One of the best home remedies to help pass stones is to drink plenty of water, preferably with some citrus added like lemon juice or orange juice. However, be careful with orange juice as it may provide you with too much sugar and it also does not provide you with as much citric acid per ml. Citric acid makes urine less favorable for the formation of stones. Citrate helps prevent kidney stone formation by allowing for more citrate in the urine and decreasing the acidity of urine. Citrate prevents kidney stone formation two other ways. First, it binds with urinary calcium, thereby reducing the supersaturation of urine. In addition, it binds calcium oxalate crystals and prevents crystal growth. Citrate keeps tiny crystals from joining together to form bigger ones. Citric acid helps prevent calcium-containing stones. It does not help prevent other stone types such as uric acid stones. The more citrate you have in your urine, the more protected you are from calcium kidney stones.
