WEBVTT - From Nose to Tail: The Colon 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.040 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:16.520 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:18.959 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.160 the title of this episode is from Nose to tail 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.480 colon the colon because yeah, yeah, because this is the 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.840 final episode in our journey. This is the tail portion 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.000 that is referenced in the title. Yeah you said you 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.239 described earlier, From tongue to taint, this is the bitter end, 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:38.440 my friends, the sphincter. I'm sure there are a lot, 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:40.720 but they're a lot things, but but those are the 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:43.280 ones we're sticking to. So I wanted to start this 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:45.520 one off of just a little bit of a little 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.000 anecdote from history that I found particularly interesting and it 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.760 and it involves a Scottish surgeon, which is also good 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.240 because we've been taking this journey with an imagined haggis, 0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:59.800 which is, of course the Scottish delicacy. Would you call 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.200 it a delicacy or is it just more of a 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:07.520 Scottish cultural cultural icon of food, Yeah, yeah, which is 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.400 a it's a it's a cheep's stomach stuffed with with 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:15.199 meat and barley and organs and other things in various secrets. 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:19.920 But but, but this is a particular page from Scottish 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:24.520 history is a Scottish surgeon, Sir William Arbuth Nutt Lane 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:28.480 from the early twentieth century. And this guy is notable 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.960 because he was his big idea that we should treat 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:36.240 constipation uh and auto intoxication, which is the state of 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.440 being poisoned by toxic substances produced by the body by 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:45.279 shortening the highway by removing a couple of feet of colon. 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:49.560 And he later moves on to doing full colon and 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.600 he later moves on to doing full colon ectomies, stitching 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.600 the small intestines directly to the rectum, in other words, 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:58.840 picking up where our last episode left off and just 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.920 deleting this episode into highly so deleting the small intestine. Yeah, 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:04.960 because he went on to judge the colon as quote, 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.760 a serious defect in our anatomy, and he was all 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.160 in favor of just just cutting it out. It's just 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:12.280 let's just cut it out. Let's just connect the small 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.480 intestines directly to the end portion and uh. And as 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.280 we discussed in previous episodes that the body does have 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:20.920 a remarkable ability to to flow with with some of 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:25.800 these uh UM replumbing surgeries that take place with our 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.160 digestive system. But and the thing is, I should note that, 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:32.040 of course of uh colon actonies are occasionally, you know, 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:34.080 very important that they can be it can be a 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.239 life saving procedure. But in this case, he was using 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:40.920 it to treat um constipation. Boy was he wrong. He 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.600 was wrong. Now. He was apparently influenced by Russian Nobel 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:49.400 Prize bacteriologists um Ellie Mecknkoff, who thought that that humans 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.120 were evolving so fast that various parts of our bodies 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.000 were going to quickly become obsolete. So he was influenced 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.800 by this, and this end up kind of tarnishing his 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.440 his views of of human anatomy and human digestion to 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.600 the point where he said the colon and he's the 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.560 colon screw that cut it out, just took it right up. 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:09.520 And as Mary Roach points out in her book Gulp, 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.080 he was kind of saying, let's let's treat constipation with 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:17.360 just diarrhea. Diarrhea, I guess it's more preferable, right. Well, 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.919 the thing is here is that the colon is hugely important, 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:23.520 as we are going to discuss it a many different 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:28.160 aspects of it. In fact, Robert Rosenbluth, a physician that 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:32.200 Mary Roach interviewed for GULP, said no engineer could design 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:37.120 something as multifunctional and fine tuned as an anuses to 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:41.600 call someone an hole is really bragging him up. Yes, 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:43.600 and uh and I and I want to add one 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.840 more note about sir William here. Later on, after his 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.480 reputation took a dive because of this, uh, this this 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:52.600 opinion of his regarding the colon, because he's trying to 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:55.800 remove all his friends Colin's Yeah, and the medical establishment 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:58.360 um pounced on him and said you were nuts and 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.480 this is awful and rightfully so. Um. He later abandons 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:05.840 it and does a complete turnaround and starts saying that exercise, fruit, vegetables, 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:09.320 and brand cereal are the keys to fighting constipation. Well, 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:11.320 there you go, you know. So he had a bit 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.320 of a revelation there. Yeah, and I think maybe he 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:16.200 realized that, Yes, well, I don't know if he really 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.760 came around to thinking the colon was great, but he 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:21.720 definitely came around to saying, well, we don't need to 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.000 remove it. There are better ways to deal with colon problems. 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:27.240 So I wanted just to kind of go ahead and 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:31.040 dive into the colon if you can, because we've got 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.040 a lot to get to. And I thought that if 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:35.120 we start talking about the physical description of what it 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.520 looks like inside, it could serve and start contrast to 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.720 the small intestine, which remember, is pretty fancy, right. It's 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.360 got all of micro villa in it, and it's where 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:46.520 most of the nutrients are absorbed. This is gonna be 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:48.520 vital with some stuff we're gonna talk about later on. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.120 I use the example in another podcast that the whole 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.400 digestion system is like bringing in a stolen Chrysler and 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.240 then stripping it down of everything valuable and then spitting 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:00.240 out an empty shell on center blocks um in an 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.240 abandoned part of town. So most of the car is 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:05.320 stripped down, all the all the really good stuff, that 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.960 really important stuff is stripped away in the small intestines, 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:11.640 and it does. It's super fancy in their right. It's 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:15.279 got those mucoastal folds in it. But in stark contrast, 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.320 we have the interior walls of the colon, which Mary 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:22.799 Roach says are as smooth and shiny as cling wrap. Okay, 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.720 And the reason for this is because of course that 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:29.400 is uh constructed in that way so that the feces 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.400 can move through it with ease, yes or its as 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:34.960 it sometimes referred to at this point, or or maybe 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.000 a little more towards the very end as the fecal bullus, 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:40.920 in the same way that we were forming this bolus 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:44.200 in our mouth to transport the matter down the throat. 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.039 At this point, the bolus is on its way out, 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:51.320 a different bolus entirely, but but still a bolus. Yeah. Now, 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.760 the path of the colon is pretty circuitous. It's kind 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:58.080 of like an upside down you that surrounds the small 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:01.680 intestines and as if it's were sort of like a 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:04.640 frame for for your digestive system, or at least the 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.440 lower part of your digestive system. So the hagus on 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:11.560 its journey through the colon, this former hag us, right, 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.520 this now bullus that is forming, would have water and 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:20.240 salt extracted, which would leave more of a solid waste 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:24.360 product for us. And you begin to see that mucus 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:27.760 is produced throughout the colon, and that helps again the 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:32.560 now mostly solid feces to move through the lower portion 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.960 of the colon to the anus. I wanted to point 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.520 this out. This is going to seem pretty obvious, but 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.000 you might as well know what the mechanism and play here. 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:43.680 When the feces is big enough and it pushes against 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:47.159 the rectum walls with enough pressure, this pressure is measured 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:52.080 by stretch receptors and the defecation reflects is triggered. Yes, 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:54.720 And as Mary Roach points out in her book, she 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.360 has a whole chapter, well really, I think a couple 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:01.080 of chapters, the one really powerhouse chapter dealing with the 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.520 rectum and the anus and everything going on here. It 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.479 is a very sensitive part of the human anatomy because 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:07.920 it has to it has to be able to make 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:12.320 judgment calls, essentially on exactly what's what's knocking at the door. 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.760 Is it liquid? Is it solid? Is it gas? Is 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:17.800 is it something that is it something that needs to 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:20.200 come out now or is it something that can maybe 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:22.720 late wait until the end of the movie that you're watching. 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.040 A note on diarrhea, by the way, the more water 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.240 in the feces, the more pressure in the colon, and 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:32.120 the more urgent the call of nature. So that's one 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:34.920 of the reasons why there's a certain sort of diarrhea 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.360 look that passes of our eyes, and it's why we 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:39.160 need to do that. Yeah, it's it's why when when 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.360 diarrhea is coming. Uh, there's there's no waiting until the 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:44.440 end of the movie. It's it's getting up and running 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:46.480 to the to the Yeah. Yeah, it's a direct path 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:49.880 to the bathroom. And the reason for this is because 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.480 the small intestine is actually moving the food through m 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:57.280 or the time through so quickly that the nutrients are 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.440 an absorbed the food molekills aren't completely absorbed in. This 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:04.440 again creates a a load, if you will, in the colon. 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.720 The colon, sorry, colon's out there, um that is watery 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.600 and larger and is putting more of that pressure on. Yeah. Now, 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:15.280 as we can all attest to you, when there is 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:19.040 pressure there, generally you can you can hunker down and 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:21.840 say not now, not now, and the body will back 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:23.320 off a little bit. You can suppress it. You can 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:26.040 suppress it. And if you suppress it too much, though, 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.920 you can get into this situation where it's actually a 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.880 little difficult to convince your body. No, seriously, now is 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:34.080 a great time to poop. We should do this now. 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:36.440 There may not be a time later. This is the 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:38.800 designated pooping time. And the bodies like, I don't know, 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.559 I'm really into holding it back these days. I learned 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:43.680 that from you. Okay, But here's the problem. When you 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:46.600 hold it back, when you suppress, that reflects that defication 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:50.520 reflects what happens. Well, the stool hangs out and your 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.720 colon longer and longer, and the longer it hangs out there, 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:57.760 the more water is absorbed from it, and the harder 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:01.160 it gets. It basically kind of ears to concrete really 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:03.800 more like hardened clay, is the description that we kept 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.480 coming across, though there was one mention of actual concrete. 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:09.480 But that's that's that's a whole other that's a whole 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.240 different So it's sort of more of a vicious cycle 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:14.920 going on here. The longer you suppress it, the longer 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:16.400 it sits up there, and the harder is to get 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.280 it out. Yes, and then this can lead to some 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:23.160 rather serious conditions as well, and and even in some cases, 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:25.199 I mean, this can be lethal over time. With the 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:30.040 more with the more ponderous examples of compacted to colon's. Yeah, 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:31.920 we'll talk a little bit more about the role of 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:36.640 constipation um and another aspect of the colon in a bit, 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:41.400 but I wanted to talk about another very infamous byproduct, 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:44.240 which is gas. Yes, gas, you knew we were going 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:47.559 to talk about it. We may even dedicate an entire 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:52.320 episode two flatulence in the most elegant way possible that 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:55.320 we can. But for now, um, we should probably talk 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.199 about the role of beans. Yes, because really that they're 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:02.719 a huge culprit. They contain complex carbohydrates called all the 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:06.840 Ego Saccard's and the small intestine is unable to absorb 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.400 these complex carbohydrates, so they make their way to the 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.560 colon where bacteria and enzymes get to work on them, 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.760 breaking them down, and in the process a lot of 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:19.920 hydrogen is created. Now in a third of us, only 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:24.040 a third of us, there's also methane yes, which, as 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:26.760 as as Mary Roach pointed out and her previous book 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:29.679 Packing from Mars, this is one of the things that 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.320 that the screening process for astronauts has has sometimes looked 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.960 for which individuals that past gas are going to create 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:42.040 flammable methane as well. Those individuals arguably should maybe stay 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:46.000 on Earth and not go into a compact environment where 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.760 there's going to be uh potential risk for explosion. And 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:50.960 there's a way to actually test this is through your 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.960 breath because methane is absorbed through your bloodstream, so actually 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:58.680 is not the thing that's causing any smells. By the way, Princess, 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.400 there are planets um out there that are largely methane 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.920 in composition, and you might think, oh, I get there, 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:05.800 it's just gonna smell like fart world. But it's not 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:09.000 gonna smell like fire world. It's just it's not anything. 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:10.960 If they were filled with soulfur, though, it would be 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:14.720 fart world. Right, Like Mars apparently smells like rotten eggs 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.439 because of the because because of the chemical components there, 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:20.560 but it's not because of methane. So okay, what's the 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:23.720 what's the big deal with hydrogen being created in your colon? Well, 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:27.880 it builds up your colon begins to balloon with it, right, 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:30.319 and if you have too much gas, then those stretch 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:33.719 receptors let the brain now, and the brain then interprets 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.640 the stretching as threat in the form of a pain. 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.600 Okay um. And this is when the body then says, hey, 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:46.160 let's just go ahead and release the hounds. And then nobody, 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:48.800 I'm in yoga class and no, right, you're like I'm 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:51.200 in I'm in yoga class, or I'm not in yoga class, 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:55.520 I'm maybe in my car alone, hopefully, and the sphincter 0:11:55.840 --> 0:12:00.119 loosens and a fart is born. It's particularly difficult in 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:02.040 in yoga classes because you're going through a you're going 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:04.400 through so many poses, and then so many times you're 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:06.679 doing the left side and the right side, so you're 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.360 doing the post twice, and so I find myself in 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.760 those situations. I'm first of all, I'm I'm mortified by 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:15.760 the possibility of being the person who farts in yoga class, 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:17.680 even though it's perfectly natural, and I don't judge people 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:19.440 who do it. You know, the yoga teacher is going 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:21.600 to kind of be like a little bit proud of you. Yes, 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:24.440 I sometimes they are. Sometimes they're very goung ho like 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.400 they basically like standing, Oh you are in touch with 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:29.480 your doing it right, and in a sense we should 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.440 feel that way. I mean, it's we'll talk more about 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:33.800 this later, but I mean, it's the human body. It's 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.200 gonna do what it's gonna do, and yoga is about 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:39.520 putting your body through the ring or do a certain extent. 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:41.520 So that kind of thing is gonna happen. But I 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.199 find myself in the in the habit of thinking about 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.560 the body from uh as this dichotomy of left and right. 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:49.520 We're doing left side and the right side. So I 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.280 find myself fearful. I'm like, oh, well, I suppressed uh 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:55.280 flash once on my right side, but now I have 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:57.160 to worry about on my left side, as if there 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.360 are two different valves there, as if you have two 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:01.920 different in exactly. And then I have to remind myself 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.240 in the midst of the post, Robert, you only have 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.840 one anus. It's fine. These are the thoughts that are 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:09.880 going through your mind while you practice yuga. Alright, a 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:12.560 little insight. I like that. All Right, we're gonna take 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:15.040 a quick break, and when we come back, we will 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.800 get even more into the colon. We will discuss oddities 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:19.719 of the colon, things the colon can do that you 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.520 might not think about on a normal basis. Um so 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:25.800 this podcast is going to become even more amazing in 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:37.640 just a few moments. All Right, we're back and we 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.000 are going to start talking about some of the oddities 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.080 of the colon. And uh, I will tell you you all, 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:44.840 and you probably already know this, that I have a 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:49.600 strong stomach for the world of schatology. But brace yourselves, 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:54.600 because we're going to talk about reverse food consumption. Now. 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:59.160 Probably the the entry point for for discussing reverse of 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:02.160 food consumption is to talk about things that when we're 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.240 a little more familiar with. Of course, UH, suppositories comes 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:09.559 to mind. Uh, taking drugs in the rectum and then 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:13.200 experiencing the effects of said drugs again in the rectum. Uh, 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:17.280 drugs take up. Drugs take effect faster in the rectum 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:20.560 because you put them there. You're bypassing the stomach, the liver, 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:24.280 the body's vomit up, the poison defense mechanism. Uh, You're 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:26.880 you're getting it in through the back door literally. Uh. 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:29.040 And and there's this is where it can be a 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:32.200 little dangerous too, because there's the defense systems are not there. 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:37.400 It's just absorbing the the narcotic, the medication, what have you. 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.320 And so for for a long time, people have known 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.400 about this. Back in the third century a d. The 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:48.000 Mayans use suppositories or perhaps quote unquote intoxicating enemas to 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.920 receive various narcotics, and then over years people have used 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:56.160 everything from opium to alcohol to tobacco, peyote, uh fermented 0:14:56.200 --> 0:15:01.000 agave a sap Um software pioneer and expatriate murder suspect 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.520 John mccafee is a big fan of bass salts in 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:07.240 the anus so um. He has a whole message board 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:09.400 where he was apparently saying that this was the correct 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.280 way to do it. So what I'm saying is that 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:14.680 it's it's not a new idea. There is some there 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:18.760 is some absorption going on there. It's not the it's 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.440 not the the upper intestines, it's not the small intestines 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:23.560 where most of the nutrients are absorbs. So it's not 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:27.600 the real money area of the digestion track. But there 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.320 is some absorption going on there. And yes, you can 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.320 take medicine this way. In fact, you can potentially poison 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:38.120 somebody this way. Some historians think that Emperor Claudius was 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.320 poisoned vias depository at the behest of his wife Agrippa. 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:43.800 So what I'm hearing here is that people have been 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:48.200 have been sticking things up their pituites since time immemorial. Yes, 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:52.000 in some cases it's for medical purposes. Uh, sometimes it 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:56.720 is just for recreational purposes, as any your staff member 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.960 can tell you. And we have a humdinger of an 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.240 example of it as an attempt to, as you say, 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:09.280 absorb nutrients. The example comes by way of gulp Mary 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:14.320 Rich's book and she details President James gar Fields for 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.920 a into this. We're talking one. We're talking about him 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.600 taking a bullet to the liver. Yeah, we're talking about 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:25.160 a nutrient enema which has thankfully fallen largely out of 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:29.479 a favor, especially the type that you're about to discuss. Yeah. Well, unfortunately, 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:32.320 when he was his liver was grazed by that bullet. 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.960 His doctor tried to perform surgery on him and actually 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:38.320 did not wash his hands and infected him. And he 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:41.400 had a bacterial infection, and so presumably he could not 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.680 eat in the traditional way that we eat. So that 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:49.480 same doctor then prescribed the nutrient enema to him. And 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:53.320 I would like to read out the contents of this enema. 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.080 And this is a recipe from Assistant U. S. Surgeon 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:01.520 General C. H. Crane for rectal beef extract. Infuse a 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.879 third of a pound of fresh beef, finally minced in 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.680 fourteen ounces of cold soft water, to which a few 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:11.440 drops of muriatic acid and a little salt have been added. 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:14.240 After digesting for an hour to an hour and a 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:17.120 quarter strain it through a sieve. The yolk of an 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.320 egg is then added, along with two DRAMs of beef 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.480 peptonoids and five DRAMs of whiskey. Do you know where 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.680 we're going with this, guys? Well, I know exactly where 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:30.560 it's going up the bump because it actually it sounds 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.000 it's a recipe goes. It doesn't sound bad until you 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.240 realize that where it is going, that it stopped. That 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:38.679 we're talking about firing this up the anus in an 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.359 attempt to get the nutrients in that food absorbed by 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.440 the body. I mean, it's it's ultimately really it's kind 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:46.640 of sad and disturbing to think about it because here's 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.560 a man that's dying. His the assassination attempt took place 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:53.439 in eight one. He died the same year, So this 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:55.800 is the man who was who was dying, and they're 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:59.040 trying this thing that doesn't really work because it doesn't 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.000 matter how nutrition solve this stuff is you're not going 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:03.640 to be able to shoot it all the way up 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.080 to the small intestines, to the area where where again 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:09.760 most of the energy, most of the nutrients were absorbed 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.320 by the human body. Yeah, and if you had noted 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.480 the salt in the muriatic acid was not added as 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.399 as some sort of flavoring obviously, but to break it 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:23.760 down to try to uh, sort of simulate those sort 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:25.080 of sort of same things that we're having in the 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.879 stomach and the small intestine. The problem here again is 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.320 is that the small intestine is the part of your 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:37.119 digestive system that takes those nutrients away. The colon is 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.520 not a good place for this, right. You can you 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:40.639 can put it up there, you can put it in 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:44.360 the rectum, but there's not much that's going to be absorbed. 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:49.639 It is actually incapable of absorbing large molecules fats um, 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:53.640 albumans and according to Mary Roach, salt and glucose, some 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:58.080 short chain fatty acids, a few vitamins and minerals are 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:01.480 about it. It's not much ssorption going on. Yeah, and 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.200 it just created I mean, she has descriptions in there 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:07.040 talking about what this was like and how they abandoned 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:09.280 put using raw eggs in it after a while. It 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:11.639 was a stink. It was just horrible. So, I mean, 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.040 I just really I really felt for Garfield the whole 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:15.520 time I was reading this because I'm like, oh my, 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.840 this is just not a dignified way for a man 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:20.960 to have to spend his um, you know, his final months. 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:22.639 But then again, i mean there are a lot of 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.760 undignified ways to spend your your final period unearthed. So yes, 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.960 and it may have prolonged his life a bit, it 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:32.560 would not you obviously could not be kept alive from 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:37.520 this method of eating or digesting whatever, reverse digesting or 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:40.520 but it wasn't a time. I mean, you're you're you're 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.040 in a desperate moment, so you're going to try anything. 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:46.359 And certainly his his physician was doing something that probably 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:48.040 at the time was the most cutting edge thing that 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.200 you could do in this situation. Yeah, and there was 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.880 a fair amount of rectal enthusiasm of the time anyway, 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.120 I mean, people were this was you know, age when 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:00.560 people were a little more interested in and what's going 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:02.600 on in digestion. And we've we've talked about this before 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:04.800 and and I keep coming back to memories of the 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.760 movie The Road to Wellville, which featured Anthony hop Gunn, 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:10.159 says Kellogg. In fact, there's a great scene in that 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:14.639 where he's prescribing um yogurt to Matthew Broderick's character and 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.680 he says something to the fact of oh, I like yogurt, 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:19.840 and he tells him, Oh, it's not going in that end, 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:24.760 so right, Yeah, and he was Kellog was absolutely obsessed 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:27.720 with feces output, yes, because he felt like this was 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.560 pointing to the healthiest status of a body, that it 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:34.680 could produce as many feces as possible. Yeah, and it 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.320 you know, it's one of the things that really comes 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:39.560 out in our study of this. And and Mary Roach 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.639 really touches on a lot too, is that Okay? To 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:45.240 one extent, was you know, we look at people like Kellogg, 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:47.520 We we look at some of these scientists who study 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:52.600 the lower end of digestion and or in proctology and 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.080 in all of these areas, and there's a tendency to 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:58.000 say all these people are way too into this topic. 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.440 But it's it's really more so many of us are 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:02.960 not into it at all, Like we don't want to 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:05.200 think about it. And to to to a large extent, 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:09.800 it's it's often an under underappreciated area of study and 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:14.240 and even an understudied area of the human body. Um Mary, 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:17.879 which points out that like when it comes to various 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.600 like rectal cancers and cancers of the bows like they 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:23.879 they've they've largely not received as much attention and his 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:26.639 and that there's it's it's harder to to get across 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.480