Using centripetal force to prevent a $4 billion healthcare cost
1. Doctor finds anecdotal evidence that people are passing kidney stones after riding on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disney World
2. Doctor makes 3-D model of kidney, complete with stones and urine (his own), takes it on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 60 times
3.Ā āThe stones passed 63.89 percent of the time while the kidneys were in the back of the car. When they were in the front, the passage rate was only 16.67 percent. Thatās based on only 60 rides on a single coaster, and Wartinger guards his excitement in the journal article: āPreliminary study findings support the anecdotal evidence that a ride on a moderate-intensity roller coaster could benefit some patients with small kidney stones.āā
4.Ā āSome rides are going to be more advantageous for some patients than other rides. So I wouldnāt say that the only ride that helps you pass stones is Big Thunder Mountain. Thatās grossly inaccurate.ā
5.Ā āHis advice for now: If you know you have a stone thatās smaller than five millimeters, riding a series of roller coasters could help you pass that stone before it gets to an obstructive size and either causes debilitating colic or requires a $10,000 procedure to try and break it up. And even once a stone is broken up using shock waves, tiny fragments and ādustā remain that need to be passed. The coaster could help with that, too.ā
SCIENCE: IT WORKS
Update:Ā
āIn all, we used 174 kidney stones of varying shapes, sizes and weights to see if each model worked on the same ride and on two other roller coasters,ā Wartinger said. āBig Thunder Mountain was the only one that worked. We tried Space Mountain and Aerosmithās Rock ānā Roller Coaster and both failed.āWartinger went on to explain that these other rides are too fast and too violent with a G-force that pins the stone into the kidney and doesnāt allow it to pass.āThe ideal coaster is rough and quick with some twists and turns, but no upside down or inverted movements,ā he said.
MSU Today
I just love this because itās HILARIOUS and yet also a perfect archetypal example of The Scientific Method:
1. Hypothesis
2. Experiment
3. Results
4. DiscussionĀ
5. Conclusions
6. GOTO 1 (the scientific method is iterative, donāt forget that part)
was this likeā¦ done in cooperation with disney management or did some Ā random scientist go through bag check with a 3d printed kidney and a bottle of piss and start looking for big thunder mountain fastpasses
He asked first!
Of course, the researchers had to get permission from Disney World before bringing the model kidney onto the rides. āIt was a little bit of luck,ā Wartinger recalls. āWe went to guest services, and we didnāt want them to wonder what was going onātwo 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, theyāre trying to help people with kidney stones.ā
I love that they didnāt get ADVANCE permission, they really did just show up with a fake kidney in a jar of pee and stroll up like, SO, DISNEY EMPLOYEES, LET US EXPLAIN OUR PEE JAR! ā¦and it still worked.
