Prevailing Urological Disease in Belize is Kidney Stones

Belize is facing a rising concern over kidney stones, one of the leading urological diseases in the country. According to Urologist at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, Dr, Byron Simmons, the prevalence of kidney stones has been increasing in recent years due to lifestyle factors such as poor diet and low water intake. Patients with kidney stones often experience severe pain and discomfort and may require surgery in severe cases. The government of Belize, through the Ministry of Health and Wellness, continuously urges citizens to adopt healthier habits, including drinking plenty of water and consuming a balanced diet, to prevent this debilitating condition. Dr. Simmons says that as lifestyle habits continue to deteriorate, the health of Belizeans is also negatively affected.

Dr.Byron Simmons, Urologist, Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital: “The prevailing condition in both sexes is renal stones, bladder stones, also in the male population what is very common is what we call obstructive prostatic hyperplasia whereby the prostate grows and the man has severe difficulty to pee. Also prostate cancer is a problem in our population so basically those would be the three most frequent pathologies we have in Belize but of course there are many other types of problems. Well like many things we have now realized that many pathologies that present a product of our lifestyle and so inevitably these cases have increased as our lifestyle has deteriorated in terms of doing exercise, living healthy, diet, abusing certain substances such as cigarettes, alcohol and so forth.”