Kidney stones are actually hard masses of waste chemicals that have accumulated in the kidneys and are not passed out from the body through the urine. When there's not enough water in the body to wash away oxalate, phosphate, cystine, xanthine, irate, and calcium deposits from the kidneys, they can build up and form stones that can either stay in the kidney or move into the ureter. Smaller stones can be passed out with minimal discomoft, but larger stones can block the passage of urine and cause the patient much pain.
According to the National Kidney Association, there have been a growing number of patients in the United States that are being diagnosed with kidney stones over the past 30 years. They say that this condition has also been increasingly associated to other health conditions such as hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. In a new study, researchers from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University in China that analyzed over 3.5 million patients with cardiovascular problems to determine whether kidney stones would play a role in increasing the risk for coronary heart disease and stroke. Out of this group, there were about 50,000 patients that had kidney stones.
Their data revealed that patients with kidney stones were more likely to experience CHD episodes such as arterial bypass surgery or heart attacks, and 40% had an increased risk of stroke. Researchers were also to determine that kidney stones in women led to a higher risk of CHD incidents than they did with men. Lead researcher Dr. Yanqiong Liu said that, "People should be concerned about kidney stones. Evidence suggests an association between kidney stones and incident cardiovascular disease, even after adjusting for other cardiovascular risk factors." She says that they would need to conduct further studies to be able to fully understand these correlations.