Urinary stone belt of the earth

The Arab geographers already knew the so-called "stone belt of the earth": "A broad, lower belt extends to Balth , and this the Arab geographers call the stone belt of the earth" (Burnes 1836).

References to the Earth's stone belt can also be found in prose, e.g. in Else Lasker-Schüler's main narrative work: " The effect of the innumerable stones, a world of for instance convoluted star worlds, encircle the land of countries with unopenable stone belts..." (Lasker- Schüler 2002).

Both climatic and social conditions play a role in the formation of the stones in the urinary stone belt, which is why they are also referred to as poverty stones (Fisang 2015).

The urinary stone belt covers the entire globe and affects countries with hot and dry climates (Herold 2020). The stone belt is characterized by high prevalences of urinary stones (10% - 15%).

Parts of the following continents are affected:

• North America (bordering Mexico)
• South America
• Africa (mainly in northern areas, but also in the south)
• Asia (in the south and east)
• Australia (in the northern areas)

In Europe and the USA, due to prosperity, zones have increasingly developed in which calcium oxalate and uric acid stones (see types of urinary stones) are also more prevalent. In the USA, the prevalence is between 12 % - 15 %, in Europe between 5 % - 9 % (Fisang 2015).

1. Burnes A (1836) Travels in India and to Bukhara. Stuttgart and Tübingen in the J. G. Gotta' schen Buchhandlung. 173
2. Fisang C et al (2015) Urolithiasis - interdisciplinary challenge in diagnosis, therapy and metaphylaxis. Dtsch Arztebl Int (112) 83 - 91
3. Herold G et al (2020) Internal medicine. Herold Publishers 657
4. Lasker- Schüler E (1937) Works and letters vol 5: The Hebrew country. Jewish Publishing House 209