Kidney
stones are mineral deposits found in urine. So is there an easy to get rid of
them?
Turns
out it may be as simple as riding a rollercoaster as reported in the article “Riding
rollercoasters makes it easier to pass kidney stones” published Sep 26,
2016 by Angela Chen, The Verge.
A
study published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association was
conducted by urologist Dr. David Wartinger at Michigan State University and
co-author Dr. Marc Mitchell tested the idea of using rollercoasters to allow
patients to dislodge kidney stones. Most interestingly, this requires no
doctor's visit; anyone with kidney stones can try this.
There
has been no previous study on what causes humans to pass kidney stones.
General, it's known that some types of physical labour will loosen kidney
stones:
1.
Bungee jumping
2.
Bouncing on a trampoline
3.
Dirt bike riding
4.
Violent sneeze
Pregnant
women often pass kidney stones after taking vitamin supplements. However, doctors
had not yet isolated a single trigger that was reproducible....until now.
So
what exactly are kidney stones?
What are kidney Stones
- Drink more Water as Dehydration plays a role
A
kidney stone, also called Nephrolithiasis, is a hard crystalline mineral
material formed within the kidney or urinary tract. Humans have a risk of
developing kidney stones based on the following factors:
1.
Decrease in urine volume
2.
Excess of stone-forming substances in
the urine
3.
Dehydration i.e. not drinking enough
water
1
in 20 or 5% of humans develope kidney stones and is mainly due to dehydration
as I'd explained in my blog article
entitled “How
to find work in Jamaica at Call Centers - Drink Bottled Water as Dehydration
and Salty Foods makes you lose concentration”.
The
symptoms are very severe:
1.
Sever pain in mid-region and groin area
of the body
2.
Hematuria or blood in urine
The
smaller stones, roughly 4mm in size, can often be harmlessly passed through the
ureter to the bladder on their own. The larger stones require lithotripsy or
surgical techniques, with ultrasound being used to confirm that they have
indeed been passed. But passing kidney stones is a painful affair and is
usually accompanies by some Hematuria.
Clearly
though, drinking more water can help prevent the formation of kidney stones,
preferably the usual 8 glasses a day. However, the two had been hearing
anecdotal tales from their patients of riding rollercoasters and passing
kidneys stones, particularly from one of their patients.
So
they decided to try it out for themselves.
How Rollercoaster can
help pass kidney stones - Gravity and sudden turns did the trick
They
did a test using a 3D printed silicon kidney filled with urine and packed
inside of a backpack the same height of a typical person as described in the
article “How
a Roller Coaster Can Help You Pass a Kidney Stone”, published 9/26/16 by
George Dvorsky, Gizmodo.
More
interestingly, the modelled the kidney after one of their patient that had
claimed he consistently passed kidney stones while on Walt Disney World's Big
Thunder Mountain Railroad to quote Dr. David Wartinger: “A kidney looks like a
tree with branches. The forces move the stone from being positioned where a
leaf is located, down through the branches and out through the trunk—and onward
to the bladder. It’s not surprising that the model we used passed kidney stones
on this coaster because it’s based on a gentleman that passed three stones on
this exact roller coaster”.
Thus,
based on this anecdotal information, they took their test subject (can I call
it that?) to Walt Disney World where they rode the following rides as follows:
1.
20 rides on the Big Thunder Mountain
Railroad
2.
20 rides on the Space Mountain
3.
20 rides on the Walt Disney World
railroad
Here’s
a video of each of these rides to get an idea of how they look.
Firs,
try out Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Ok,
now take a ride in Space Mountain.
Finally
try out Walt Disney World railroad
Albeit
the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad isn't a very hard ride to endure, the
moderate left, right and drops cause the test subject to respond in an
interesting way:
1.
64% chance of passing kidney stones if
sitting in the back
2.
17% chance of passing kidney stones if
sitting in the front
It
makes sharp left and right turns, but doesn’t have huge drops or climbs and
children often ride it. Still, even this moderate movement showed promising
results: sitting in the back of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad caused stones
to be passed by the silicon kidney 64 percent of the time. Sitting in the front
caused the stones to be passed 17 percent of the time.
The
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad also dislodged the smaller 4mm stones. So what
does this all mean?
Removing Kidney Stones
helps Three Groups - High G Forces needed in Jamaica
This
finding, which is reproducible by other scientist in the world, means that
gravity can be used to dislodge kidney stones.
It
can help the following types of people with kidney stones:
1.
Patients with small 4mm kidney stones
2.
Patients with larger kidney stones
3.
Young pregnant women planning to become
pregnant why have kidney stones
The
larger stones can be vibrated into smaller fragments using very high frequency
ultrasound. Clearly more research.....and rides on more terrifying roller
coasters and other rides that have high G Forces...is needed.
But
on a practical side, this is more of a reason why Jamaica needs to have a theme
park with a rollercoaster, as it’s guaranteed that kidney stone suffers could
take a ride and lose a stone.
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