EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN — A Michigan State University urologist has discovered that riding on a specific type of roller coaster could help people pass kidney stones.
“Basically, I had patients telling me that after riding a particular roller coaster at Walt Disney World, they were able to pass their kidney stone.I even had one patient say he passed three different stones after riding multiple times,” David Wartinger, a professor emeritus in the Department of Osteopathic Surgical Specialties told the Science Daily.
Wartinger conducted with experiment with kidney stones smaller than the size of 4 mm filled in a 3D model of a hollow kidney. After riding at the Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster at the theme park for 20 times, the stones were successfully passed.
He told the Science Daily that a roller coaster which is rough and quick with some twists and turns could successfully help patients to pass their kidney stones, whereas roller coasters that are too fast with upside down or inverted movements would not have the same effect.
Furthermore, sitting in the front of the roller coaster only has about 16% success rate of passing the kidney stones while sitting in the last car of the ride increases the rate to 64%.
