Climate change may cause more kidney stones

A warming planet is likely to bring more hot days, more sweaty people and more dehydration — a key risk factor for a surge in kidney stones, researchers said Thursday. Already, the study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found a link between hot days and kidney stones in 60,000 patients whose medical records were studied in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. "We found that as daily temperatures rise, there is a rapid increase in the probability of patients presenting over the next 20 days with kidney stones," said lead author Gregory Tasian, a pediatric urologist and epidemiologist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. As average daily temperatures climbed above 50 Fahrenheit (10 Celsius), the risk of kidney stone presentation increased in all the cities except Los Angeles.