Warming Raises Kidney Stone Cases
One more unwanted consequence of global warming may be an increase in cases of kidney stones in areas with rising temperatures, US researchers said.
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A kidney stone: Researchers say climate change could cause a 30 per cent rise in cases
Kidney stones — excruciatingly painful hard deposits of minerals and salts that can form in the kidneys — tend to be more common in hot climates, with dehydration a key risk factor for the condition. The experts used two mathematical models linking temperature to kidney-stone risk in the United States, and found that regions where the condition now is most common will expand in coming decades due to predicted rising temperatures.
They forecast increases of up to 30% in kidney stone cases in some areas — meaning millions more people would get the condition. The annual cost in the US of treating kidney stone cases could increase by 2050 by $1 billion per year — 25% more than current levels.
Kidney stones currently are most common in the southeastern US, but this “kidney stone belt” is forecast to grow to the northward and westward. Other parts of the globe could experience similar trends. “There’s every reason to anticipate that it would be happening worldwide,” urologist Margaret Pearle of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas, one of the researchers, said.
Sources: The Times Of India
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