Women are increasingly susceptible to the excruciating condition
Besides the excruciating pain of her first kidney stone attack, Tina Brock also felt a sense of shame.
Brock, then a pharmacy student in his 20s, shared the common belief that the disease, which patients described as “100 out of 10 pains,” was experienced mostly by men.
“I thought it was an old man’s disease,” says Brock, now 58, whose father also suffered from kidney stones.
“I don’t know if embarrassed is the right word, but I was surprised and a little embarrassed that I was a strange woman with kidney stones.”
After five episodes of this condition, which occurs when concentrated minerals in urine crystallize into hard clumps and cause searing pain as they leave the body, Brock says the anecdotal reports of suffering are not exaggerations.
His worst attack was a stone the size of a “thorny grape”, but luckily he can make light of his suffering in the meantime.
“Kidney stones don’t kill you; they just make you beg to die,” jokes Brock, who inherited a predisposition to getting stones due to metabolic factors.
One kidney stone anecdote involves taking a bumpy ride quickly to help dislodge a small stone – a technique has been proven to help some patients by making them “click” side to side, up and down, and dislocation of the stack.
Although kidney stones have historically been a disease predominantly seen in men, their incidence among women is increasing as lifestyle and climate change.
Hospital admissions due to kidney stones are also increasing, especially in hot countries such as Australia.
Approximately one in 10 Australians will experience kidney stones in their lifetime. Greg Jack, of the Urological Association of Australia and New Zealand, said kidney stone rates among women had traditionally been half that of men, but now they were approaching parity.
Kidney stones, what they are and how to reduce the risks
- Kidney stones form when minerals and salts in the urine crystallize and grow over time.
- This process can last for years, often without symptoms, until the stone leaves the kidney and descends into the urinary tract, causing extreme pain that patients describe as “passing a stone.”
- The main causes are dehydration and diet; High salt intake and low fluid intake increase the risk
- Climate: Higher rates occur in warmer, more humid regions.
- Sedentary lifestyle: Lack of physical activity can affect the calcium balance in the body.
- Medical conditions: Obesity, diabetes, bowel surgery, and metabolic syndrome are linked to higher rates of stones.
- Familial predisposition: Approximately one in four people has a family history of stones.
- Prevention strategies: Stay hydrated, drink more fluids on hot days, especially when active.
- Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, especially citrus or citrus fruits, including lemons and limes, oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots and pineapple.
Approximately 10 to 12 percent of Australian men have kidney stones, he said, “but women are catching up with men; this rate is up to 9 percent.”
Why the “Holy Grail” question? Reasons for this include women’s diets changing to include more animal-based protein and more salt (high consumption of both is a risk factor) and a narrowing of the gap between men and women in obesity rates.
“It’s hard to connect the dots, but risk factors include a sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet and [being in] positions where you can no longer drink much fluid; “There’s no smoking gun,” Jack said.
Jack, an international lecturer on kidney stone treatment, prevention and surgery, said dehydration was a key factor in the development of kidney stones and warned there could be a sudden increase in admissions unless preventative action is taken, given the Australian Bureau of Meteorology predicts summer temperatures will be higher than normal.
Damian Bolton, a specialist urologist and professor of clinical surgery at the University of Melbourne, said the per capita rate of kidney stones was increasing and this was believed to be due to weight gain across the population.
“The obesity epidemic is related to this; rehydrating a larger body requires much more than completely rehydrating a lighter body,” he said.
However, people who have lost a lot of weight (a common occurrence as new weight-loss drugs continue to grow in popularity) are also prone to kidney stone formation because the mineral calcium binds to lipids (water-soluble molecules, including fats).
The main demographic group of kidney stone sufferers was not older people, but relatively young, active and healthy people, especially men in their 40s and 50s.
Like Jack, Bolton said drinking enough water would help people avoid kidney stones in the summer and that it was important for people to increase their fluid intake by a liter a day in hot weather.
“When the temperature rises above 25 degrees, they need to consume an extra liter of water a day,” he said.
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Wendy Tuohy is a senior writer who focuses on social issues and issues affecting women and girls.Connect with: excitement or email.
