Kidney stones, as my uncle recently found out, are one of the most painful of the urological disorders, and have inflicted humans for centuries. Scientists have even found evidence of kidney stones in a 7,000-year-old Egyptian mummy!

Unfortunately, kidney stones are one of the most common disorders of the urinary tract. Each year, people make almost 3 million visits to health care providers and more than half a million people go to emergency rooms for kidney stone problems.

Most kidney stones will pass out of the body without any intervention by a physician. Stones that cause lasting symptoms or other complications may be treated by various techniques, most of which do not involve major surgery. Also, research advances have led to a better understanding of the many factors that promote stone formation and thus better treatments for preventing stones. One thing I do know is that the pain can make a grown man cry!

The urinary tract, or system, consists of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra. The kidneys are located below the ribs toward the middle of the back, one on each side of the spine. The kidneys function is to remove extra water and wastes from the blood, producing urine. Narrow tubes called ureters carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder, an oval-shaped chamber in the lower abdomen. Like a balloon, the bladder’s elastic walls stretch and expand to store urine. They flatten together when urine is emptied through the urethra to outside the body.A kidney stone is a hard mass developed from crystals that come from the urine within the urinary tract. Normally, urine contains chemicals that prevent or inhibit the crystals from forming. These inhibitors do not seem to work for everyone, however, so that is when some people form stones. If the crystals remain small enough, they will travel through the urinary tract and pass out of the body in the urine without being noticed.

The most common type of stone contains calcium in combination with either oxalate or phosphate. These chemicals are part of a person’s normal diet and make up important parts of the body, such as bones and muscles. It is when the stones are bigger that they give rise to the pain experienced as they travel down the urinary tract.

Kidney stones in the kidney, ureter, and bladder are called Urolithiasis which is the medical term used to describe stones occurring in the urinary tract.

Some other frequently used terms are urinary tract stone disease and nephrolithiasis. Doctors also use terms that describe the location of the stone in the urinary tract. For example, a ureteral stone—or ureterolithiasis—is a kidney stone found in the ureter. To keep things simple, the general term kidney stones is used throughout this fact sheet.

Gallstones and kidney stones are not related. They form in different areas of the body and because someone has suffered with a gallstone does not mean that they are necessarily more likely to develop kidney stones!

So the big question that we do and kind of don't want to know is who gets kidney stones?

For unknown reasons, the number of people in the United States with kidney stones has been increasing over the past 30 years. In the late 1970s, less than 4 percent of the population were reported as having had stone-forming disease. But by the early 1990s, the portion of the population with the disease had increased to more than 5 percent. Records show that Caucasians are more prone to develop kidney stones than African Americans and stones occur more frequently in men. The prevalence of kidney stones rises dramatically as men enter their 40s and continues to rise into their 70s. For women, the prevalence of kidney stones peaks in their 50s. Once a person gets more than one stone, unfortunately other stones are likely to develop.

One thing that we would all like to know is what causes kidney stones?
Doctors really cannot give a definite answer to what causes a stone to form. While it is thought certain foods may promote stone formation in people who are susceptible, scientists do not believe that eating any specific food causes stones to form in people who are not prone to forming kidney stones.

Someone with a family history of kidney stones might be more likely to develop stones. Urinary tract infections, kidney disorders such as cystic kidney diseases, and certain metabolic disorders such as hyperparathyroidism are also linked to stone formation.

As well as that, more than 70 percent of people with a rare hereditary disease called renal tubular acidosis develop kidney stones.