College Of DuPage Nursing Student Mindy Etheridge composed the following article especially for the Healthy Lombard Blog.

Are you someone who has experienced the pain of kidney stones? If so, not only should you be vigilant at trying to prevent a recurrence of kidney stones if you have a history of kidney stones, you should take initiative to prevent cardiovascular disease. According to an article in the January 30, 2015 edition of US News and World Report, recent studies have found that if you are prone to kidney stones, you may be at an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

The article reports that extra calcium in your body that may be causing the formation of kidney stones as a result of calcium deposits in the blood vessels in your heart. And, once your body develops kidney stones, you are prone to developing them again. To prevent the reoccurrence of kidney stones, the research suggests increasing your fluid intake, and decreasing your intake of sodium, potassium and calcium.

According to the co-author of the study, Dr. Robert Unwin of University College London, “It’s becoming clear that having kidney stones is a bit like having raised blood pressure, raised blood lipids [such as cholesterol] or diabetes in that it is another indicator of, or risk factor for, cardiovascular disease and its consequences”.

If you are prone to kidney stones, you may want to consider discussing this with your physician at your next appointment. You may want to consider having a CT Scan of your heart to detect the presence of calcium in your blood vessels. In addition, a record of the size and location of previous kidney stones and what they were composed of is key to determine if cardiovascular disease is a realistic concern for you.

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