Health is wealth
Kidney Stone Victims Set to Increase
September 9th 2008 17:00
If you’ve ever had a kidney stone you know they are viciously painful. Caused by the crystallization of minerals in urine, kidney stones are typically left to pass through the body naturally. Since they can form with hooks and spikes, they can cause their victims to feel as if they are being shredded inside. Unfortunately, according to Dr. Tom Brikowski at the University of Texas at Dallas, the number of occurrences of kidney stones will increase in the future.
Kidney stones are helped to form when a person is dehydrated. Dehydration is most often a problem in hot climates, where the sun causes the population to sweat more and lose water. In fact, in the southern part of the U.S., the incidence of dehydration is 50% greater than in the northern parts of the country. Even soldiers are feeling the effects of the heat in the deserts overseas. Only 90 days after being sent to these hot climates, some soldiers were having problems with kidney stones.
Considering the global temperature is predicted to rise two to five degreed by the end of this Century, scientists are expecting to see 1.6 to 2.2 million more patients afflicted with stones by only 2050. Even worse than the pain is the anticipated rise in costs calculated to be around of $1.3 billion in medical care. We may or may not be able to change our future climate, but whatever occurs, our life will most likely change.
Source: Scientific American, Sept 2008; National Academy of Sciences, July 15, 2008
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