in homeopathic, chiropractic, or most natural cures. He would not even try one chiropractic adjustment for his trigeminal neuralgia which had become excruciating. So he elected to have a risky surgery that went behind his brain. Thank God it was successful. But my chiropractor who practices Upper Cervical adjustments using a technique called Advanced Orthogonal, cured a patient of the excruciating pain associated with the ailment. The pain disappeared six weeks after the patient received his adjustment. My brother felt if would not work on him because he does not believe in that. However, when my mom fell on her face (86 years old) I took her to this chiro, and she is doing better than ever, and we put the walker away. Here is a link that might be useful: How to brand a disease and sell a cure

Chisue, From what I understand, it’s pains, lack of energy or discomfort that draw people to suppliments but there are also a lot of valid reasons as to why people choose to use them or are even advised by their doctors to use them. Vitamin D and Iron are two examples that come to mind. There is an epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency (because people tend to avoid the sun) and women have iron issues all the time. I like to use L Theanine as an anti anxiety, and absolutely prefer it over addictive and contolled medications. My DH uses a suppliment that helps to keep him regular (because of the meds he’s on) and as well as a concentrated turkey tail mushroom for his immune system. The mushroom suppliment is an exotic mushroom and not readily available in our country. They are also so concentrated that it would be impossible to get the same nutritional benefit from using fresh. All of the suppliments we take have been prescribed by my DH’s doctor including the brand. I agree that there are a lot of bad players out there so it’s important to be careful about your choices, but there are also some very good suppliment providers and valid reasons for using them.

@Bunny, that's good news for you and your friend. I think some of these places giving the vaccines are not following the protocol of who should be receiving the booster at this point. I'm not taking the time to look it up right now, but to the best I can remember, for now, the booster was for those who are taking steriods, those taking chemo, transplant patients, etc. I believe there were a couple more listed but it was those with immune compromising situations. I don't blame you for getting one, but it doesn't seem like Kaiser followed the original protocol for the booster. I thought that at some point they would start like they did with the first dose, elderly, those with chronic conditions, health care professionals, etc. Since then though I have heard that they are now thinking the boosters should be spaced further apart??? Dr. Faucci was just on PBS news and I could hear part of his interview. I think he said the FDA has not approved boosters yet (other than this first go-round for immune compromised people). So, that is why I am confused. FWIW, I was able to get my first dose of vaccine ahead of my age group because I have a form of asthma. We got our vaccines at a drugstore. Well, my husband also got his vaccine at the same time - and he has no health issues at all! It just seems like protocol isn't being followed. I was saying that I would take the booster tomorrow if I could, but now I am wondering about the spacing between doses. I guess I will just have to wait till I'm qualified for the booster anyway! LOL