You can get surprising results when putting just about anything under the microscope, but seeing what kidney stones look like close up has left many people feeling deeply disturbed as the images aren’t exactly pretty.
When it comes to your body there are few things more universally painful than a bad kidney stone, as the process of passing it through your urine can be unbelievably excruciating depending on the size of the stone.
If you’re lucky then the stones will be formed in a miniscule enough size that you don’t even notice, but some experience instances where they need to be broken up by shock wave lithotripsy, allowing them to pass easier – and it’s not a nice thing to go through to say the least.
Thanks to scientist Murry Gans at Eastfield College in Dallas, Texas, we’ve been able to get a look at kidney stones underneath the fine eye of a microscope, and they look just about as painful as they feel.
Certainly not something you’d want floating around your body… (Murray Gans/Eastfield College)
Murray’s images show the crystalized, almost rocky formation of the stones, which explains why they’re able to hurt so much when inside your body outside of a size perspective.
It’s almost like thousands of tiny daggers prodding and stabbing your insides, and then imagine having to pass that out of your body when you pee – not nice!
Many on social media have expressed their fear at these images, especially those who have had the unfortunate experience of passing kidney stones themselves.
