Summer Kidney Stone Prevention: Stay Hydrated, Stay Healthy

Hot weather and dehydration can create the perfect conditions for kidney stones. Learn how they form, when to seek medical care, and what you can do to help prevent them. Dr. Fara Bellows counsels a patient. As temperatures climb and hydration habits slip, doctors see a seasonal spike in kidney stones during the summer months–thanks in large part to dehydration. “The painful condition is very common, with about 10 percent of the population having a kidney stone at some point in their life,” notes Dr. Fara Bellows, a urologist at White Plains Hospital Physician Associates in Scarsdale. What causes kidney stones? While healthy urine contains many chemicals dissolved in fluid, those chemicals (including calcium, oxalate, uric acid, cystine, and phosphate) can crystallize when hydration levels drop, explains Dr. Bellows. For some, tiny stones pass on their own with minimal discomfort. For others, stones can become lodged in the ureter – the thin tube that carries urine from each kidney to the bladder. Symptoms can include: severe pain, often in the back or just under the rib cage nausea vomiting fever bloody or cloudy urine If your pain is not improving with over-the-counter pain medications, or if you have difficulty urinating
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