Doctors at Johns Hopkins and other medical institutions have noticed a curious, if not alarming, increase in children with kidney stones. The painful condition may be a consequence of America's dependence on processed foods with a high-salt content.

The childhood obesity epidemic already has resulted in a dramatic rise in cases of Type 2 diabetes among young children. Fats and sugar are the main culprits in childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes - and the kidney stones may be the result of the other problem with fast food - too much salt. Though kidney stones are still not commonly found among children, specialists who once saw only a handful of cases each year now diagnose many times that number.

"'Five years ago, we used to see maybe a handful of children a year, maybe five or six,' said Dr. Yegappan Lakshmanan, a pediatric urologist at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. 'Now, it's five or six a month. Some are repeat patients, but it's definitely a trend.'"

Kidney stones, once found almost exclusively in adults, are tiny mineral deposits that can cause excruciating pain when they lodge in the urinary tract.

John Hopkins has even established a pediatric kidney stone clinic because of the increased incidence in children, as have the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee and the Harvard-affiliated Children's Hospital in Boston.

Labels: causes of childhood obesity, fast food, fast_food, overweight children