Smoking, drinking and poor diet are behind the increase in the number of women needing treatment for kidney stones, an expert has said. Noor Buchholz, a urology consultant at Barts and The London NHS Trust, said the number of women treated for kidney stones at Barts has doubled in recent years.
He said: "Five years ago, we have treated 400 women per year for kidney stones - in the last year that figure rose dramatically to over 800 we had to expand our services to meet the number of people requiring treatment and, the disease does't show any signs of slowing down. " Mr. Buchholz was said on the eve of the European section of the Conference of urolithiasis Stone (EULIS), held at Barts.
Kidney stones may not always be due to a single cause, but too much meat and the salt could be the culprit. A sedentary lifestyle and excessive consumption of snuff and alcohol are also risk factors.
Mr. Buchholz said: "There is no doubt in my mind that the increase in lifestyle choices such as smoking and poor consumption of alcohol among women is the main reason we are treating many more of them. One eight people in this country develop kidney stones sometime.
"Traditionally considered a man's disease, but that is no longer the case of women, fast catching up with men."
Mr. Buchholz said the new technology means that patients now experience a faster recovery time when it comes to kidney stones.
Barts and London using a treatment called lithotripsy, which uses shock waves to break stones.
Lithotripsy is the most common treatment for kidney stones that can not be passed in the urine. Other procedures include the treatment of kidney stone laser through a small incision, and pass a tube through the ureter.
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