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Roller Coasters Could Help People Pass Kidney Stones, Says Study (nbcnews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: Two researchers who took science to the amusement park say they've found that a thrilling roller coaster ride just might help people shake out pesky kidney stones. Dr. David Wartinger of Michigan State University said he'd heard patient after patient tell him about how they had passed kidney stones after riding one particular ride: the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster at Walt Disney World in Orlando. He and a colleague, Dr. Marc Mitchell, had also seen some media reports about people who passed kidney stones while bungee jumping and riding roller coasters. So they decided to leave East Lansing to head to Orlando in the name of medical research. To simulate the human body as best they could, they made an artificial human kidney model out of clear silicone gel and loaded it up with real human kidney stones. They rode the roller coaster holding their kidney contraption between them in a backpack positioned at kidney height. They took 20 rides and noted what happened to each kidney stone. Riding in the back of the roller coaster train seemed to really knock the kidney stones out, they reported in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. "Front seating on the roller coaster resulted in a passage rate of four of 24," they wrote. "Rear seating on the roller coaster resulted in a passage rate of 23 of 36." They mainly tested the one roller coaster ride, and it's a fairly simple one. "The Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster is not a terribly dynamic ride," Wartinger said. "It's not very fast. It is not very tall. It makes sharp left and right turns that have some vibration." Wartinger suspects many different thrill rides would have the same effect. "It's not like there anything unique about this one coaster," he said. The pair have now run their test 200 more times and say the findings are consistent. Now they want to try other amusement park rides.
You got this from Flintstones, 3-Stooges, and/or Onion.com
Table-ized A.I.
Science confirms the theory of thrill rides scaring the piss out of you
"Well, the only thing at amusement parks that causes many rapid shifts in the human body are roller coasters. Now we need a reason to ride them."
"I know, we'll make up some bullshit about kidney stones."
- 1 day of roller coaster rides later
"Holy shit, it actually had an effect. Now we have an excuse to come back here for the next 3 weekends."
Just do sports. Exercise regularly.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
I suppose this will spur research into centrifuge therapy to help patients pass kidney stones.
In about 25 or 30 years the technology will be well-studied enough that we'll see the first installation in a major hospital, and maybe 10 years after that the insurance companies will cover the treatment costs.
Just like how MRI machines were developed.
(In the mean time, doctors will advise kidney stone patients to stay off of roller coasters, because there's no evidence that the therapy is safe or effective.)
Now six flags can change $600 a day and get it from your healthcare plan. medicare rate $40.
Orlando? Best coasters on the planet are in Ohio: Cedar Point (Mellenium Force) and Kings Island (Beast.)
From TFA:
"Riding in the back of the roller coaster train seemed to really knock the kidney stones out..."
Why would this be? What forces apply at the back of the train that don't apply at the front or the middle?
Another thing that causes many rapid shifts in the human body is sex, if you're doing it right. These researchers must truly be geeks not to have thought of that.
Roller coasters? Pfffft! Give me sex any day; if you fall off, you don't have as far to fall.
Yes, my poor wife had several and she had lots of pain, but unfortunately she is in fear of heights or anything like a roller coaster. She would have to be sedated to get on the thing. She drank lots of club soda and took calcium tablets. Needless to say, she has removed these from her diet.
I had abdominal pain and vomiting, went in for an ultrasound which found nothing, and ended up in the ER the next day with a "massive" kidney stone found via contrast X-ray. Several mm, I forget the exact measure. So if the ultrasound broke anything up looking for them, they must've recrystallized into the big one... in any case, laser lithotripsy was used to demolish my stone. As far as the OP's stories of excruciating pain, I can say that for my type of stone I only had to drink a glass of orange juice or grapefruit juice a day to keep my citrate up. If the doctor had told me I needed to eat a battery every day I would've done it...
Mine was a 8x7mm stone, not huge but large enough to block the ureter. The pain was excruciating. It's like nothing else - i've had women who went through multiple labors grade the kidney stone as worse. Dilaudid touched it nicely during the 4 days in the hospital, but I required dosing every few hours and I wouldn't have been able to do anything but sleep on that. When they tried percocet, it was taking 20mg every 4 hours and that wasn't touching it. I would arch my back above a bed because resting on the surface hurt.
Since the pain is caused by the blocked ureter, the solution for me was a urinary stent shoved up my urethra and then manipulated into the ureter. It keeps the urine flowing and instantly relieves the pain. But, you have a stick inside you, and you know it every time you urinate (or move). More uncomfortable than anything else. Also, if you have never pissed blood, it's very unsettling - every time they would mess with the stent or do a lithotripsy i'd piss blood for a day or two.
I required four lithotripsies (going under each time...my memory was for shit that summer) before the stone finally broke up and passed.
Do not recommend kidney stones.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Over supplementation of Vitamin D (particularly D2) is known to cause oxalate stones. I have a metabolic disorder characterized by low D levels, and my endocrinologist had me supplement heavily. The end result was that I was taking powdered kidney stone pills, essentially.
Just FYI
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
So do you think its the G-forces or the vibration? Once the cause has been identified, it wouldn't be too much trouble to simulate it. A small centrifuge or, even easier, a chair with a vibrator.
I wonder if my wife can get a prescription for a Sybian.
Have gnu, will travel.