The best reason to drink more water? It’s not Stanley cups or Hydro Flasks, it’s kidney stones. Once considered an affliction of older obese whitemen, kidney stones are now increasingly common among children and Black and brown communities. Also women. According to a 2018 report from the Mayo Clinic, women are now four times more likely to get kidney stones than they were 40 years ago. Fond du Lac County Public Health Officer Kim Mueller says if you don’t think this is an alarming trend then you have probably never had a kidney stone. Although some will pass with minimal or no pain, between 500,000 and a million sufferers wind up in the ER each year. Everyone agrees on hydration, but there are other things you can do to prevent kidney stones. Exercise, increase or decrease your calcium, get more vitamin C, but not in supplements, and avoid high oxalate food which include peanuts, spinach, chocolate and rhubarb.
