Global warming may increase kidney stones: researchers
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about!!!!
More Americans are likely to suffer from kidney stones in the coming years as a result of global warming, according to researchers at the University of Texas.
Kidney stones, which are formed from dissolved minerals in the urine and can be extremely painful, are often caused by caused by dehydration, either by not drinking enough liquid or losing too much due to high heat conditions.
Now, of course, there’s no new science in the global warming field here. This is simply a bunch of grant seeking kidney stone researchers looking for more funding by jumping onto the GW bandwagon. They assume that GW will happen then ask: “What could happen if the climate warms?” The press loves this becase they can repeat the GW mantra again in yet another scary way.
They can even tell you how much worse it will get:
If global warming trends continue as projected by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007, the United States can expect as much as a 30 percent growth in kidney stone disease in some of its driest areas, said the findings published in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
And where:
One formula showed an increase in the southern half of the country, including the already existing “kidney stone belt” of the southeastern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The other showed that the increase would be concentrated in the upper Midwest.
“Similar climate-related changes in the prevalence of kidney-stone disease can be expected in other stone belts worldwide,” the study said.
“Stone belts”??? Amazing.
