If you need a remedy for kidney stones, try the roller-coaster

The high-tech age has a new lowtech remedy for painful kidney stones: Get on a not-too-scary roller-coaster, and sit at the back.

This is not fringe medicine. A new study published Monday in the (very mainstream) Journal of the American Osteopathic Association cites a string of cases where men and woman passed kidney stones ( basically peed them away) after a roller-coaster ride.

Dr. David Wartinger of Michigan State University became curious after one patient, then another, then others, passed kidney stones after riding the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller-coaster at Walt Disney World in Orlando.

One man passed three stones after three rides.

Passing stones is better in every way than waiting until the stone grows and requires surgery.

Wartinger did what any medical professor would do: He printed a three-dimensional model of the kidney that passed three stones, together with the three stones, all in clear silicone.

Then his team packed the model into a knapsack and climbed aboard Big Thunder Railroad — 20 times. (They got permission from the amusement park to do this, though it’s unclear why they didn’t simply buy a ticket like everyone else.)

Sitting in the rear seat of the ride resulted in stones being passed in the model kidney 63.89 per cent of the time. Front-seat rides resulted in a passage rate of 16.67 per cent, they report.

This is only one small study, so the authors are cautious in their claims.

They say: “Preliminary study findings support the anecdotal evidence that a ride on a moderate-intensity roller-coaster could benefit some patients with small kidney stones.”