Taking a ride on these sensational attractions would make it easier to expel kidney stones, according to patients. An unexpected therapeutic virtue confirmed by urologists.
Finding yourself upside down in a loop before making a free fall of several meters would help overcome kidney stones. This treatment seems completely crazy, and yet American researchers have just shown that these attractions are effective in 70% of cases. A conclusion to be found in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.
With his team, Dr. David Wartinger, urologist at Michigan State University, has been trying to assess the benefits of roller coasters for 10 years. “Patients have told me that after having done a roller coaster, they had been rid of their kidney stones,” says the doctor. A patient even told me that he had succeeded in expelling 3 stones after several towers of attraction ”
His curiosity aroused, the urologist wanted to test this disconcerting theory. He then set about making a synthetic kidney in 3D with his colleague Marc Mitchell. The silicone organ was then filled with urine in which were bathed 3 kidney stones smaller than 4 millimeters.
Source: Michigan State University.
Effective in 70% of cases
Once the models were ready, the two researchers took them in backpacks for 20 laps on the famous roller coaster Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, from Disney World Park in Florida. At each turn, the position of the calcium oxalate crystals was recorded. Results: Dr. Wartinger’s patients were not rambling. “In this pilot study, being seated at the back of the train makes it possible to expel the stones in 64% of cases, while being seated in the front can dislodge the stones in 16% of cases”, explains the researcher.
Results confirmed with 174 crystals of different sizes, shapes and weights. The researchers even measured a 70% success rate when they were seated in the very last car of the train. If the crystals are found in the upper regions of the kidney, the success rate reaches 100%.
Black spot with this finding: only the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad seems to have therapeutic virtues. “We tried the Space Mountain and the Aerosmith’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster but both failed,” says Dr Wartinger explaining that these attractions are too violent, and too fast.
So to expel kidney stones while having fun, it is better to choose fast roller coasters with turns than those with loops and inversions. This non-invasive technique would prevent the onset of renal colic which affects 10% of the French population. It even presents itself as an inexpensive way to avoid recurrence, underlines the urologist.
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