Global Warming to Increase Indidents of Kidney Stones

The Chicago Tribune reports that incidence of kindey stones will rise dramatically over the next four decades—up to 2.2 million new cases a year—due to global warming. It is well known that poor hydration can lead to the painful stones forming, and global warming will likely lead to people sweating more, and thus developing more kidney stones.

Fortunately, the solution to the problem is fairly simple... drink more water. Unfortunately, even people currently at risk fail to heed this advice and end up getting kidney stones now.

I've never had kidney stones, but they run in my family so it's probably a matter of time. A friend of mine also got kidney stones—while she was pregnant—and says that the kidney stones were worse than giving birth. So I don't know about you, but I'm going to keep hydrating as well as I can and hopefully avoid getting them. I'm not a big fan of pain.