From KSDK-TV, November 29, 2005
They''re three times more common in men, and they''re being diagnosed more often too. Kidney stones will affect 10 percent of Americans at some point in their lives.
A viewer wants to know the symptoms of kidney stones. Unfortunately, your first symptom is also usually your worst.
"Some of the women say kidney stone pain is much worse than having labor pain," says Dr. Ramakrishna Venkatesh, a urologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Kidney stones form when the urine''s waste materials don''t dissolve completely. The majority of them are made of calcium. And when they block the urinary tract they cause pain. The mystery is why they form.
"It could be dietary, it could be environmental, it partly could be genetic but we don''t know the details of the genetics as such," explains Dr. Venkatesh.
Not drinking enough water can raise your risk of developing stones. So can not getting enough calcium in your diet, and eating a lot of red meat. Some doctors say drinking too much beer or soda could contribute to stones. Drinking a lot of coffee and tea apparently don''t.
"It''s been shown that coffee tea has no increased risk for development of stones."
85 percent of stones pass on their own. But other than the pain, there''s no way to tell a kidney stone attack might be in your immediate future.