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Prize-Winning Medical Research Shows Roller Coasters Help Dislodge Kidney Stones

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Prize-winning medical research shows that riding a roller coaster can help dislodge kidney stones.

On Thursday, the organization Improbable Research presented their 2018 Ig Nobel Prizes, awards that annually recognize research that "makes people laugh and then think."

The prize for medical research went to Marc Mitchell and David Wartinger, who found that riding on a roller coaster may help hasten the passage of kidney stones.

According to the study, multiple patients of Mitchell and Wartinger's said they passed kidney stones after riding the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster at Walt Disney World, so the doctors decided to do some research.

They used a silicone model of a renal system with artificial kidney stones and took it with them to Disney World, where they rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 20 times.

Their conclusion was that the ride did, in fact, help the passage of kidney stones.

The full study was posted in "The Journal of American Osteopathic Association."

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