Kidney stones – also known as kidney stones – are a very common disease that arises from the crystallization of salts and minerals present in the urine and that can cause very painful episodes for those who suffer from it – some consider this pain comparable to that is suffered during childbirth. The smallest ones can come out through the urine, with more or less ailments depending on their size and shape; and the largest require surgical intervention.
Surprisingly, a study published recently in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association suggests that certain roller coasters could help to expel some of these stones – preferably those that do not exceed 5 millimeters. The research, carried out by two American urologists, indicates that these attractions could facilitate the evacuation of kidney stones, and the measure would be even more effective if the passenger occupies the last car of the attraction.
Several patients of Dr. David Wartinger, a researcher at Michigan State University, were the ones who put him on the trail of this discovery: they told him that after riding roller coasters at the Disney World theme park in Orlando, Florida, they had been able to get rid of your kidney stones. One of them assured that he had evacuated three after riding a couple of times on one in particular: the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a train that crosses a haunted mining town at full speed and is neither the most modern nor the most vertiginous of the park, since it does not exceed 56 km / h and does not even turn its passengers upside down.
This prompted Wartinger, along with one of his colleagues, Dr. Mark Mitchell, to want to study the case in situ : to do so, they 3D printed an artificial model of a kidney made of silicone , inserted three kidney stones into it, and traveled to Orlando to Test it. Carrying it in a backpack, they rode on three different roller coasters at Disney World numerous times.
“In all, we used 174 kidney stones of different shapes, sizes and weights to see what happened,” explains Wartinger. The funny thing is, the only ride it worked on was the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad; while, on the contrary, the experiment failed in the Space Mountain and the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Aerosmith, which are more violent, turn passengers upside down and make the G-force experienced by them greater. The ideal roller coaster would be, according to these conclusions, fast, with some twists and turns, but without turning people upside down or performing inverted movements.
Likewise, they detected that the place occupied by the traveler in the wagon had a significant influence on the success rate of the experiment : the stones were evacuated in almost 64% of cases when they were seated in the last row, compared to 16% when they were installed. in the front part.
Image: Tom Arthur via Wikimedia / CC
