It is easy to underestimate the discomfort kidney stones can cause because of their small size. Don’t! The traditional treatment for kidney stones involves drinking plenty of water, but drinking buckets of water won’t do much. If you have ever experienced kidney stone once, chances are you will experience it time and again. A study conducted by a team of researchers some years back pegged the re-occurrence rate of kidney stone at about 70%. As such, the best you can do is to guard against kidney stones by taking being proactive.
Here are 5 unlikely things that can give you kidney stones
- Climate changes
What do kidney stones have to do with climate change? Excellent question. Researchers have found that whenever the temperature of the environment increases, the chances of contracting kidney stones increases. However, no solid explanation has been put forth yet to explain this relationship.
- Eating meals with too little calcium
True, calcium build-up in the body leads to kidney stone formation. But that is no excuse to stay off calcium completely. In fact, going off calcium completely for the fear of kidney stones is counterintuitive. A team of researchers in Harvard decided to conduct research to determine the effect of calcium in our meals. They discovered that staying off calcium completely is an invitation to kidney stones.
- Bowel infection
Bowel diseases like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis go hand in hand with kidney stones. Diarrhoea too is a culprit too.
- Living in Tropical Regions
Diarrhoea is rampant in tropical regions. This is majorly due to the fact that in such regions, there tends to be scarcity of fresh water. So, if living free of kidney stones is a worthy goal for you, avoiding the tropics is one sure thing to do.
- Excessive intake of red meat
Yes, red meat can give you kidney stones. A couple of years back, a team of dietitians conducted research to find out how eating red meat influences the development of kidney stones. At the end of the day, they discovered that people who eat red meat excessively suffered from kidney stones far more than those who do not eat meat at all. If you aren’t yet eating vegetarian or mostly-vegetarian meals, then you should definitely start today!
