Prisma Health Magazine

PRISMA HEALTH MAGAZINE

“We don’t know why, but it probably has to do with it being hotter and more humid here and people are more likely to be dehydrated. We think humidity makes a difference. “The Southern states are the stone belt,” Dr. Gabriel Fiscus of Prisma Health in Greenville added. The two urologists agree that dehydration is a major factor in determining whether stones form in your kidneys. The most common type, calcium oxalate stones, show up when the normal concentration of water, salts and minerals found in your urine is out of balance. In addition to heat and humidity, diet and exercise most likely help decide whether you develop kid- ney stones. Dr. Wingo pointed out that to avoid this possibly painful issue, you should drink lots of water, moderate your salt intake and stay active. He said high-oxalate diets that include

They generally aren’t innately painful, but the pressure they are capable of creating if their journey through your urinary system is in any way interrupted can be uncomfortable at best and excruciating at worst. They might not be hereditary, but, if your family members have them, there’s a good chance you will share the suffering. And, if you aren’t serious about changing the way you eat and drink once you get them, you are likely to have to deal with them again. They are kidney stones, and they are more common in South Carolina and the rest of the Southeast than in any other region of the United States. There’s a big difference in geography. We have the highest incidence of kidney stones than anywhere else in the country,” said Dr. Marshall Scott Wingo of Lowcountry Urology Clinics.

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