Seven years after Michigan State University researchers found that riding the Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster in Magic Kingdom could help speed the passage of kidney stones, one TikToker put this discovery to the test, placing her urinary woes into Mickey Mouse’s weirdly-gloved paws.


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“Basically, I had patients telling me that after riding a particular roller coaster at Walt Disney World, they were able to pass their kidney stone,” David Wartinger of Michigan State University’s Department of Osteopathic Surgical Specialties quipped of how he discovered Big Thunder Mountain’s kidney stone-evicting powers.  “I even had one patient say he passed three different stones after riding multiple times.”


Upon hearing these rave reviews, Wartinger decided to put these anecdotal claims to the test, taking to the coaster with a model kidney holding three small stones.


“In the pilot study, sitting in the last car of the roller coaster showed about a 64 percent passage rate, while sitting in the first few cars only had a 16 percent success rate,” he explained of his findings, which ultimately appeared in Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.



In the spirit of clinical peer reviewing (and let’s be real here, some probably very much-needed pain relief) content creator Steph Fallon took to TikTok with a clip recounting a recent kidney-focused trip to Disney, one that began by catching a 6 a.m. flight from their New Jersey home to the Floridian vacation destination. After arriving at the park, Fallon  – equipped with Dole Whip and a commemorative Disney button reading “I’m Celebrating Passing a Kidney Stone” – headed towards the ride, one she dubbed the “kidney stone coaster.”


“We rode in the very back row like all of the articles online said that you had to do to pass the kidney stone,” she explained in her clip.


One painful flight return later, Fallon quickly realized the experiment worked. “The next morning I woke up and was literally shocked. I had passed the kidney stone,” she recalled.


“10/10 would recommend after a week of constant pain,” she wrote.


Disney World – a whole lot cheaper (and fun) than a trip to the ER!