Riding a roller coaster might help you painlessly pass kidney stones
More than 500,000 people go to the emergency room every year for kidney stone problems, and about one in 10 people will suffer from a kidney stone at some point in their lives.
But what if instead of incurring huge hospital bills to treat the problem, you could just ride a roller coaster?
A series of patients told Dr. David D. Wartinger, a professor emeritus at Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, that after they rode a roller coaster they passed their kidney stones painlessly. One patient even said he passed three kidney stones after three consecutive rides on the Big Thunder at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Intrigued by the bizarre story, Wartinger decided to initiate a study, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Wartinger and his colleagues made a 3-D printed model of a patient’s kidney and inserted three kidney stones into it. Two sizes, one at 4.5 millimeters and another at 13.5 millimeters, could be passed without medical intervention but would likely still cause discomfort and pain. The last, at 64.6 millimeters (or 2.54 inches), was a large stone and would rarely pass without lithotripsy, the administration of ultrasound shock waves designed to break up the stone into smaller pieces.
After getting permission from Disney World, Wartinger put the model in a backpack and rode Big Thunder 20 times, sitting in the back for some rides and in the front for others.
He and his colleagues found sitting in the back was much more effective, with an average passage rate of 63.9 percent for all three stones. Sitting in the front resulted in an average passage rate of 16.7 percent.
Stones that measure less than 5 millimeters spontaneously pass 50 to 70 percent of the time, according to KidneyStoners.org, an educational website for kidney stone sufferers.
The researchers concluded that riding on a moderate-intensity roller coaster could benefit patients who have kidney stones, and could even act as a preventative treatment for those who get kidney stones frequently.
“Many people in the United States probably live within a few hours’ drive of an amusement park containing a roller coaster with features capable of dislodging calyceal renal calculi,” wrote Wartinger and co-author Dr. Marc A. Mitchell of the Doctor’s Clinic in Poulsbo, Washington.
So instead of “Where Dreams Come True,” maybe Disney World could change its theme to “Cheaper Than Medical Bills for Kidney Stones.” Or, maybe not.
This story was originally published September 26, 2016 at 8:23 AM with the headline "Riding a roller coaster might help you painlessly pass kidney stones."