VOA慢速英语2016 过山车可以帮助痛苦的状态

Roller Coaster Rides Can Help With Painful Condition 过山车可以帮助痛苦的状态

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

Roller coasters are fast and exciting. But passing a painful kidney 1 stone is not. The process is painful and can take a long time.

But American researchers have found that a roller coaster ride just might help those suffering from a kidney stone. They say such rides help patients pass the stones with a 70 percent success rate.

The findings come from researchers at Michigan State University. They published their findings in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

David Wartinger led the study. He says he became curious after hearing many stories of people who passed kidney stones after going on a fun ride at a theme park in Florida.

Patients told him that after riding a “roller coaster at Walt Disney World, they were able to pass their kidney stones.” One man even said he passed three different stones after going on the ride more than once!

To test whether the claims were true, Wartinger used a 3-dimensional model of a hollow kidney. Inside the model he placed three kidney stones, each no larger than 4 millimeters.

Then he placed the man-made kidney into a backpack. The researchers put the kidney on Disney’s Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster for 20 rides.

There are many variables

Wartinger found that where the person sits on the roller coaster can make a big difference.

He said “in the pilot study, sitting in the last car of the roller coaster showed about a 64 percent passage rate.” Sitting in the first few cars only had a 16 percent success rate.

Researchers decided 2 to expand the study. They rode the same roller coaster with several kidney models. When sitting in the back car, the success rate of passing the stones was 70 percent.

It also mattered where the stones were located in the kidney. The researchers found that stones located in the upper part of the kidney model were passed 100 percent.

Another variable – it depends what kind of roller coaster. When it comes to passing kidney stones, not all roller coasters are equal.

The researchers used 174 kidney stones of differing “shapes, sizes and weights to see if each model worked on the same ride and on two other roller coasters.”

They found that “Big Thunder Mountain was the only one that worked.” The other two roller coasters both failed the test.

Wartinger said the other rides were "too fast and too violent." The movement forced the stones against the side of the kidney. He said that the ideal roller coaster is rough and quick with some twists and turns.

How common are kidney stones?

About 300,000 people in the United States go to hospital emergency rooms with kidney stones each year.

One common treatment for kidney stones -- called lithotripsy -- breaks up larger stones into smaller ones. But Wartinger said the treatment can leave many smaller stones. To solve this problem, he suggested riding a roller coaster “after a treatment when the remnants 4 are still small."

Wartinger thinks roller coaster rides could also be used as a preventative measure. He said that a yearly ride on a roller coaster could even prevent stones from developing.

"You need to heed 5 the warnings before going on a roller coaster," he said. "If you have a kidney stone, but are otherwise healthy and meet the requirements of the ride, patients should try it."

He adds that it’s “definitely a lower cost alternative” to other treatments.

And riding a roller coaster is definitely more fun!

这里是VOA慢速英语健康生活报道。

过山车的速度飞快并且非常刺激。然而，肾结石的治疗过程却痛苦不堪。肾结石治疗不仅痛苦，而且需要漫长的时间。

美国研究人员发现，坐过山车可能会使肾结石患者受益。研究人员表示，研究人员表示，坐过山车可排出体内70％的肾结石。

该研究由密歇根州立大学的人员主导。他们将结果刊登在《美国骨科协会》杂志上。

大卫·瓦特林（David Wartinger）是该研究的负责人。他表示，听说人们在佛罗里达州主题公园坐过山车排出肾结石的事情后，他感到十分好奇。

据肾结石患者称，在迪斯尼乐园坐过山车后，他们排出了体内的肾结石”。还有人说，坐过几次过山车后排出了3种不同的结石！

瓦特林使用空心肾的三维模型来一验真假。他在肾脏模型内放置了三颗肾结石，每颗不超过4毫米。

接着，他将人造肾放入一个背包。研究人员带着肾脏模型在迪斯尼乐园玩了20次巨雷山过山车。

存在多重不稳定因素

瓦特林发现，坐在过山车前排和后排的结果有很大区别。

他说：“初步研究发现，坐在过山车靠后位置排出的肾结石约64％。”而坐在前座排出的肾结石只有16％。

研究人员决定进一步探究研究。他们带着肾脏模型坐上同一辆过山车。这一次他们坐的位置稍微靠后，排出的肾结石达70％。

结石在肾脏中所处位置十分重要。研究人员发现，肾脏模型上方的结石排出率为100％。

另一个不稳定因素是过山车的类型。乘坐不同的过山车，排出肾结石的效果也不同。

研究人员通过174颗“形状、大小和重量不一的肾结石观察，肾脏模型在巨雷山过山车与其他两种过山车的排结石效果。”

他们发现“巨雷山是唯一能够起作用的”。其他两种过山车都测试失败。

瓦特林说，其他过山车过于“迅速、猛烈”。压力迫使结石撞向肾脏的一侧。他说，理想的过山车路线应该是高低不平、迅速、迂回曲折的。

肾结石究竟有多常见？

每年，美国约30万人因肾结石被送进医院急救室。

常见的肾结石治疗方法是碎石术，是指将较大的结石分解开来。但瓦特林指出，这种治疗方法会留下很所小块的结石。为解决这一问题，他建议“经过治疗体内只剩下小块结石时”去坐一次过山车。

瓦特林认为，过山车可作为一项预防手段。他指出，每年乘坐一次过山车甚至可以避免得肾结石。

他还说“坐过山车之前，有一些注意事项”。“如果你是肾结石患者，但身体其他方面健康并且满足乘坐需求，那么就可以试试。”

他补充说，这“绝对是一个代替其他治疗措施的廉价方法”。

而且，乘坐过山车当然更有趣！

Words in This Story

curious – adj. having a desire to learn or know more about something or someone

theme park – n. an amusement park where the rides and attractions are based on a particular theme

3-dimensional – adj. An object that has height, width and depth, like any object in the real world.

hollow – adj. having nothing inside : not solid

factor – n. something that helps produce or influence a result : one of the things that cause something to happen

variable – n. something that changes or that can be changed : something that varies

pilot – adj. done as a test to see if a larger program, study, etc., should be done

rough – adj. having or causing sudden, violent movements

ideal – adj. exactly right for a particular purpose, situation, or person

remnant 3 – n. the part of something that is left when the other parts are gone

heed – v. to pay attention to (advice, a warning, etc.)

alternative – adj. offering or expressing a choice