Let this be a reminder to drink more water. Hong Kong actor Raymond Cho, 60, recently made a guest appearance on TVB health show Med With Doc, in which he shared his painful experience with kidney stones.

He first developed kidney stones in his 20s and suspected it was because he frequently held in his pee.

Raymond recalled that back then, he worked night shifts at a supermarket. Because of his impatient nature, he often held in his urine and this soon became a habit.

“Each time I’d hold it in for two to three hours, and this went on for about a year. A few months in, I started feeling pain,” he said.

The pain was once so severe Raymond had to be hospitalised for six days.

“Once it started hurting, it just wouldn't stop. The pain came from the back… you couldn't press on it, it started from inside, and it was very severe,” he recounted.

Doctors advised him to drink more water to pass the stone naturally.

Although Raymond did not require surgery, the pain was so intense, he needed morphine injections every day for relief.

A few years ago, the actor developed kidney stones again, but this time the stone had moved into the urethra, becoming a urethral stone. The urethra is the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the outside of the body.

Raymond noted that he did drink more water, but reckoned that he perspires too much, so the water intake was not enough.

“It was a different kind of pain. Sometimes I couldn't pee at all, other times I could but it was extremely painful. I even saw blood in my urine. That’s when I finally saw a doctor and learned it was kidney stones again,” he said.

Raymond took painkillers and waited until filming ended before he was admitted to the hospital.

Again, he did not undergo surgery, and managed to pass the stone by drinking lots of water.

Though Raymond believed his condition was caused by holding in pee, the doctor clarified on the show that there is no direct link between urine stored in the bladder and kidney stones.

Instead, it is more likely due to physically demanding work, lots of sweating, and forgetting to drink water, said the doc. This leaves the body in a dehydrated state, which increases the risk of stones.

Besides insufficient water intake, a diet high in salt also increases the risk by concentrating the urine, which encourages crystals to form and eventually become stones.

The doctor added that kidney stones often have no obvious symptoms in the early stages.

But when a stone enters the narrow ureter, it can cause intense pain, a condition known as acute renal colic.

In severe cases, it can lead to hydronephrosis, fever, sepsis, or even kidney failure requiring dialysis. If both medication and surgery fail, the condition can be life-threatening.

Photos: TVB, Raymond Cho/Weibo