In 2014, I went on a double loop coaster. On the first loop, I had my head down instead of against the head rest. That mistake cause 2 discs to burst and a critical spinal cord compression. I needed a cervical fusion from c5 to c7. My dr told me prior to surgery that if I fell or got into a car accident, it would cause paralysis or death.
It's probably a rare injury. Just keep your head against the headrest for loops!
This is a description of my very first roller coaster ride; I met the height requirement but I was sooo small. I didn’t have enough strength to hold my head against the seat. So painful.
I had that same surgery about 15 months ago. The only difference is the reason for the fusion. Mine was that my spinal column had narrowed and was nearly pinching my spinal cord.
Hello he was joking, I can go on them if I want but he but does think they are sketchy and nobody should be on them because they can scramble your eggs. Essentially
It’s probably gonna be tbi (traumatic brain injury)- any shaking of the skull can cause damage or harm to the brain structure. They’ve found that even shaking your head or pretend head banging etc can be enough in some cases to cause bleeding of the brain.
Seems like rollercoasters are just a speedrun version of brain damage if other things so small can cause such damage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1zJsVE32mE <- this is how I learned to work on TMJ issues in massage school. If it goes up to your temples, that might be in tension headache territory rather than purely TMJ issues.
I'd say watch that video, try out the massage technique and see if it helps. And use heat on your face/scalp/jaw at night (I like to do it while I'm reading in bed, I just kinda hide under my heating pad lol). That should kinda loosen things up before you sleep, and make you less likely to grind your teeth at night (I really like the DIY mouthguards for teeth grinding, they're so inexpensive and help so much.)
If it extends to your temples, I'd say try one of these:https://www.sephora.com/ca/en/product/sephora-collection-scalp-massager-P472069
They feel absolutely heavenly if you carry a lot of tension in your face/scalp. I use it while I'm reading at night, or just at my desk.
(sorry for the big wall of info, just putting my expensive and unused massage education to some use lol)
1000% do not use a massage gun on your neck ever bc that can cause a stroke afaik. Those should really only be used on big muscles that have already been warmed up with a heating pad for 10-15 minutes (or they're not going to be "ready" for a deeper tissue massage like that)
Correct - I learned recently that’s actually quite dangerous
ETA - whoops I misread, what I learned was about using it on your neck. So I’d assume temple is probably worse? Idk
For God's sake please come back to tell us cause it's 1:45 am and i can't calm my brain down enough to sleep, so maybe knowing after all these years will let me get some much needed rest
I went to a park with my cousin as teenagers and rode a really big fun rollercoaster. Dude passed out while we were going through some hard turns and woke up when the ride stopped. No idea why it happened but he didn't ride those kinds of rides anymore lol
Welcome back. Just a small comment I didn't expect to get attention. It's not a common joke or anything but CTE and other memory issues reminds me of a book I read as a kid
In slaughter house five by Kurt Vonnegut the main protagonist time travels through memory rather than physically.
I'm just pretending your brain trauma is caused by time travel rather than CTE. Coincidental the protagonist might have received head injuries during his time in war.
Short book if you are into old classics
That’s actually been on my reading list for a while, before the internet destroyed my attention span. I’ll definitely check it out. One of these days.
I have the day off so I am reading the interesting looking comments. Haha
My life changed so much when I learned that you can just like, ask your doctor a follow up question for free.
There's a side effect? You aren't getting better? You need a refill? Don't need to go back in person (most times).
I've never gone back to seeing individual private doctors once I joined a comprehensive health system that uses MyChart. Messaging the doctor a question, requesting for refills, and being able to view your past visit notes and lab work easily for free. It's a complete life changer and I seriously hope it never enshittifies.
I just got back from seeing a lawyer, asked him what his rate was, and he says "I charge $500 for three questions." I said, "Gee, don't you think that's a bit expensive?" And he says, "Yes, I do. Now what's your final question?"
I found this: [https://www.neurologyadvisor.com/features/a-closer-look-at-long-term-neurologic-injury-risk-due-to-roller-coaster-rides/#:\~:text=%E2%80%9CAdvances%20in%20roller%20coaster%20technology,cause%20of%20subdural%20hematomas%20in](https://www.neurologyadvisor.com/features/a-closer-look-at-long-term-neurologic-injury-risk-due-to-roller-coaster-rides/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAdvances%20in%20roller%20coaster%20technology,cause%20of%20subdural%20hematomas%20in)
From the article:
> Although the majority of these incidents resulted from falling in, on, off, or against an amusement park ride, numerous case studies over the years have described neurologic injuries that appear to have occurred in the absence of any impact.
> Rates of hospitalization (1.5% annually) and death (4.5 per year) associated with amusement park rides, including roller coasters, are relatively low.2,4 However, the “neurologic complications after roller-coaster rides can be potentially catastrophic,” according to a 2016 case report published in Pediatrics.4 “Some of the rare complications that have been described include dissection of vertebral artery and internal carotid artery with or without concomitant stroke, intraparenchymal hemorrhage, subdural hemorrhage, and posttraumatic migraine,” the investigators noted.
> The investigators noted that numerous spinal cord injuries caused by roller coaster rides have been reported, including 656 injuries that occurred in a 19-month period in 932,000 rides on 1 roller coaster in Texas.5 While most of these injuries were classified as mild, 39 were severe and primarily involved herniations of the cervical nucleus pulposus.4 “Given this, it is reasonable that our patient’s cervical nucleus pulposus could have herniated and ejected into the blood supply of her anterior spinal cord during the roller-coaster ride,” they wrote.5
I played football in college, had to stop because incomprehensibly bad concussions. I used to love rollercoasters etc, now I can’t even go on stationary rides that barely spin because I get sick to my stomach instantly.
> I played football in college, had to stop because incomprehensibly bad concussions.
Yeah, good luck getting the opposing team to chill out when they're playing for scouts.
College football is so much more entertaining to watch as a sports fan, but seeing those kids hit each other like they do is like watching a country's bright future get beat into a CTE-riddled mess.
I can't watch football anymore, makes me feel like I'm sitting in the Roman coliseum watching people kill each other. We just don't appreciate our brains nearly enough.
This was the largest factor in my rapid decline in interest for football, though not the only one.
At some point, I just couldn’t stop thinking about the long term effects after each hard tackle. That transformed into every play once I learned how rough it is on the linemen.
Turns out, entertainment isn’t entertaining for me if people are (whether knowingly or unknowingly) killing themselves in order to produce it.
Not just the fallout for the player, either; think about their friends and family on the receiving end of their increasingly violent and unhinged outbursts as their own brain devolves into a broken mess. Friendships torched at the drop of a hat, kids yelled at, spouses beat, it's just tragedy all around. It takes a real psycho to just look past it all and still enjoy the 'sport' knowing all the harm it can cause and lives it can ruin.
Just a reminder that it isn't just, or evenly primarily, the big hits that cause CTE. It's the repeated "smaller" hits, like the offensive and defensive lines coming together every play.
This was the main reason I decided after spring ball my junior year that I would not come back to play the following season. The way I saw it, I had gotten about as much as I could out of playing ball and another (one last) season just wasn’t worth the potential damage I WOULD have done to my brain batter. I felt like such a quitter POS but I already sacrificed plenty and still had the rest of my life to think about.
Have seen the CollegeHumor/Dropout skit they did on this? It's one of those "funny" skits that gets less and less funny as you realize how real it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQtSdsR1-H8
Damn that’s why I started having extreme motion sickness ever since I got a bad concussion motorbiking. Well I have had several but I have never linked those two together but that tracks.
I had a grade 3 concussion with amnesia from tripping and hitting my head and also get extremely nauseous even turning around quickly. A full circle even at snail speed makes me nauseous, as well.
My daughter had 2 concussions within a year at age 9 (the first she was hit in a very bad way) and has never been the same. She has POTS from them and motion sickness in cars and even just playing minecraft. Her life is fucked up and it's like it gets worse as she gets older, she's 14 now. Just walking hurts her head some days.
Shit. I love roller coasters. I also have a very bad neck. Some have def made my neck worse. I guess I shouldn't ride them any more. I'm 65. I can probably live without them but they really are the only ride I love.
I will put money on extra injury when a coaster goes down loaded and a car hits the locked up checks at speed. I worked at a park for 5 years as a kid and there were a couple of coasters that had brutal checks when they locked up. Dont get me wrong, way better for them to fail shut when the ride goes down, but the unexpected hard stop is brutal. Had it happen to me during a test ride when the park lost power. I knew the power went out and what that meant for the end of the ride so I could brace for it, but most guests wouldnt have a clue. And if it was a prox fault or some kid slipping the gates into the ride area (instant estop on that one) there would be no sign to the riders that they were going to go 30-0 in a couple of feet.
They were talking about the *rate*, which is just a mathematical construct. With an annual rate of 4.5 deaths, you'd expect four or five deaths per year or nine deaths every 2 years.
Make sense.
I got lucky once, the park was almost empty. Got to do the same rollercoaster like 10-15 times in a row. Then I had the symptoms of a concussion for several days after.
I have a spontaneous spinal fluid leak. Mine happened when I coughed with pneumonia but other people I've encountered online have gotten them from chiropractors and roller coasters. I was told no roller coasters ever again from my nuero.
I found this interesting:
> Findings from a 2009 study suggest that head motions during roller coaster rides typically confer a very low risk for traumatic brain injury (TBI), and a 2017 study found that brain strain rates during roller coaster rides were similar to those observed during running and lower than those that occur during soccer headers
I used to go to the six flags by my house on Sunday mornings. We could ride all the rides with no lines until about noon, including the roller coasters. Several times on a Monday/Tuesday I’d feel off, have a bad neck strain or feel dizzy. It didn’t occur to me that I was probably giving myself a slight concussion every time we went.
Yea, I believe that some new-ish modern metal rollercoasters can be nice and smooth all the way through, but OMG older wooden rollercoasters can be exceptionally laterally jerky, kind of like being in a small car crash.
When I was in high school I went on a very intense wooden rollercoaster, and I was an extremely fit four sport athlete, and yet, I got a spine injury that tingled from that day on every day for 10 years. I can only imagine the force on a person's spine who is obese or non muscular.
The only wooden rollercoaster that doesn't leave me with a headache after is "The Beast" at Kings Island. It may be close to 5 minutes long but it's the smoothest ride I've ever had on one.
Completely opposite experience. Beast totally brutalized me as a teenager. I also rode Son of Beast before they took the loop out and that was pretty gnarly, too.
Got a memory from when I was 12ish a friend and I were there on a day with no lines and the operators just let us ride that thing 20 times in a row without having to go around
I would have died lol. I rode it maybe 5 or 6 times, the lines were always brutal. The last time we rode it something was weird, it seemed really slow and loud, and that loop felt like I was gonna fall out. A few days later is when those people got banged up too. I never rode it again after that. I'll stick to the nasty old Racer and White Water Canyon lol
Word, I waited an hour and a half in close to 100 degree weather wearing ALL BLACK because I was simply dying for the goth art at the time, and after I got off that thing I had to lie down on the concrete for a few minutes because I was having a back spasm at fucking *15*. This was late June in '06, and then like a week later I had that "oh shit that could have been ME" moment when I was reading about the rose bowl incident.
Speaking of Racer there was an incident I personally experienced where the seatbelt wouldn't buckle and I had to hold on for dear life the whole way through. I've never been so terrified of getting air. Told the ride operator when I got off. I presume they checked things out and there was some downtime before the train was sent out again, but after that particular experience I had to go sit down for a bit. That was enough adrenaline for me that day.
Vortex gave me a concussion once. I still rode it after that for some reason though but I always regretted it. Flight of Fear is honestly the only coaster I can say I actually enjoyed every time, and might consider getting on today lol
I love the Vortex. I haven't been to Kings Island in like 10 years but last time I went me and my buddy got stoned in the parking lot and rode it a few times, it was a hell of a fun day.
I think even without the jerkiness, it's still not good for your body to be whipped around so aggressively. The dizziness that person dealt with wasn't due to jerkiness...
Also, modern coasters have gotten WAYYY more intense, with steeper and faster drops, bigger loops and corkscrews and more. SO much faster than those old wooden ones.
Your muscular physique is probably what did you in. There a lot of cushioning in fat. You took all the force straight to the spine through your muscles.
Being obese makes it easier. I'm the smallest in my family and was relatively skinny yet chubby, but not as overweight as the rest of my family. They didn't like riding with me because they would get thrown around more instead of staying in place.
I'm 50 and grew up on the oldies at Canada's Wonderland. I always loved the woodens and don't mind the shake and Gs.
For me, those damn "stand-ups" that have/had the padded u-shaped drop down bars that go around your neck and down your chest HURT because I'm short. Every time there is a corkscrew or inversion my head would slam back and forth between them giving me a immediate headache.
I quit riding ones with those harnesses pretty quickly.
I love me some rollercoasters. Like went to the major Orlando theme parks.
We were at SeaWorld (not a fan of the animal abuse, got in for free...great coasters) and rode some of them like 6 times in a row because there was ZERO line, they just let us stay on.
Went to something like Space Mountain (I think it was Space Mountain). Rode that thing once and was like "Alright, never again".
Point is that a newer roller coaster like Mako (2016) is an absolute blast, I'll ride that all the time. Shit like Space Mountain (1975) are downright painful.
I won't even approach those bench seat janky wooden roller coasters.
So I agree with you 1000%. A modern steel coaster can be absolutely smooth and amazing with great seats and restraints. The 50 year old things absolutely suck and nobody should ride those.
My favorites were the suspended coasters, where instead of sitting in the car, the car was upside-down and you sat in a seat that swung side-to-side. The ride just seemed so much smoother.
I don't ride coasters anymore (I'm old), but there's one called Alpengeist at Busch Gardens in Virginia, and it's great. I remember thinking the ride was really smooth, not a head-banger.
> OMG older wooden rollercoasters can be exceptionally laterally jerky, kind of like being in a small car crash.
there was a metal inverted coaster that was called Top Gun when it opened at Paramount Canada's Wonderland back in the day. it's still there under another name now but...it would give you literal concussions because the restraints came down over top, so your head was basically between two hard rubber bumpers.
it was already an incredibly jarring coaster...but then add it the fact that it's bouncing your head side to side the entire time lol.
I was given tickets for a park by a family friend that worked there and I just decided I was *just* gonna ride the coaster, I think I did it 4 or 5 times in a row... then got a nosebleed and figured I should probably take a break.
I went on oblivion at Alton Towers (you know, the one that goes down vertically at ludicrous speeds). It was the first roller coaster I ever went on.
There was no line for it at the time so I decided that I wanted to have another go.
I went on that bitch about 20 times and after I then stopped and went to get some food I don't remember the rest of the day. I was like 14 at the time.
Apparently I got a nosebleed and almost passed out, so my dad just walked me around for the rest of the day, and I was acting fine.
But I woke up the next day and just no recollection of what happened for the rest of that day, was very wierd.
Busch gardens opened a new one called Pantheon a few years ago. It's super fun. But one day I did it a few times and by the 3rd or 4th time I felt like I was starting to gray out on some of the deeper twists and turns.
Ever since then I always feel like I'm on the edge of losing consciousness at certain points of the ride. So I avoid it now, even though it's my favorite :(
I got a bad one on one of those rides when I was a kid. I didn't tell anyone, went on more and now I'm a brain damaged Reddit user.
But seriously never seen the advice given to the OP before, but I certainly agree with it.
First time I rode a roller coaster I was 9 and it was The Rattler when it was all wood. That thing fucked me up. I slammed my head into the side of the seat on a turn and got a black eye plus some neck pains that still haunt me. If I sneeze the wrong way that same damn crick in my neck will pop up for several days. I only ride little baby coasters now.
Iron wolf at six flags before it was torn down was actually fucked up. It was a standing coast but had hard pads on both sides of you ears. That shit would smack your head till your ears would bleed.
I remember they would make you take out your earrings before riding that one because it would fucking destroy your ears. I wonder how many people got medical bills from that ride before they started enforcing that rule.
Do you remember Shockwave? Never failed to get a headache after riding that one. I remember having to try and hold your head to one side so that your head didn't play bongos on the harness
My son is epileptic and can not go on rollercoasters. He did prior to asking and he actually passed out almost seized. Not sure what it does to the brain. My guess is something with equilibrium.
Oh that makes a lot of sense I’m not epileptic but had seizures if he wasn’t joking that’s probably why but he did fix what was causing it. I will probably just stay off them to be safe. I hope your son is okay
Yeah turns out it’s not a good idea to have your brains slosh around in your skull, especially if you’ve got a preexisting condition that affects the brain
Yeah “you can’t ride rollercoasters because of your seizure but go take direct kicks to the head I’m sure you’ll be fine” doesn’t sound like the opinion of someone who is qualified to be a doctor.
Edit: I’m not questioning whether neurosurgeons are smart or anything but let’s be honest, if this guy had some real reasoning to back up his claim that no one should ride coasters at all, there would be papers and news articles and talk show appearances.
These things never happened because that claim is unfounded. Again I’m not saying the guy isnt smart or isn’t qualified to do surgery, but he made a ridiculous claim according to OP with no evidence anyone else has ever seen. That calls into question his credibility on what people should do outside of his operating room.
I can see it. It's always a balancing act between what's good and what the patient will actually do. "You can go to amusement parks but don't do this very particular thing" is much more likely to be followed than "quit the sport you love", so if the actual risk is relatively low in both cases, it can make sense to recommend that but not the other clearly more dangerous thing.
For me the difference would be in kickboxing you can always stop whenever you feel discomfort or pain. On a rollercoaster you're on it until it ends. There's no stopping if you have an episode.
This one actually makes sense to me. Or maybe also that it could aggravate an episode to be more severe. Good point. Combined with another theory that it’s what OP is likely to listen to poses a theory id give decent odds to.
That said, what if he starts having a seizure then takes a kick to the face a millisecond later or something, I have to imagine that would still be so damaging. I really wish I could know for sure if this neurosurgeon was in sync with your theory here.
You see why I was also confused. I have seen a lot of horrible injuries in MMA, but I just do it for recreation with no plans to fight amateur. We have to wear protective gear. I mean he operated on me and I’m fine and my brain is supposedly anatomically normal now.
If it helps your understanding, the seizure was a really really uncommon side effect of what I had. Most people don’t get them and he’d only seen one other patient with my diagnosis seize and it was a little kid. It scared me that I had that strange side effect because I had been talking to Doctor Google and knew it was rare, so I did ask him when I first met him about that. He pretty much just said everyone’s bodies are different and can react in different ways
I almost blacked out on a big rollercoaster at six flags. Going violently down and straight up again did something to the blood flow in my head and eyes.
Because he is a really strange guy I couldn’t really feel comfortable to talk to him for some reason. I don’t think he liked me. I guess I could’ve but I didn’t want him to think I’m dumb or wasting his time
Call the front desk and leave the question with them. They can ask and leave you a response.
I assume you were at the doctor for an important thing, so you need to know for sure. (Especially since roller coasters are awesome…but you NEED to know if it will harm you)
That’s a good idea another person said email him but I will do this. Thank you
Also I am okay now, I wanted to celebrate with going to a theme park because yes rollercoasters are so awesome
Also if you are prone to vertigo, it makes it 1000 times worse.
The last roller coaster I rode that was a thrill ride was a double loop coaster at Six Flags. I did manage to hold on to my lunch until I got off and got to a nearby trash can, but it was a near thing.
Now the best I can do is the kiddle coasters, and even that will mess with me.
A lot of neurosurgeons are literally geniuses that have poor social skills - I assure you he’s not intentionally making you feel inferior, he would likely welcome a question or two where his profession is concerned.
This is someone who CHOSE to do brain surgery. I'd be surprised if he wasn't a bit strange. /s YMMV but I've found bringing someone along can often be quite helpful, especially when dealing with specialists.
A list of stuff you want to ask about can also help a lot. Let the doctor do their talking, and then quickly skim through them to find out about anything else you wanted to know.
Hate to tell you, but if you’ve ever had any kind of a stroke, roller coasters are out. And if you’re extremely nearsighted because you have elongated eyeballs, your boxing career is over before it even started, because retinal detachment ain’t no joke.
Myopia is some body horror shit, like what the fuck do you mean my eyes are getting more oblong every year. And if they get too long my retina can just, detach. What the fuck.
Apparently my moms eyes can just detach at any time not even necessarily with any sort of impact, just by themselves , it's kind of wild to think one day your eyes can just go "we out"
My neurologist said if he saw me on a rollercoaster, he'd stop the ride and make me get off. He was treating me for an impinged nerve from a displaced disc in my neck causing numbness in my arm and fingers for the second time in a year. He said you can only go to the well so many times and then the damage can be permanent.
I’ve experience the same twice as well but don’t know anyone with the same problem. May I ask how you guys are treating it? I know everyone’s different but just wondering what worked/didn’t work for you. Thank you.
I don't know if I'm in exactly the same boat but I ended up with some nerve damage and numbness in my arm from pushing a box funny, something 'jiggled' under my bicep and now right in-between my shoulder blades and back it feels like a hot poker or getting a tattoo most of the time, this was about 10 years ago at this point and it's still there (the pain and the numbness)
A Tens unit can block the pain while in use by releasing endorphins and blocking pain. It gave me great relief, maybe give it a try. Mine was from pulling a patient up. The person I was helping pull up their patient forgot to lock the brakes on the bed. So it jerked unevenly and I wrenched my neck. Your nerve damage sounds severe. I've heard of people getting a tens unit surgically implanted for chronic back pain, maybe something to look into if your quality of life is that affected.
I'll have to look into it! thanks! oof that sucks, sorry that happened.
It's certainly gotten a bit better, but at this point I'm not sure if it just me acclimating to it or what, it's not constant anymore thankfully and it's not debilitating, it's honestly more annoying than anything, nice thing is It's made getting tattoos relatively painless in comparison, I just about fell asleep getting one on the slightly numbed arm haha
Legal weed doesnt hurt either haha
Physical therapy, the goal was to move the cervical disc just enough to get off the nerve, not to completely correct it's position. First time took a full 6 weeks of PT to get the feeling back to my whole arm and alleviate the burning pain. Second time it wasn't as severe, just tingling numbness to my fingers. For ongoing pain, a tens unit is a great thing to use at home intermittently. (I bought one for home use, inexpensive on Amazon.) Better posture and not looking down too much(like at your phone) helps too. I'm prone to whiplash like symptoms from rough bumpy vehicle rides. So I guess a rollercoaster would do similar motions.
We had a case in med school where a patient had a dissection of his vertebral artery (goes along the spine in your neck) which gave him essentially stroke-like symptoms. The patient got it (probably) from riding a roller coaster and had his neck violently bend due to the ride. The hospital had a couple of roller coaster-induced cases like this each year. Not that common though considering how many persons that rides them each year.
I think the best answer above is emailing him to ask for clarification, but to help you on your research I think I have a reasonable bit of information.
Our heads are made to take a significant amount of impact but even with that we have delicate and mushy pink and gray matter floating wrapped in a shrink wrap (pia mater), floating a squishy foam (several layers of other kinds of mater, in a hard helmet (boney skull).
Rollercoaster with the quick accelerations and stops along with hard turns and twists, toss out brains around in our skulls. It's really not the best thing for our brains and our necks/spinal column to be taking such extreme changes in forces so quickly.
Newtons first law, stationary objects stay stationary unless acted upon. So your body is at rest but when the rollercoaster accelerates your body goes with it, but your insides including you brain lag until it is pushed by the inside back wall of you skull. Same with stops with the inside front.
The doctor may have been sarcastic or making a joke, but I'd email him if you are concerned.
Old neuroscience RN here (meaning I'm both an old RN and I worked neuroscience): rollercoasters can cause dissections of the vertebral and carotid arteries. I've seen it.
When we say "dissection," we mean that the muscle layers that form the walls of an artery have split. They don't split all the way through, but they do split enough to form a little pocket where blood can get trapped. That blood can then clot up and those clots can be shot to the brain and cause a stroke. The usual treatment for this is to be in the hospital for a while on blood thinners, then continue blood thinners at home. Those drugs reduce the chances of blood clotting in ways that could knock your brain for a loop.
Rollercoasters can also jack up your neck, especially if you have a pre-existing problem with the vertebrae or discs in there. If you've had neck surgery, the surgeon will tell you to stay away from anything that's designed to make your head wobble around or designed for hard starts and stops. (Yeah, a car wreck could screw up your neck, but you're not generally intending to get into a wreck when you start driving.) Bumper cars are another big no-no.
Shoot your neurosurgeon an email. Don't worry about him being weird or thinking you're weird for asking. Neuroscience physicians are very strange people to begin with; very little strikes them as odd.
Well, I'm no neurologist, but my husband and I went on one rollercoaster 3 times in a row and then he started getting a headache later in the day. That night it was so bad he started throwing up. The whiplash/concussion combo took him out of work for 6 months (he couldn't look at screens) and he had to do months of physio and concussion therapy. He spent about 6 months in a dark room listening to audio books on very low volume because he couldn't tolerate light or read. He went into a serious depressive episode for about a year after that. To this day he has short-term memory and focus issues that he didn't have before.
So yeah, be careful with rollercoasters.
Every roller coaster has rules that must be followed at all times. And restrictions on who can and cannot get on the ride.
The no ride list includes
- Heart problems
- pregnancy
- post OP
- Drugs or alcohol
- Back and neck problems
- Height restrictions (too short or too tall)
- Loss of use of both legs or both arms (one leg and one arm is fine, must be able to hold on and walk)
- Certain Mental Health Issues
- Problems with your vision
Anyone must also be able to follow instructions and get off the ride independently.
So yes, roller coasters can cause health problems if you have them. A few people have died from ruptured arteries or sudden heart attacks.
My neurologist and many neuro professionals say NO CHIROPRACTORS
NO CHIROPRACTORS
NO CHIROPRACTORS
No bungle jumping.
And keep your head neutral on skydiving and rollercoasters. Can’t control the the head and spine neutrality- avoid.
There are neurosurgeons in Reddit, and Neuro RNs, and people who have gotten the same advice. It’s not like OP has a scalpel in hand and is asking Reddit what to do next. They aren’t asking for medical advice at all
I was a medic at an amusement park, every coaster had at least one person get banged up each year. The loop roller coaster especially would jostle necks, had to collar and transport a lady one time because she said she had tingles in her fingers. The steel coaster e-brakes were rough as hell too, every time they engaged we had to go up and asses everyone before it could move again. Then there was my favorite boy, the antique wooden coaster from the days of "we can't build em too high but we can smack em around a bit to make up for that" design theory. Lots of bruised hips and shoulders, as well as neck stuff. We also had a seizure once a week, never knew the causes but it wasn't always at night when the lights came on
Chances are he was joking but injury rates were higher than other rides (or maybe having ten coasters and only one of every other kind of ride skewed the data) and medical humor tends to exaggerate risks.
It's probably a lot like somebody who works at a popular restaurant knowing how dirty the back is saying "nobody should ever eat at restaurants"
Probably cause of your brain getting violently jostled inside of your skull, especially on wooden ones. Anyone who rode the original Gwazi at Busch Gardens probably got at least a minor concussion.
The thing is, the neurologist is both right and wrong. He's right because your brain is swimming inside a tiny bowl made of skull, and if you're on a rough enough rollercoaster, you're basically giving yourself a bunch of mini-concussions.
He's wrong though because while you can live a good life without rollercoasters, if you followed the advice of every doctor, like never drinking soda again because your dentist said so, never basking in the sun again because the dermatologist said so, eventually that shit adds up and you're a sad, sad bubble person.
My hematologist strongly advises against rollercoasters.
The reasoning I was provided is that your brain is more like a jelly consistency rather than a solid thick muscle as most assume. The strong forces that move your body around are also moving your brain around. I guess a good mental picture would be a bowl (skull) with jello (brain) being jostled around on each sharp turn, drop, and hard stop. While your brain isn’t just all over the place in your skull, it does have the ability to hit against the sides and cause internal bleeding.
She does ban her prone to bleeding patients from rollercoasters…but that never stopped me.
I've been doing industrial maintenance for a long time. Electrician and mechanic work. I'm hesitant to ride them. The companies really don't pay well for their maintenance personnel. I think a lot of place do a pretty good job but many of the deaths and injuries are due to lack of maintenance. Disneyland only pays like $26 an hour for their ride technicians.
That’s a really interesting perspective. I’ve never thought about it like that before. I’d imagine working on a coaster can be dangerous. Seems like those guys should make more money than that, especially in an area like Orlando.
I had a severe TBI after getting hit by a truck while running a couple years ago. I was told by my neurologist also to never go on rollercoasters again.
My unprofessional guess would be that it's bad because of the pressure it can cause in your brain/head
The human body isn't designed to handle g forces much beyond regular earth gravity. So a roller coaster would probably increase your chances of something like a stroke, or burst blood vessels
Again though, not a professional. Better to just ask him what he meant
My neurologist said the same thing to me (about 17 years ago so details are sketchy). I think in his case it was due to seeing a patient in the hospital who ended up having something bad happen after riding a roller coaster. It was either internal decapitation or the lobes or hemispheres of the brain separated.
"Potential circumstances that could cause a person to have whiplash include: Roller coaster ride — One potential cause of whiplash is a roller coaster. Roller coasters move fast and in all kinds of directions, and riding one can cause your neck to whip back and forth at too fast a rate."
Its actually insane that we let kids just drive roller-coaster. Idgaf about adults cause if they fail to educate themselves, whatever, good luck with your neck. But kids can't even defend their own interests... but then again society is also constantly exposing kids to viral diseases with 0 care about the long term health consequences. So no surprise.
About 12 years ago I rode the Rip Ride Rock It Coaster at Universal Studios. It was incredibly jerky from side to side with abrupt starts and stops. I got off of it with a stiff neck that never got better, and more intense symptoms that have recently increased until I finally went to a doctor. After an MRI, the doctor told me my neck is “effed” up - her words were more direct. I see a neurosurgeon on Wednesday to get the bad news about treatment. That is why I will never ride another roller coaster.
The brain is a soft fluid-filled organ. The inside of the skull is filled with sharp points and edges. When you are riding at velocity, sudden stops and starts allow your brain to bounce around inside your skull and are at risk of significant damage.
Also, there are no federal safety regulations for amusement park rides.
Doctors see some shit and it seems like a lot of them get stuck on one particular danger. I had a dr at the er rant at me for 20 minutes about how terrible trampolines are after my kid hurt his arm playing the floor is lava- no trampoline involved. My brother in law works in an er and is passionate about about not sticking things up your ass. To each their own
Several use ago I tore an artery in my neck…called Vertebral Artery Dissection. A blood clot formed and I had a stroke. Not sure what caused the dissection but they can be caused by car accidents/roller coasters/painting ceilings among other things. My dissection did not heal and I was told by my neurologist told to never ride roller coasters.
I’m an old fart. I might try a coaster that runs on Tubes…but I would never ever ride on a coaster made of wood and has flat rails. Them jerky bastards can mess you up.
Haha you sound like my dad. There is an amusement park in Indiana called holiday world that I went to as a kid. They have really good wooden roller coasters
I don't care if it's made of wood but I'm with you on the flat rails. They hurt like hell and my brain can't make sense of the physics so I constantly think we're gonna tip over.
Email him and ask him, tell him it’s been keeping you up at night.
That’s a good idea actually. It has
And then tell us. Please
OPs always disappear before updating us
The rollercoasters get to them first
Big Loop-de-Loop up to their dirty work again I swear this story just seems to go round and round, it's neverending!
In 2014, I went on a double loop coaster. On the first loop, I had my head down instead of against the head rest. That mistake cause 2 discs to burst and a critical spinal cord compression. I needed a cervical fusion from c5 to c7. My dr told me prior to surgery that if I fell or got into a car accident, it would cause paralysis or death. It's probably a rare injury. Just keep your head against the headrest for loops!
This is a description of my very first roller coaster ride; I met the height requirement but I was sooo small. I didn’t have enough strength to hold my head against the seat. So painful.
I had that same surgery about 15 months ago. The only difference is the reason for the fusion. Mine was that my spinal column had narrowed and was nearly pinching my spinal cord.
I will tell you when I know, I’m a good OP I promise. Lol
Remind me! 4 days
Literally always :(
Hello he was joking, I can go on them if I want but he but does think they are sketchy and nobody should be on them because they can scramble your eggs. Essentially
You're the OP that came to report back. :) thank you for your diligence. Scramble is good in the morning, I hear. 🍳 Take care
It’s probably gonna be tbi (traumatic brain injury)- any shaking of the skull can cause damage or harm to the brain structure. They’ve found that even shaking your head or pretend head banging etc can be enough in some cases to cause bleeding of the brain. Seems like rollercoasters are just a speedrun version of brain damage if other things so small can cause such damage.
So maybe I shouldn’t be holding a massage gun to my temple to deal with TMJ pain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1zJsVE32mE <- this is how I learned to work on TMJ issues in massage school. If it goes up to your temples, that might be in tension headache territory rather than purely TMJ issues. I'd say watch that video, try out the massage technique and see if it helps. And use heat on your face/scalp/jaw at night (I like to do it while I'm reading in bed, I just kinda hide under my heating pad lol). That should kinda loosen things up before you sleep, and make you less likely to grind your teeth at night (I really like the DIY mouthguards for teeth grinding, they're so inexpensive and help so much.) If it extends to your temples, I'd say try one of these:https://www.sephora.com/ca/en/product/sephora-collection-scalp-massager-P472069 They feel absolutely heavenly if you carry a lot of tension in your face/scalp. I use it while I'm reading at night, or just at my desk. (sorry for the big wall of info, just putting my expensive and unused massage education to some use lol) 1000% do not use a massage gun on your neck ever bc that can cause a stroke afaik. Those should really only be used on big muscles that have already been warmed up with a heating pad for 10-15 minutes (or they're not going to be "ready" for a deeper tissue massage like that)
This was extremely helpful for someone with tmj. Thank you!!
Don’t apologize I appreciate the info! I’ll watch that vid and keep that in mind I didn’t know that about use on neck either!
Correct - I learned recently that’s actually quite dangerous ETA - whoops I misread, what I learned was about using it on your neck. So I’d assume temple is probably worse? Idk
For God's sake please come back to tell us cause it's 1:45 am and i can't calm my brain down enough to sleep, so maybe knowing after all these years will let me get some much needed rest
Nobody has got back to me yet. I will keep you posted I promise
I think it’s more about it being a shock to your system. It can cause an epileptic seizure or a heart attack (if your heart was already weak ofc).
I mean they got cleared to be kicked in the head again… I feel like a rollercoaster would probably be fine.
Best comment I've read this week, Weinerface
I went to a park with my cousin as teenagers and rode a really big fun rollercoaster. Dude passed out while we were going through some hard turns and woke up when the ride stopped. No idea why it happened but he didn't ride those kinds of rides anymore lol
[What rollercoaster do to your body.](https://youtu.be/BunU6CTmhFw?si=crGELJQ1CKvL6C_x)
12 Gs! Crikey!
Unless he also said, 'email, no one should ever send those.'
I hate it when op inadvertently time travels mid sentence
What do you mean?
Welcome back. Just a small comment I didn't expect to get attention. It's not a common joke or anything but CTE and other memory issues reminds me of a book I read as a kid In slaughter house five by Kurt Vonnegut the main protagonist time travels through memory rather than physically. I'm just pretending your brain trauma is caused by time travel rather than CTE. Coincidental the protagonist might have received head injuries during his time in war. Short book if you are into old classics
That’s actually been on my reading list for a while, before the internet destroyed my attention span. I’ll definitely check it out. One of these days. I have the day off so I am reading the interesting looking comments. Haha
I really want to check out Haunted House. I actually want to go to Haunted house MORE than I want to go to Aqua.
Why was your heart rate elevated for 15 straight minutes last night?!?!?!
I wonder if his insurance will cover the $500 fee to answer an email lol
[удалено]
My life changed so much when I learned that you can just like, ask your doctor a follow up question for free. There's a side effect? You aren't getting better? You need a refill? Don't need to go back in person (most times).
I've never gone back to seeing individual private doctors once I joined a comprehensive health system that uses MyChart. Messaging the doctor a question, requesting for refills, and being able to view your past visit notes and lab work easily for free. It's a complete life changer and I seriously hope it never enshittifies.
I just got back from seeing a lawyer, asked him what his rate was, and he says "I charge $500 for three questions." I said, "Gee, don't you think that's a bit expensive?" And he says, "Yes, I do. Now what's your final question?"
Just last week a family member of mine was charged 500 for a phone call to their doctor. It’s actually a real thing.
I found this: [https://www.neurologyadvisor.com/features/a-closer-look-at-long-term-neurologic-injury-risk-due-to-roller-coaster-rides/#:\~:text=%E2%80%9CAdvances%20in%20roller%20coaster%20technology,cause%20of%20subdural%20hematomas%20in](https://www.neurologyadvisor.com/features/a-closer-look-at-long-term-neurologic-injury-risk-due-to-roller-coaster-rides/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAdvances%20in%20roller%20coaster%20technology,cause%20of%20subdural%20hematomas%20in)
From the article: > Although the majority of these incidents resulted from falling in, on, off, or against an amusement park ride, numerous case studies over the years have described neurologic injuries that appear to have occurred in the absence of any impact. > Rates of hospitalization (1.5% annually) and death (4.5 per year) associated with amusement park rides, including roller coasters, are relatively low.2,4 However, the “neurologic complications after roller-coaster rides can be potentially catastrophic,” according to a 2016 case report published in Pediatrics.4 “Some of the rare complications that have been described include dissection of vertebral artery and internal carotid artery with or without concomitant stroke, intraparenchymal hemorrhage, subdural hemorrhage, and posttraumatic migraine,” the investigators noted. > The investigators noted that numerous spinal cord injuries caused by roller coaster rides have been reported, including 656 injuries that occurred in a 19-month period in 932,000 rides on 1 roller coaster in Texas.5 While most of these injuries were classified as mild, 39 were severe and primarily involved herniations of the cervical nucleus pulposus.4 “Given this, it is reasonable that our patient’s cervical nucleus pulposus could have herniated and ejected into the blood supply of her anterior spinal cord during the roller-coaster ride,” they wrote.5
I played football in college, had to stop because incomprehensibly bad concussions. I used to love rollercoasters etc, now I can’t even go on stationary rides that barely spin because I get sick to my stomach instantly.
> I played football in college, had to stop because incomprehensibly bad concussions. Yeah, good luck getting the opposing team to chill out when they're playing for scouts. College football is so much more entertaining to watch as a sports fan, but seeing those kids hit each other like they do is like watching a country's bright future get beat into a CTE-riddled mess. I can't watch football anymore, makes me feel like I'm sitting in the Roman coliseum watching people kill each other. We just don't appreciate our brains nearly enough.
This was the largest factor in my rapid decline in interest for football, though not the only one. At some point, I just couldn’t stop thinking about the long term effects after each hard tackle. That transformed into every play once I learned how rough it is on the linemen. Turns out, entertainment isn’t entertaining for me if people are (whether knowingly or unknowingly) killing themselves in order to produce it.
Not just the fallout for the player, either; think about their friends and family on the receiving end of their increasingly violent and unhinged outbursts as their own brain devolves into a broken mess. Friendships torched at the drop of a hat, kids yelled at, spouses beat, it's just tragedy all around. It takes a real psycho to just look past it all and still enjoy the 'sport' knowing all the harm it can cause and lives it can ruin.
Just a reminder that it isn't just, or evenly primarily, the big hits that cause CTE. It's the repeated "smaller" hits, like the offensive and defensive lines coming together every play.
This was the main reason I decided after spring ball my junior year that I would not come back to play the following season. The way I saw it, I had gotten about as much as I could out of playing ball and another (one last) season just wasn’t worth the potential damage I WOULD have done to my brain batter. I felt like such a quitter POS but I already sacrificed plenty and still had the rest of my life to think about.
Have seen the CollegeHumor/Dropout skit they did on this? It's one of those "funny" skits that gets less and less funny as you realize how real it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQtSdsR1-H8
Damn that’s why I started having extreme motion sickness ever since I got a bad concussion motorbiking. Well I have had several but I have never linked those two together but that tracks.
I had a grade 3 concussion with amnesia from tripping and hitting my head and also get extremely nauseous even turning around quickly. A full circle even at snail speed makes me nauseous, as well.
My daughter had 2 concussions within a year at age 9 (the first she was hit in a very bad way) and has never been the same. She has POTS from them and motion sickness in cars and even just playing minecraft. Her life is fucked up and it's like it gets worse as she gets older, she's 14 now. Just walking hurts her head some days.
Shit. I love roller coasters. I also have a very bad neck. Some have def made my neck worse. I guess I shouldn't ride them any more. I'm 65. I can probably live without them but they really are the only ride I love.
I will put money on extra injury when a coaster goes down loaded and a car hits the locked up checks at speed. I worked at a park for 5 years as a kid and there were a couple of coasters that had brutal checks when they locked up. Dont get me wrong, way better for them to fail shut when the ride goes down, but the unexpected hard stop is brutal. Had it happen to me during a test ride when the park lost power. I knew the power went out and what that meant for the end of the ride so I could brace for it, but most guests wouldnt have a clue. And if it was a prox fault or some kid slipping the gates into the ride area (instant estop on that one) there would be no sign to the riders that they were going to go 30-0 in a couple of feet.
4.5 deaths?
They were talking about the *rate*, which is just a mathematical construct. With an annual rate of 4.5 deaths, you'd expect four or five deaths per year or nine deaths every 2 years.
Make sense. I got lucky once, the park was almost empty. Got to do the same rollercoaster like 10-15 times in a row. Then I had the symptoms of a concussion for several days after.
A 1.5% hospitalization associated with amusement park rides!? 1.5% of what? Attendees!? That can't be right...
I have a spontaneous spinal fluid leak. Mine happened when I coughed with pneumonia but other people I've encountered online have gotten them from chiropractors and roller coasters. I was told no roller coasters ever again from my nuero.
I literally never thought about this until I saw this thread, and now I am like, "uh, of course this is bad for our bodies, duh."
I found this interesting: > Findings from a 2009 study suggest that head motions during roller coaster rides typically confer a very low risk for traumatic brain injury (TBI), and a 2017 study found that brain strain rates during roller coaster rides were similar to those observed during running and lower than those that occur during soccer headers
Thanks! Great article.
I had heat exhaustion and after that a roller coaster ride can make nauseous for weeks.
I used to go to the six flags by my house on Sunday mornings. We could ride all the rides with no lines until about noon, including the roller coasters. Several times on a Monday/Tuesday I’d feel off, have a bad neck strain or feel dizzy. It didn’t occur to me that I was probably giving myself a slight concussion every time we went.
Yea, I believe that some new-ish modern metal rollercoasters can be nice and smooth all the way through, but OMG older wooden rollercoasters can be exceptionally laterally jerky, kind of like being in a small car crash. When I was in high school I went on a very intense wooden rollercoaster, and I was an extremely fit four sport athlete, and yet, I got a spine injury that tingled from that day on every day for 10 years. I can only imagine the force on a person's spine who is obese or non muscular.
The only wooden rollercoaster that doesn't leave me with a headache after is "The Beast" at Kings Island. It may be close to 5 minutes long but it's the smoothest ride I've ever had on one.
Completely opposite experience. Beast totally brutalized me as a teenager. I also rode Son of Beast before they took the loop out and that was pretty gnarly, too.
Son of Beast w/ loop made me swear off inversion coasters for life. That bitch was a death trap lol
Got a memory from when I was 12ish a friend and I were there on a day with no lines and the operators just let us ride that thing 20 times in a row without having to go around
I would have died lol. I rode it maybe 5 or 6 times, the lines were always brutal. The last time we rode it something was weird, it seemed really slow and loud, and that loop felt like I was gonna fall out. A few days later is when those people got banged up too. I never rode it again after that. I'll stick to the nasty old Racer and White Water Canyon lol
Word, I waited an hour and a half in close to 100 degree weather wearing ALL BLACK because I was simply dying for the goth art at the time, and after I got off that thing I had to lie down on the concrete for a few minutes because I was having a back spasm at fucking *15*. This was late June in '06, and then like a week later I had that "oh shit that could have been ME" moment when I was reading about the rose bowl incident. Speaking of Racer there was an incident I personally experienced where the seatbelt wouldn't buckle and I had to hold on for dear life the whole way through. I've never been so terrified of getting air. Told the ride operator when I got off. I presume they checked things out and there was some downtime before the train was sent out again, but after that particular experience I had to go sit down for a bit. That was enough adrenaline for me that day.
Literally used to take Advil before riding that one. And Vortex. I don’t miss either of them.
Vortex gave me a concussion once. I still rode it after that for some reason though but I always regretted it. Flight of Fear is honestly the only coaster I can say I actually enjoyed every time, and might consider getting on today lol
I love the Vortex. I haven't been to Kings Island in like 10 years but last time I went me and my buddy got stoned in the parking lot and rode it a few times, it was a hell of a fun day.
El Toro in six flags great adventure is pretty smooth for a wooden coaster. Although it is a newer one
I think even without the jerkiness, it's still not good for your body to be whipped around so aggressively. The dizziness that person dealt with wasn't due to jerkiness... Also, modern coasters have gotten WAYYY more intense, with steeper and faster drops, bigger loops and corkscrews and more. SO much faster than those old wooden ones.
Your muscular physique is probably what did you in. There a lot of cushioning in fat. You took all the force straight to the spine through your muscles.
More cushion for the coastin'
Being obese makes it easier. I'm the smallest in my family and was relatively skinny yet chubby, but not as overweight as the rest of my family. They didn't like riding with me because they would get thrown around more instead of staying in place.
I'm 50 and grew up on the oldies at Canada's Wonderland. I always loved the woodens and don't mind the shake and Gs. For me, those damn "stand-ups" that have/had the padded u-shaped drop down bars that go around your neck and down your chest HURT because I'm short. Every time there is a corkscrew or inversion my head would slam back and forth between them giving me a immediate headache. I quit riding ones with those harnesses pretty quickly.
Canadas Wonderland Mine Busters Represent!
I love me some rollercoasters. Like went to the major Orlando theme parks. We were at SeaWorld (not a fan of the animal abuse, got in for free...great coasters) and rode some of them like 6 times in a row because there was ZERO line, they just let us stay on. Went to something like Space Mountain (I think it was Space Mountain). Rode that thing once and was like "Alright, never again". Point is that a newer roller coaster like Mako (2016) is an absolute blast, I'll ride that all the time. Shit like Space Mountain (1975) are downright painful. I won't even approach those bench seat janky wooden roller coasters. So I agree with you 1000%. A modern steel coaster can be absolutely smooth and amazing with great seats and restraints. The 50 year old things absolutely suck and nobody should ride those.
JS Mill is my favorite!
My favorites were the suspended coasters, where instead of sitting in the car, the car was upside-down and you sat in a seat that swung side-to-side. The ride just seemed so much smoother. I don't ride coasters anymore (I'm old), but there's one called Alpengeist at Busch Gardens in Virginia, and it's great. I remember thinking the ride was really smooth, not a head-banger.
> OMG older wooden rollercoasters can be exceptionally laterally jerky, kind of like being in a small car crash. there was a metal inverted coaster that was called Top Gun when it opened at Paramount Canada's Wonderland back in the day. it's still there under another name now but...it would give you literal concussions because the restraints came down over top, so your head was basically between two hard rubber bumpers. it was already an incredibly jarring coaster...but then add it the fact that it's bouncing your head side to side the entire time lol.
I was given tickets for a park by a family friend that worked there and I just decided I was *just* gonna ride the coaster, I think I did it 4 or 5 times in a row... then got a nosebleed and figured I should probably take a break.
I went on oblivion at Alton Towers (you know, the one that goes down vertically at ludicrous speeds). It was the first roller coaster I ever went on. There was no line for it at the time so I decided that I wanted to have another go. I went on that bitch about 20 times and after I then stopped and went to get some food I don't remember the rest of the day. I was like 14 at the time. Apparently I got a nosebleed and almost passed out, so my dad just walked me around for the rest of the day, and I was acting fine. But I woke up the next day and just no recollection of what happened for the rest of that day, was very wierd.
Busch gardens opened a new one called Pantheon a few years ago. It's super fun. But one day I did it a few times and by the 3rd or 4th time I felt like I was starting to gray out on some of the deeper twists and turns. Ever since then I always feel like I'm on the edge of losing consciousness at certain points of the ride. So I avoid it now, even though it's my favorite :(
I went here recently and rode the Pantheon twice. Both times I experienced the same thing like a temporary blindness. Verboten also causes the effect.
I got a bad one on one of those rides when I was a kid. I didn't tell anyone, went on more and now I'm a brain damaged Reddit user. But seriously never seen the advice given to the OP before, but I certainly agree with it.
Reddit controls Big Rollercoaster. They cover up all the brain damage to ensure a steady stream of new users. Sad.
First time I rode a roller coaster I was 9 and it was The Rattler when it was all wood. That thing fucked me up. I slammed my head into the side of the seat on a turn and got a black eye plus some neck pains that still haunt me. If I sneeze the wrong way that same damn crick in my neck will pop up for several days. I only ride little baby coasters now.
Maverick at Cedar Point is the most violent, unpleasant coaster I have ever experienced.
Iron wolf at six flags before it was torn down was actually fucked up. It was a standing coast but had hard pads on both sides of you ears. That shit would smack your head till your ears would bleed.
I remember they would make you take out your earrings before riding that one because it would fucking destroy your ears. I wonder how many people got medical bills from that ride before they started enforcing that rule.
Totally lost an earing in 8th grade on it lmao.
Do you remember Shockwave? Never failed to get a headache after riding that one. I remember having to try and hold your head to one side so that your head didn't play bongos on the harness
Yes! That one git torn down way before iron wolf!
My son is epileptic and can not go on rollercoasters. He did prior to asking and he actually passed out almost seized. Not sure what it does to the brain. My guess is something with equilibrium.
Oh that makes a lot of sense I’m not epileptic but had seizures if he wasn’t joking that’s probably why but he did fix what was causing it. I will probably just stay off them to be safe. I hope your son is okay
Yeah turns out it’s not a good idea to have your brains slosh around in your skull, especially if you’ve got a preexisting condition that affects the brain
Yeah I'm on meds that give me a lower threshold for seizures so I don't do shit that shakes my head lol
But then why did the doctor clear him for kickboxing?
because you don't constantly get kicks against the head except for if you suck at kickboxing.
He's ok at kickboxing, but sucks at kickbloxing. I'm sorry, goodbye.
Agreed. Also what can happen to your cervical spine? The neck area is delicate.
If you've ever had seizures, why would you ever let anyone hit your head? Kickboxing is a very bad idea. You only get one brain.
Practicing kickboxing does not mean you actually get kicked in the head.
No, but you can, and in the meantime you can expect to take some punches to the head.
Yeah “you can’t ride rollercoasters because of your seizure but go take direct kicks to the head I’m sure you’ll be fine” doesn’t sound like the opinion of someone who is qualified to be a doctor. Edit: I’m not questioning whether neurosurgeons are smart or anything but let’s be honest, if this guy had some real reasoning to back up his claim that no one should ride coasters at all, there would be papers and news articles and talk show appearances. These things never happened because that claim is unfounded. Again I’m not saying the guy isnt smart or isn’t qualified to do surgery, but he made a ridiculous claim according to OP with no evidence anyone else has ever seen. That calls into question his credibility on what people should do outside of his operating room.
I can see it. It's always a balancing act between what's good and what the patient will actually do. "You can go to amusement parks but don't do this very particular thing" is much more likely to be followed than "quit the sport you love", so if the actual risk is relatively low in both cases, it can make sense to recommend that but not the other clearly more dangerous thing.
For me the difference would be in kickboxing you can always stop whenever you feel discomfort or pain. On a rollercoaster you're on it until it ends. There's no stopping if you have an episode.
This one actually makes sense to me. Or maybe also that it could aggravate an episode to be more severe. Good point. Combined with another theory that it’s what OP is likely to listen to poses a theory id give decent odds to. That said, what if he starts having a seizure then takes a kick to the face a millisecond later or something, I have to imagine that would still be so damaging. I really wish I could know for sure if this neurosurgeon was in sync with your theory here.
You see why I was also confused. I have seen a lot of horrible injuries in MMA, but I just do it for recreation with no plans to fight amateur. We have to wear protective gear. I mean he operated on me and I’m fine and my brain is supposedly anatomically normal now. If it helps your understanding, the seizure was a really really uncommon side effect of what I had. Most people don’t get them and he’d only seen one other patient with my diagnosis seize and it was a little kid. It scared me that I had that strange side effect because I had been talking to Doctor Google and knew it was rare, so I did ask him when I first met him about that. He pretty much just said everyone’s bodies are different and can react in different ways
I almost blacked out on a big rollercoaster at six flags. Going violently down and straight up again did something to the blood flow in my head and eyes.
Exactly. What it must do to the blood pressure.
Wait until you find out what being repeatedly hit in the head does to you.
When my son got diagnosed with Epilepsy, we stopped coasters as well, and also riding on the back of my Motorcycle.
My friend can't go on them because of an eye pressure condition. Not sure of the exact details but they are not going to risk it.
Why did you not ask him?
Because he is a really strange guy I couldn’t really feel comfortable to talk to him for some reason. I don’t think he liked me. I guess I could’ve but I didn’t want him to think I’m dumb or wasting his time
Call the front desk and leave the question with them. They can ask and leave you a response. I assume you were at the doctor for an important thing, so you need to know for sure. (Especially since roller coasters are awesome…but you NEED to know if it will harm you)
That’s a good idea another person said email him but I will do this. Thank you Also I am okay now, I wanted to celebrate with going to a theme park because yes rollercoasters are so awesome
They are awful for your neck and back. I’d assume this is why.
Also if you are prone to vertigo, it makes it 1000 times worse. The last roller coaster I rode that was a thrill ride was a double loop coaster at Six Flags. I did manage to hold on to my lunch until I got off and got to a nearby trash can, but it was a near thing. Now the best I can do is the kiddle coasters, and even that will mess with me.
I've ridden Space Mountain at Disney a bunch of times. Last time I did it I was 44, and had to take a Dramamine after. 🤦♀️
My neurosurgeon was strange too. I reached out to shake his hand and he shook my finger. God bless those people though, seriously.
I laughed out loud at that
A lot of neurosurgeons are literally geniuses that have poor social skills - I assure you he’s not intentionally making you feel inferior, he would likely welcome a question or two where his profession is concerned.
This is sweet but you should ask, just call and ask. Maybe he has a dry sense of humor or maybe he was serious.
This is someone who CHOSE to do brain surgery. I'd be surprised if he wasn't a bit strange. /s YMMV but I've found bringing someone along can often be quite helpful, especially when dealing with specialists. A list of stuff you want to ask about can also help a lot. Let the doctor do their talking, and then quickly skim through them to find out about anything else you wanted to know.
If it helps any, your question makes you seem dumb, you can blame it on the guy who was doing surgery on your brain. 😉
Why ask a doctor when you can ask Reddit?
Hate to tell you, but if you’ve ever had any kind of a stroke, roller coasters are out. And if you’re extremely nearsighted because you have elongated eyeballs, your boxing career is over before it even started, because retinal detachment ain’t no joke.
neither
Pretty sure you answered your question when you remembered you have a history of seizures.
Add bungee jumping to the list
*elongated eyeballs*
Myopia is some body horror shit, like what the fuck do you mean my eyes are getting more oblong every year. And if they get too long my retina can just, detach. What the fuck.
How badly near sighted? My eyes are -6.75 and -7.5 lol
Right there with you on the -7.5. Guess my love for coasters is over
Apparently my moms eyes can just detach at any time not even necessarily with any sort of impact, just by themselves , it's kind of wild to think one day your eyes can just go "we out"
My neurologist said if he saw me on a rollercoaster, he'd stop the ride and make me get off. He was treating me for an impinged nerve from a displaced disc in my neck causing numbness in my arm and fingers for the second time in a year. He said you can only go to the well so many times and then the damage can be permanent.
I’ve experience the same twice as well but don’t know anyone with the same problem. May I ask how you guys are treating it? I know everyone’s different but just wondering what worked/didn’t work for you. Thank you.
I don't know if I'm in exactly the same boat but I ended up with some nerve damage and numbness in my arm from pushing a box funny, something 'jiggled' under my bicep and now right in-between my shoulder blades and back it feels like a hot poker or getting a tattoo most of the time, this was about 10 years ago at this point and it's still there (the pain and the numbness)
A Tens unit can block the pain while in use by releasing endorphins and blocking pain. It gave me great relief, maybe give it a try. Mine was from pulling a patient up. The person I was helping pull up their patient forgot to lock the brakes on the bed. So it jerked unevenly and I wrenched my neck. Your nerve damage sounds severe. I've heard of people getting a tens unit surgically implanted for chronic back pain, maybe something to look into if your quality of life is that affected.
I'll have to look into it! thanks! oof that sucks, sorry that happened. It's certainly gotten a bit better, but at this point I'm not sure if it just me acclimating to it or what, it's not constant anymore thankfully and it's not debilitating, it's honestly more annoying than anything, nice thing is It's made getting tattoos relatively painless in comparison, I just about fell asleep getting one on the slightly numbed arm haha Legal weed doesnt hurt either haha
Physical therapy, the goal was to move the cervical disc just enough to get off the nerve, not to completely correct it's position. First time took a full 6 weeks of PT to get the feeling back to my whole arm and alleviate the burning pain. Second time it wasn't as severe, just tingling numbness to my fingers. For ongoing pain, a tens unit is a great thing to use at home intermittently. (I bought one for home use, inexpensive on Amazon.) Better posture and not looking down too much(like at your phone) helps too. I'm prone to whiplash like symptoms from rough bumpy vehicle rides. So I guess a rollercoaster would do similar motions.
My optometrist friend does not suggest rollercoasters as it could create eye issue … something to do with pressure I guess?
We had a case in med school where a patient had a dissection of his vertebral artery (goes along the spine in your neck) which gave him essentially stroke-like symptoms. The patient got it (probably) from riding a roller coaster and had his neck violently bend due to the ride. The hospital had a couple of roller coaster-induced cases like this each year. Not that common though considering how many persons that rides them each year.
This was my answer! I’ve had three dissections (not from rollercoasters). But you do see stories about this happening every so often
I think the best answer above is emailing him to ask for clarification, but to help you on your research I think I have a reasonable bit of information. Our heads are made to take a significant amount of impact but even with that we have delicate and mushy pink and gray matter floating wrapped in a shrink wrap (pia mater), floating a squishy foam (several layers of other kinds of mater, in a hard helmet (boney skull). Rollercoaster with the quick accelerations and stops along with hard turns and twists, toss out brains around in our skulls. It's really not the best thing for our brains and our necks/spinal column to be taking such extreme changes in forces so quickly. Newtons first law, stationary objects stay stationary unless acted upon. So your body is at rest but when the rollercoaster accelerates your body goes with it, but your insides including you brain lag until it is pushed by the inside back wall of you skull. Same with stops with the inside front. The doctor may have been sarcastic or making a joke, but I'd email him if you are concerned.
Yet somehow OP doing kickboxing is ok...
Old neuroscience RN here (meaning I'm both an old RN and I worked neuroscience): rollercoasters can cause dissections of the vertebral and carotid arteries. I've seen it. When we say "dissection," we mean that the muscle layers that form the walls of an artery have split. They don't split all the way through, but they do split enough to form a little pocket where blood can get trapped. That blood can then clot up and those clots can be shot to the brain and cause a stroke. The usual treatment for this is to be in the hospital for a while on blood thinners, then continue blood thinners at home. Those drugs reduce the chances of blood clotting in ways that could knock your brain for a loop. Rollercoasters can also jack up your neck, especially if you have a pre-existing problem with the vertebrae or discs in there. If you've had neck surgery, the surgeon will tell you to stay away from anything that's designed to make your head wobble around or designed for hard starts and stops. (Yeah, a car wreck could screw up your neck, but you're not generally intending to get into a wreck when you start driving.) Bumper cars are another big no-no. Shoot your neurosurgeon an email. Don't worry about him being weird or thinking you're weird for asking. Neuroscience physicians are very strange people to begin with; very little strikes them as odd.
Well, I'm no neurologist, but my husband and I went on one rollercoaster 3 times in a row and then he started getting a headache later in the day. That night it was so bad he started throwing up. The whiplash/concussion combo took him out of work for 6 months (he couldn't look at screens) and he had to do months of physio and concussion therapy. He spent about 6 months in a dark room listening to audio books on very low volume because he couldn't tolerate light or read. He went into a serious depressive episode for about a year after that. To this day he has short-term memory and focus issues that he didn't have before. So yeah, be careful with rollercoasters.
I mean its obvious. What does a Rollercoaster do. Quick up and down, and side to side movements. That is not good for the brain.
Every roller coaster has rules that must be followed at all times. And restrictions on who can and cannot get on the ride. The no ride list includes - Heart problems - pregnancy - post OP - Drugs or alcohol - Back and neck problems - Height restrictions (too short or too tall) - Loss of use of both legs or both arms (one leg and one arm is fine, must be able to hold on and walk) - Certain Mental Health Issues - Problems with your vision Anyone must also be able to follow instructions and get off the ride independently. So yes, roller coasters can cause health problems if you have them. A few people have died from ruptured arteries or sudden heart attacks.
That’s a list written by a lawyer though
My neurologist and many neuro professionals say NO CHIROPRACTORS NO CHIROPRACTORS NO CHIROPRACTORS No bungle jumping. And keep your head neutral on skydiving and rollercoasters. Can’t control the the head and spine neutrality- avoid.
I gotta ask - why are you asking Reddit instead of your NEUROSURGEON??
There are neurosurgeons in Reddit, and Neuro RNs, and people who have gotten the same advice. It’s not like OP has a scalpel in hand and is asking Reddit what to do next. They aren’t asking for medical advice at all
I was a medic at an amusement park, every coaster had at least one person get banged up each year. The loop roller coaster especially would jostle necks, had to collar and transport a lady one time because she said she had tingles in her fingers. The steel coaster e-brakes were rough as hell too, every time they engaged we had to go up and asses everyone before it could move again. Then there was my favorite boy, the antique wooden coaster from the days of "we can't build em too high but we can smack em around a bit to make up for that" design theory. Lots of bruised hips and shoulders, as well as neck stuff. We also had a seizure once a week, never knew the causes but it wasn't always at night when the lights came on Chances are he was joking but injury rates were higher than other rides (or maybe having ten coasters and only one of every other kind of ride skewed the data) and medical humor tends to exaggerate risks. It's probably a lot like somebody who works at a popular restaurant knowing how dirty the back is saying "nobody should ever eat at restaurants"
Probably cause of your brain getting violently jostled inside of your skull, especially on wooden ones. Anyone who rode the original Gwazi at Busch Gardens probably got at least a minor concussion. The thing is, the neurologist is both right and wrong. He's right because your brain is swimming inside a tiny bowl made of skull, and if you're on a rough enough rollercoaster, you're basically giving yourself a bunch of mini-concussions. He's wrong though because while you can live a good life without rollercoasters, if you followed the advice of every doctor, like never drinking soda again because your dentist said so, never basking in the sun again because the dermatologist said so, eventually that shit adds up and you're a sad, sad bubble person.
I had a cervical fusion and was told no roller coasters.
It depends on what’s wrong with you. I have Chiari malformation and I’m not supposed to ride roller coasters.
My hematologist strongly advises against rollercoasters. The reasoning I was provided is that your brain is more like a jelly consistency rather than a solid thick muscle as most assume. The strong forces that move your body around are also moving your brain around. I guess a good mental picture would be a bowl (skull) with jello (brain) being jostled around on each sharp turn, drop, and hard stop. While your brain isn’t just all over the place in your skull, it does have the ability to hit against the sides and cause internal bleeding. She does ban her prone to bleeding patients from rollercoasters…but that never stopped me.
What did your doctor say about getting kicked in the head?
I've been doing industrial maintenance for a long time. Electrician and mechanic work. I'm hesitant to ride them. The companies really don't pay well for their maintenance personnel. I think a lot of place do a pretty good job but many of the deaths and injuries are due to lack of maintenance. Disneyland only pays like $26 an hour for their ride technicians.
That’s a really interesting perspective. I’ve never thought about it like that before. I’d imagine working on a coaster can be dangerous. Seems like those guys should make more money than that, especially in an area like Orlando.
It’s the microbleeds in the brain. Neurosurgeons hate those
I had a severe TBI after getting hit by a truck while running a couple years ago. I was told by my neurologist also to never go on rollercoasters again.
I think if you do kickboxing on the rollercoaster they cancel out
My unprofessional guess would be that it's bad because of the pressure it can cause in your brain/head The human body isn't designed to handle g forces much beyond regular earth gravity. So a roller coaster would probably increase your chances of something like a stroke, or burst blood vessels Again though, not a professional. Better to just ask him what he meant
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My neurologist said the same thing to me (about 17 years ago so details are sketchy). I think in his case it was due to seeing a patient in the hospital who ended up having something bad happen after riding a roller coaster. It was either internal decapitation or the lobes or hemispheres of the brain separated.
People with migraines should definitely not ride them
"Potential circumstances that could cause a person to have whiplash include: Roller coaster ride — One potential cause of whiplash is a roller coaster. Roller coasters move fast and in all kinds of directions, and riding one can cause your neck to whip back and forth at too fast a rate." Its actually insane that we let kids just drive roller-coaster. Idgaf about adults cause if they fail to educate themselves, whatever, good luck with your neck. But kids can't even defend their own interests... but then again society is also constantly exposing kids to viral diseases with 0 care about the long term health consequences. So no surprise.
If everyone would live in a box the world would be a lot safer.
Just Google "why shouldn't people ride roller-coasters". I did and it's really interesting. Actually too much information to type on my phone.
He wasn't kidding. Imagine the harm having your brain sloshed around like that could do.
Mom shouldn't really be telling you to disregard your neurologist's advice.
As someone who is scared of rollercoaster I can totaly understand and accept that answer. Have you seen those things?
That was a joke about the kickboxing. You’d have gotten it if you hadn’t been kicked in the head so much XD
He was joking. Maybe you should refrain from the kickboxing for a bit longer.
Shoulda asked the dr. Dawg.
About 12 years ago I rode the Rip Ride Rock It Coaster at Universal Studios. It was incredibly jerky from side to side with abrupt starts and stops. I got off of it with a stiff neck that never got better, and more intense symptoms that have recently increased until I finally went to a doctor. After an MRI, the doctor told me my neck is “effed” up - her words were more direct. I see a neurosurgeon on Wednesday to get the bad news about treatment. That is why I will never ride another roller coaster.
The brain is a soft fluid-filled organ. The inside of the skull is filled with sharp points and edges. When you are riding at velocity, sudden stops and starts allow your brain to bounce around inside your skull and are at risk of significant damage. Also, there are no federal safety regulations for amusement park rides.
Doctors see some shit and it seems like a lot of them get stuck on one particular danger. I had a dr at the er rant at me for 20 minutes about how terrible trampolines are after my kid hurt his arm playing the floor is lava- no trampoline involved. My brother in law works in an er and is passionate about about not sticking things up your ass. To each their own
Sounds like a good question for your neurosurgeon.
Several use ago I tore an artery in my neck…called Vertebral Artery Dissection. A blood clot formed and I had a stroke. Not sure what caused the dissection but they can be caused by car accidents/roller coasters/painting ceilings among other things. My dissection did not heal and I was told by my neurologist told to never ride roller coasters.
The Great American Scream Machine did something to my neck that resulted in four years of daily migraines.
My neurosurgeon recommended the same thing. He said that it's because it can cause your head to bounce between those contraptions that strap you in.
Who asks their personal doctor any question they could ask Reddit a day later?
I’m an old fart. I might try a coaster that runs on Tubes…but I would never ever ride on a coaster made of wood and has flat rails. Them jerky bastards can mess you up.
Haha you sound like my dad. There is an amusement park in Indiana called holiday world that I went to as a kid. They have really good wooden roller coasters
I had a headache and a crick in my neck from a wooden coaster last year. I'm too old for this, hahaha.
I don't care if it's made of wood but I'm with you on the flat rails. They hurt like hell and my brain can't make sense of the physics so I constantly think we're gonna tip over.
I looked it up on the internet and it said because of "network connectivity issues"