Kidney Stones And Roller Coasters

If you’ve got kidney stones – or you tend to get them – here’s a crazy new prescription: Go ride a roller coaster!

Because instead of experiencing intense pain as the stones slowly move from kidney to bladder, you might dislodge them fast – and completely painlessly – by exposing your body to G‑forces.

How did researchers discover this?

Dr. David Wartinger is a professor of urology at Michigan State University… and he had several patients who claimed to have passed kidney stones after riding roller coasters. Including one man who said he’d passed three stones on three consecutive rides! So, Dr. Wartinger decided to see if he could find scientific proof.

He created 3-D models of kidneys and then, the kidney models were placed in an anatomically correct position in a backpack – and they went for rides on roller coasters in different rows. The result: When the model kidneys were in the coaster’s front row, stones of every size passed into the bladder in 1 out of every 6 rides. But when the kidneys were in the back row – which tends to generate more G’s – the stones were shaken loose 2 out of 3 times! Meaning, anyone sitting in the back row of a moderately-intense roller coaster has a 2-in-3 chance of getting rid of a kidney stone – with zero pain – after just one ride.

So if you’ve got kidney stones – or you tend to get them – here’s your crazy new prescription: Go ride a roller coaster!