If you’ve ever spoken to someone with a kidney stone, the describe the pain as being on par with natural child birth. As common as they are, it’s not surprising that there are so many home remedies to try and cure them. Until now, riding roller coasters was probably not even close to the top of the list.
According to a new report: riding a “moderate-intensity” roller coaster helped facilitate the passage of small kidney stones in a dummy on more than 60 per cent of occasions. the inspiration for the research came from scientists at Michigan State University upon hearing that a patient with kidney stones had past one stone after each of three rides on Disney World’s Big Thunder Mountain.
To re-create the experiment, the scientists then made fake kidneys on a 3D printer and filled them with urine and different size stones. They then took those kidneys to Disney World and strapped them into the front seat of big Thunder Mountain. After several tests, they found that the stones passed through the kidneys 16% of the time. However, when they moved the kidneys to the back seat of the ride, that jumped to 63%.
It’s important to note that this seems to only work when the stones haven’t yet grown to an obstructive size. It’s also important to remember that the back seat is where you want to be if you are hoping to pee out a kidney stone at the happiest place on Earth.