How old is the Urinary Stone Disease which in common parlance people call it as Kidney stones?
A. This disease is as old as the mankind. Several ancient scriptures speak about Ashmari Roga (Sanskrit word for stone disease). Scientists have found evidence of kidney stones in a 7,000-year-old Egyptian mummy. In the Hippocratic oath taken by every doctor, there is a mention of stone surgery which says I shall not cut for stone but leave it to those proficient in the art, which tells us that the disease was prevalent in those days. Q. How common is the disease in our country? A. In general urology practice every 6 persons out of 10 (60%) have stone and unfortunately the disease has been witnessing an upward trend with more and more people becoming prone to the disease. This is also regarded as the disease of the affluent. We have to understand that the increase in the incidents of stone disease is due to better awareness and availability of proper diagnosis which helps in getting the right statistics and also because more people are becoming susceptible to it. Interestingly, in Indi
