What to know about kidney stones, which have plagued Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton fans are breathing sighs of relief after hearing that the health problem her sister was praying about is definitely uncomfortable - but not uncommon. Parton is suffering from kidney stones, according to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She’d been planning to perform in Vegas this December but delayed those shows until next year.

The 79-year-old superstar’s condition is one that a lot of her fans can relate to. About 1 in 10 people will have a kidney stone at some point. The good news is that not only are there treatments; there are also ways to try to prevent them from forming.

Stephen Savage, M.D., leads the MUSC Health Kidney Stone Center in Charleston, South Carolina. In this Q&A, he answers key questions about kidney stones, including their causes, treatments and prevention.

Q: What are kidney stones?

Kidney stones are crystallizations of salt that form within the urinary tract and then grow. They can become symptomatic either within the kidney or in the ureter, which is the tube that goes down to the bladder from the kidney.

Q: What causes them?

There are a variety of factors. You could have some hereditary factors. You could have metabolic risk factors such as diabetes or hypertension. The cause could also be behavioral – for example, not drinking enough liquid, or consuming too much of a dietary component. It's typically a combination of all of those three things.

Q: How do you treat them?

There are a few different procedures we can do, depending on the size and the location of the stone. The principle of the MUSC Health Kidney Stone Center is to get patients rapid access to care and tailor their treatment to their stone.

The type of care can fall into four categories. The most common one is ureteroscopy, where we have tiny telescopes that we go into the urinary system with and use a laser to break up the stone and pull it out in pieces. And that's an outpatient procedure in the operating room.

There is a procedure called shock wave lithotripsy where you could break the stone up from the outside. That used to be more common than it is now due to advances in technology.

For very large stones in the kidney, we could do a percutaneous surgery, which is going through the skin directly into the kidney. We have a variety of energy sources that we use to break up the stones and evacuate the pieces in that setting.

Lastly, we have more complex open or robotic surgeries. And those are very unusual, but we do use them sometimes.

Q: How can someone tell that they have kidney stones?

People can have symptoms such as blood in the urine, sharp pain in the lower back and side and a decrease in kidney function. Kidney stones can also make people nauseous and need to urinate more often than usual.

Q: Can people prevent kidney stones?

Yes, there are things that can be done to decrease the risk of stones. Calcium stones are the most common type. Excess sodium will increase your risk of those stones. So will too much animal protein. So having a healthy diet is important.

And by the way, I know this sounds counterintuitive, but a diet too low in calcium can actually worsen the risk for calcium stones. So appropriate treatment is important.

On the flip side, you can decrease your risk of developing kidney stones through good hydration. In order to form these crystals, you have two compounds that bind together. And the concentration of that crystal will either increase or decrease based on hydration, which is the solvent. So if you have a lot of fluid, there's less concentration of whatever that salt is. So you can decrease the risk, always, based on that.

Drink plenty of water, especially when it’s hot and you’re sweating. Citrus fruit can also help prevent stones. So the best things for that are lemons and oranges.

Q: While this is on people’s minds because of Dolly Parton, what do you want to leave them with?

Kidney stones continue to increase in prevalence in the United States. It’s important that we have a good understanding of the fact that some of that is related to our behavior, our diets and our activity levels. Some stones aren’t preventable. But some are, and we should do what we can to reduce our risk.