Can Kidney Stone Removal Actually Be Fun?

Studies show that kidney stones plagues about 10% of the U.S. population at some point in their lives.

This kidney stone "treatment" started with David Wartinger, MD, who was very observant and also happens to be a urologist, surgeon and professor emeritus at Michigan State in East Lansing, Michigan. Dr. Wartinger has spent a good deal of his several-decade career treating patients with kidney stones.

The kidney stone elimination process can occur practically unnoticed, as most of these mineral deposits are relatively small. If a stone stays in your kidney longer, it will grow and could cause a painful exit.

The physical agony of passing a kidney stone, is often described as being the closest thing a man can ever experience to a natural childbirth. Besides the physical pain, there is the financial cost, which is estimated to be around $3.8 billion every year in the U.S., for emergency room visits, treatment and surgical removal.

Dr. Wartinger began picking up on the fact that patients with the smaller variety of kidney stones reported passing them during a visit to Disney's Magic Kingdom.

One patient rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disney's Magic Kingdom and then passed a small stone. Then he did it again and passed another and then another. Dr. Wartinger said "That was just too powerful to ignore." Dr. Wartinger also said. "I'd been hearing these anecdotal stories for a couple years and then I thought, [OK], there's really something here."

Dr. Wartinger began compiling his patients' experiences and deduced that what the patients often had in common was that that they'd all taken at least a turn riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Its harrowing turns, dips and drops, the near-miss from a giant boulder and a swooping bat are all part of what's advertised as the "wildest ride in the wilderness." There are also stories of people passing small kidney stones after bungee jumping.

Dr. Wartinger decided he'd take on that extraordinary experiment. Dr. Wartinger fashioned a silicone kidney from a 3-D printer model of the kidney belonging to the patient who'd lost three kidney stones on his wild Big Thunder Mountain rides. Then he filled his kidney mock-up with stones and his own diluted urine.

Wartinger and study associate Marc Mitchell then flew to Disney World and set it up with management first upon their arrival. "We went to guest services, and we didn't want them to wonder what was going on, two adult men riding the same ride again and again, carrying a backpack.

We told them what our intent was, and it turned out that the manager that day was a guy who recently had a kidney stone. He called the ride manager and said, do whatever you can to help these guys, they're trying to help people with kidney stones."

On board the train, the two held the model, which was still in the backpack, at about kidney height to simulate what a person with a kidney stone might experience.

They'd already decided that if a stone moved from the area of the calyx, or small "cavern," of the kidney model, where it started, to the trap just above the ureter, they could consider it "passed."

Fortunately, nothing spilled from the backpack. Wartinger noted in his study narrative that, "Care was taken to protect and preserve the enjoyment of the other guests at the park."

It became clear early on that it made a huge difference in the kidney model's "passing" ability if they sat in the front or the rear during the journey, as "There was a lot more whipping around in that rear car."

The scientific consensus was that during the ride, the stones passed nearly 64% of the time.

Wartinger is quick to point out that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad isn't the only one that might instigate kidney stone passage and that everybody's kidney is shaped differently.

Additionally, if people rode multiple roller coasters and similar attractions, it would most likely help them pass any small kidney stones and associated sediment before they could become an incapacitating and costly proposition.

Dr. Wartinger was curious to find out if the rumblings and dives of roller coaster-type rides might actually shake loose kidney stones in real, live subjects. He plan was to do ultrasounds on volunteers with kidney stones before and after, using this detailed data, he will examine both his premise and his methods.

His advice for anyone with a kidney stone smaller than 5 millimeters: "Go ahead and give the roller coaster hypothesis a try. It might save you a lot of pain, both in your gut and in your wallet."

As a chiropractor, I can tell you that I have had many patients who have come to me after being jostled about on amusement park rides. These rides in general do cause the human body physical trauma. My advice is that every kidney stone patient has to weigh out the potential benefit of getting rid of the stones, with the possible physical trauma that these rides can produce, especially if they have a spinal weakness to begin with. After all, every treatment does have inherent risks and a risk to benefit analysis is suggested.

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