WEBVTT - From Nose to Tail: Can You Stomach It? 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Flow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:14.560 Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.000 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas, and 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.880 we are continuing our journey through the digestive system. In 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:24.320 our last episode, we dealt with smelling food, tasting food, 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:27.880 chewing food, getting food all wet and gross in your 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.400 mouth so it may continue the journey, and so in 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.840 this episode, we are in fact continuing the journey. Um. 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:36.319 You know some of our series we tell you, oh, 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:38.120 make sure you're back and listen to part one and 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:40.519 listen to part to this one. You can probably mix 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:43.320 it up a little bit. Yeah, I think everyone knows that, yes, 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:45.960 food needs to go through your mouth before it goes 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.680 into your esophagus and stomach. Yeah. But what's so cool 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:51.680 about that episode is that we learned about how your 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:55.040 tongue is bathed in saliva, and the saliva really brings 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.680 all those flavors to you, and that so much of 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:01.560 our ability to smells something or detective flavor has to 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:05.440 do with the tongue, and that there's our receptors in 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.319 the back of our throat that are actually detecting that smell, 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:12.280 So I actually just gave it away. But there's a 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:15.280 lot of really cool stuff in the episode. So yeah, 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:18.000 you've gone through that episode hopefully with us, and you 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:22.280 were about to plunge down the gullet, yes, and splunk inside. 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.600 And and like last time, we were inspired to do 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.720 this one a little bit by Mary Roach's new book, Gulp, 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.800 which highly recommend everyone pick that up if you're at 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:36.320 all into science, if you're at all into food and digestion, 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.120 into laughing or learning. It's a great book. We're really 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.679 enjoying it. And also check out our interview with Mary Roach, 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.160 which will have published by this time. Yeah, it's it 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.080 is great as usual, she has so many interesting things 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.160 to say. Um, so, yeah, let's talk about this journey 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:56.960 into the stomach. And uh, let's think about previously previously 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:02.880 on nose detail, Yes, previous smell to haggas we tasted hags. 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.600 We put hags in our mouth. The haggis is the 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.680 chewed as as much as you can chew chewed up. 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:13.120 We get salive on there, we get various enzymes and 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:16.600 we have formed a what what is this cargo? Bullets 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:20.720 bullets And just as a reminder, hags is essentially like 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:26.280 a tur ducan of organ meat uh, encased in sheep's stomach. Yes, right, 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:29.120 so all of that gets you know, chewed up in 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:31.480 her mouth and as you say, it becomes the bullets haggas, 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:36.520 it's like a gross muca see foodie football that's about 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:40.040 to be passed to the rest of the digestive system. 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.800 That's right. What happens is that you get the swallow 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:46.519 reflex and it's activated and the larn x elevates and 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:50.760 closes to avoid portions of the food bullus bulls haggis 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:54.360 entering the trachea. Yeah, because that's bad. That's joking, that's 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.320 that's not being able to breathe. Big ball of organs 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:00.040 trying to go down your wimpipe bad bad news. And 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.840 as Mary Roach points out to the bad ones to 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:05.760 to actually get down there. Of course, with the grape 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:09.480 and the hot dog, both just the right size to 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:14.760 to block your windpipe, perfect circumference to mimic the circumference 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.560 of your windpipe. So yes, that is why actually they 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.079 say with with kids toddlers to you know, always cut 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:25.000 up a hot dog or grapes. That's the very reason. Alright. 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:28.560 So the police is entering this esophagus, and the esophagus 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.800 I think is wonderful because it really is the beginning 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:35.240 of this long tube of your digestive system. Because if 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:37.120 you think about this, it really is a tube from 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.680 your mouth to your anus. It's just in different types 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:44.520 of sculptures along the way. Yeah, it's like one long 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:49.080 winding hallway through a house. The decorations change, the carpeting changes, 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.000 but but ultimately it's the same pathway, right. And from 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.160 this pathway it's a pretty straight shoot. We're talking about 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:59.320 eight inches here, um. And it does have two parts. 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:03.600 There's the or esophagal spin sphincter, that's the U S 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.320 and that is under our conscious control, right, So that 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:11.560 is helping us to eat, to breathe the belch, and 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:13.640 to even vomit when we need to. And it is 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.160 essentially keeping food from going down the wrong pipe. Right. 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:18.520 That the upper part of our esophagus. Now, the lower 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:22.360 part is involuntary, and it's muscles are kind of like 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.359 the dormant to the stomach, making sure that acid and 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:29.400 food don't travel backwards into the esophagus. That's bad though. 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.080 That does happen, of course, and it's sometimes it's important 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.279 that it happens in the case of regurgitation, It's true. Yeah, 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.440 But the cool thing about the esophagus, this is essentially 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:44.080 made up of these muscles that are easing the food downward, 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:49.240 especially in the process of paristalsis. Yes, peristalsis. It's kind 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:52.600 of like I can't help but think of like a 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:55.960 snake eating something, or or when you when you have 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.080 accidentally put your hoodie in the washer and dryer without 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:01.640 h eyeing up the cords and the cord comes out 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.640 and you have to carefully like work it through the 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.599 hood again. It's that kind of like gradual process. Yeah, 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:12.599 it's smooth muscle movement and it is sort of like 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:14.720 you think about a worm or snake sort of sort 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.719 of moving along. And now para salsas begins in the 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:20.400 esophagus and it goes all the way to the anus, right, 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:24.560 So this is a movement um that really does kind 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.360 of usher your food from one station to another. And 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.800 when we talk about the esophagus, the movement is initiated 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:35.960 by circular smooth muscles contracting behind the chewed food, and 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:40.360 then it's followed by a contraction of longitudinal smooth muscles 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.320 which pushes the digested food forward or down. So you 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.800 could do a cartwheel and you can be digesting and 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.960 it would still move your food in the correct direction, 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:54.239 because it is it is those muscles that are really 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.760 making sure that food is going down, uh, not necessarily gravity. 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:02.760 Right now, we're still in the upper esophagus at this point, right, 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:04.320 and now this is a This is the area where 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:06.800 everything is still under conscious control. For the most part. 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:11.040 We're still more or less in charge of the food movement. 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.480 But when we get into the lower esophagus, that's where 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:17.440 it becomes more of a subconscious movement. It's no longer 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:19.680 really our affair what's going on with the food. It's 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.440 it's been passed on to a different division. That's right. Um. 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:25.640 I mean it's all in preparation for shooting it into 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.640 the stomach, right to the big vat of acid. And 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.800 I did want to interject something here that when it does, 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:35.400 when that bollus lands in that big vat of acid, 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:41.400 we get these noises gurgling from our stomach. Yes, and 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:43.960 there's an actual name for these noises. This was new 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:45.960 to me. This was a surprise. Yeah. Yeah, this is 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:48.479 a bit of on a monopea going on. The word 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:52.000 is Warbaraghini, because it sounds exactly like what it is. Yeah, 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:54.760 it down. It sounds like we both like, yeah, if 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:58.760 you slow it down, it's a war. War. Doesn't that 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.400 sound like my stomach just it does sound like like 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:05.159 stomach systic, the kind of gurgly noise that that generally 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.320 makes itself heard during the quiet parts of movies or 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:12.120 on dates or in waiting rooms anywhere where it's nice 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.280 and quiet, and your digestive system is reminding you that 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.960 even though you were taking it easy, it's it's work times, 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.080 that is exactly. It's kind of like the digestive systems 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:26.040 work song, like whistle your while you work song. It's like, hey, 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:29.080 this is going on, but we're wearing to me or 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.400 something like that. The cat sits on my shoulder the 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:34.960 other day. She was doing and I could hear the 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:38.360 sound of her digestion. It was just like, yeah, yeah, 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.120 I've heard my cats as well. And you know he's 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:42.680 he's a giant cat, by the way, and he eats 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:46.040 a lot um. He's a twenty six pound cats, so 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.360 you can really hear his digestion. And he snores too, 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:54.560 and sneezes um. So the interesting thing about the bogaragimi 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.360 is that it's the gas in the air that's trapped 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:01.600 in what we are now calling come formerly the bullets. Okay, 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.040 now it's like now that this the slurry ball has 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.520 become just this slurry highway of good called the kind. Yeah, 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.880 the time is just we've changed the names here because 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.200 we've put more additives in it, right. We we have 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:17.280 added some gastard juices to the mix. And so it's 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:20.320 that that gas and air that's trapped in the time 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:24.040 that is making those noises. And if your stomach or 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.200 your small intestine is relatively empty, uh, it's going to 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.720 make louder noises. So Jessica Toothman has a great article 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.959 on our website about this, and she likened it to 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.679 when you put shoes in a dryer and you can 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.080 hear because there's just one thing, right, the shoes and 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.520 a dryer, and it's all around in the dryer. But 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:45.000 if you put a bunch of towels in there, then 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:48.800 it would muffle this sound. So that is why sometimes 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.480 your proper righimi is louder than other times. It all 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.120 comes back around the washing machines. It really does. Right. 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.160 We talked about this last time, about how the salava 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.840 is essentially a detergent the enzymes in it. All right, 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:01.960 gonna take a quick break. We have we have delivered 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:03.880 you to the stomach, and there's a lot more to 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.040 come as we discuss what actually goes on in the stomach. 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:09.160 This is kind of the main stage really, so of 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.080 course we're going to talk some more about the stomach activity, 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.720 but first a quick break and then we're back. All right, 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:17.760 we're back, and we are in the belly of the beast. 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.680 We are in the belly um And again, I just 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.680 anytime I think about like stomach activity, I always go 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.679 back to the movie Interspace, the climactic battle in Martin 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:32.000 Short stomach between the the the bad guy inside of 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:34.720 a little robot submarine dude, and then the good guy 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.080 who was who was it, uh, Dennis Quaid, and they're 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.360 like duking it out, and then the bad guy gets 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:43.320 out of his he like his submarine gets partially destroyed, 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.079 so he's like trying to drill into Dennis quaid submarine 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:49.160 and then all the stomach acid comes up and just 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:52.000 dissolves him down to a skeleton. There on the on 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:54.920 the on the front of the submarine. You know, you 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.640 have just described really this Steve theory. Yeah, that we'll 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:01.400 get to in a moment, and it's about beneficial bacteria 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.480 and the bad guys and allow the good guys like 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.040 like Dennis Quaid to potentially continue the journey through the 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:09.720 body man. That totally should have been in the paper 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.719 that was published about Steve theory. Um. But yeah, let's 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:17.280 talk about how this PLoP of time enters into the 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:21.080 stomach chamber. And there is another set of digestive glands 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.040 in the stomach lining the first one that we met 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:27.400 in the mouth. Right, you've got either saliva there um 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:31.200 this next set of digestive glances producing stomach acid and 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:35.840 enzymes that further break this stuff down. Yeah, and this 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:38.360 is more hardcore for sure. Now I don't know if 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:43.240 it's dissolving bodies to skeleton in a matter of seconds. Um. Powerful, 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:45.360 Because there's a part in merriy Roaches book Gulp where 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.920 she actually has some some some stomach acid put on 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.240 her skin because it wants to feel what it might 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.160 be like. And it's it's a very it's not an 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.960 immediate um burning sensation. It doesn't like eat through her 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.959 arm like xenomorph blood or thing. It's it's it's not 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.320 at that potent. Now it's potent. It's acid, but but 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.199 there's nothing just crazy about it. It's not like sulfuric 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:10.440 acid or something. Yeah, but it's a It should be 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.840 noted that the major components of gastard juices are mucus, 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:19.840 pepsin and hydrochloric acid. And on the pH scale, humans 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.520 actually have an acid level of two. Now, the lower 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.200 the level than the higher that the actual acid um 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:31.160 of the stomach. So that's pretty acidic. It's pretty a 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.480 sitting but not but but again not like crazy sci 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:38.040 fi movie acidic necessarily, Yes, you're that's right, that's right, 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:41.199 but it does the job. And so it's especially when 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:44.800 you come to something like the CV theory, and the 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.800 idea is that the stomach isn't just there as a 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:50.480 holding pattern for your food and to make it a 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.720 little bit mushier and to get it even more further 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.440 broken down. Although it does that, the theory is that 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.079 the stomach is also there to weed out the good 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:04.360 microbes versus the bad microbes. And scientific American blogger Rob 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:07.040 Dunn actually found an interesting study from nineteen forty eight 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:11.240 by Dr Orla Jensen. She was a retired professor from 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.480 the Royal Danish Technical College, and in the study, or 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:18.280 Ly Gensen deposits that the stomach um isn't just that blender, 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.280 but it really is doing this job of weeding out 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:24.400 the bacteria. Because again, as we've discussed in past podcasts, 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.880 the body is loaded with microbes. We are, it is 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:31.000 a big hotel full of things, and and and in 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:33.320 the microbe living in my body aren't exactly the same. 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.000 It's not exactly the same population as you have, as 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.559 the next person has. But that being said, uh, there's 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:43.199 there's some an order here and not everyone that lives 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.080 on the tenth and eleventh floor are allowed to go 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:48.320 up to the penthouse or down to the penthouse in 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.440 this environment. It's true, it's true. And then you have 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:54.000 to consider something like our friend the vulture, which we've 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:58.240 talked about before, and it's pH level because we've talked 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:03.439 about pathogens like anthrax actually being present in the feces 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:07.280 of this bird. In this idea that that stomach acid 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.440 could actually render it harmless. Yeah, because they're eating some 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.280 pretty nasty stuff. And and again it's it's all right. 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:14.840 It comes into the mouth, find it comes in the 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.760 esophague is fine. But in the stomach, that's where this 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:19.880 is what where it is, that's where it has to 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:23.800 be nullified to continue now or le Jansen knew that 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.440 the human stomach um the pH levels in it, actually 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:32.120 increases with age, meaning it becomes less acidic, and she 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:35.120 also noted that this effect is really acute in people 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:38.840 who are over seventy years of age. So she predicted 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:42.200 that the stomach's effectiveness as a killer of bad microbes 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.760 might be compromised as we get older, and this is 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:48.360 one of the reasons that diseases take us over at 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:52.200 at older ages, right, So she tested this by culturing 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.520 bacteria that her and her team had collected from fecal 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.280 samples of ninety humans, one third of whom we're between 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.000 the ages of third and forty, and two thirds who 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.640 were over the age of seventy. They then compare the 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:08.280 microbes found in examples from these different age groups. So 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:10.520 let me just kind of go through what they found here, 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:13.959 because it really is interesting. Nine percent of the individuals 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.480 over seventy had more than a million cells of bad 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:22.840 news clusterythm bacteria program of theces we've talked about that before. 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:26.320 That is a real can be a permanent game changer 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:29.080 for people in terms of the quality of life and 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:32.040 sometimes the length of their life. None of the thirty 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.560 to four year olds had this. Okay, what was more, 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.200 a third of the individuals over seventy had more than 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:40.640 a billion cells program of feces of the oral bacteria 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:44.520 strip to Caccus salivarius, and again none of the thirty 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.800 to forty year olds did so. Donne says, well, were 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:51.000 these pathanogenic in oral bacteria doing well enough to actually 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:55.000 compromise the success of good bacteria in the gut? Yes, 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:57.760 this is true. It did, while all the thirty to 0:14:57.800 --> 0:14:59.600 four year olds had at least a million cells of 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:03.800 the good bacteria, uh, less than half of the individuals 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.960 over so, but this is painting. The story is that 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:11.280 our health is directly related to the microbes in our gut. 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.720 In our stomach is maintaining this community of bacteria. The 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.520 older you get, the less able you are to sort 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.280 it to see it. And that's where this this idea 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:25.320 of microbes seve theory comes into play. That's interesting because 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:31.160 essentially the older stomach, uh is is less scrutinizing when 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.800 it comes to who should be led into the trust 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:37.840 zone of the of the intestines and uh and it 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:40.080 it kind of parallels these studies you see about how 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:43.320 how older individuals are more likely to be taken by 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.160 a comment because there because it there's a certain amount 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:48.960 of trust that's that's greater in so many of these 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.520 older individuess. You know what's really interesting about that analogy 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.400 is that the guts of those people who are seventy 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:58.400 year olds and had dementia were actually in worse shape 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:01.560 than any of the participants. So it's a little bit 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:03.720 like you wonder if the if the dementia is at 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.840 play here in terms of communicating with the body to 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:10.880 try to we doubt there's microbes. That's a fascinating idea. 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.880 I'd never never really thought about that dementia not only 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:19.280 of the the conscious mind, but of subconscious processes. Yeah, 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.040 so it makes me think again of the bearded one. 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:26.880 Are we degray and this ability to get to the 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:31.000 disease before it happens? So do we alter our pH 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:32.960 levels in our stomach as we get older? Can we 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:35.240 do that? Yeah? I say, go for it. That's a 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:38.920 good bit of information I think to consider, because again, 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:41.200 it's his whole thing is let's figure out. But we 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.520 can't defeat death itself his self herself. You know, it's 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:47.880 it's too intimidating. But if you break it down into 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:53.680 a whole list of individual achievable goals, then maybe you 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.240 can do something right, Like Okay, let's here's the stomach. 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:59.080 Let's let's try to battle it this way. Because the 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.760 idea here is that the human body is like a car, 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:04.560 and it has all these parts, certain parts to give 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.200 out and then the recent point where a whole bunch 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:08.840 of parts are giving out and then the thing just 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.320 falls apart in the highway. But if we can maintain 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:15.280 these various parts, then then maybe the car will hold 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.760 up longer than it has been indeed, And I think 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.159 that this study that Rob Dunn brought up in the 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.840 Scientific American article is just really interesting because it's kind 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.440 of hit its time in it was sort of sitting 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:28.440 there and it's an interesting bit of information. But now 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:31.760 that we have the understanding that we have of microbes, 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.080 it's sort of poised to to change the landscape of 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:38.680 how we deal with microbes good and bad. Now back 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:41.040 to the car analogy for a second. You know, I 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:42.760 I do not know much about cars. So when I 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:44.800 opened the hood of a car, I look in there 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:46.800 and I tend to trust that everything in there is 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.040 important and that I shouldn't just go in and rip 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.040 something out and expect the car to work fine. Likewise, 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:56.600 I I know a little more about well, I know 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.240 a bit more about the human body than about the 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.200 inside of the car. And I still generally ascribe to 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:04.440 the notion that if it's in there, it probably needs 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:06.639 to be UM and if it doesn't need to be 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:09.199 in there any longer than my body may let me 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.960 know about it. But as we're about to discuss UM, 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:16.560 sometimes things things can disappear from the body and and 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.439 the body will continue to work just fine. And I 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:21.920 mean that's a bit of an overstatement of the obvious. Obviously, 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.959 people UM in many cases have had have lost an 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.399 organ or two. They've had it replaced with the with 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.879 an artificial, with a transplant, et cetera. But I really 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:35.040 had not thought long and hard about that. The fact 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:37.600 that you can remove the stomach from a human being, 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:40.720 fix them back up, and the body can more or 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.760 less adapt just fine, right, which is I think it's 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:47.159 surprised because the gut seems so central to the food 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.160 processing part. Right. But what we have found is that 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:53.240 there's something called a gas wrecked on me. And this 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:55.960 is a medical procedure that involves surgically removing all a 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:58.800 part of the stomach. So if you remove pretty much 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.919 all the stomach, then you would just really make the 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.520 cut in the abdomen and then you would reconnect it 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:09.200 essentially to the esophagus. So your esophagus and then you're 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.680 small intestine need each other. Say hello, And as I'm reading, 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:14.760 and I should, I should know that. You know, first 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:16.560 of all, I don't. I don't have any personal connection 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.760 anyone who has received this this procedure, and I know 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:21.800 from the research that it can it can be a 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:25.120 huge adjustment to be to make in your life. Years long, yeah, 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:27.080 years long. And it's no you know, it's nothing to 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:31.320 nothing to to giggle at, it's nothing to take lightly. Uh. 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.560 But that being said, the procedure itself, like in a 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.560 detached way, is is just very fascinating because there's something 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:41.440 kind of almost do it yourself issue about the idea 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.560 of taking something as complex as the human body and 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:46.720 saying like, all right, part A connects to part B 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:49.640 connects to part C. If I take part B out, 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:51.840 can't I just connect A and C and everything will 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.000 work just fine. And if you you've presented that to me, 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.040 I would say, god, no, don't, don't connect A and C. 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:01.280 But but seeing this and I TA directions. Yeah, exactly. 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:03.439 It's like you wouldn't do that with Ikea and expect 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.119 your bookcase to to hold up. But the body is 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.560 a surprise, surprise, far more durable than an Ikea bookshelf. Yeah. 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:13.600 And if you have gastric cancer and you don't have 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:15.560 many options in front of you that you're going to 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.320 opt for the surgery, or if you are someone who 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.920 tests positive for carrying the e caterine gene, which is 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:25.280 a rare gastric cancer, it's a way of heading off 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:27.680 the disease at the past, right, Because if you have 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.479 five people in your family who have this rare type 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:35.119 of gastric cancer and you think that and you've tested 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:37.280 positive for the gene, you think you might be next, well, 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:39.600 then you might take, as you say, things into your 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:43.360 own hands and make this decision. Yes, they'll get someone 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:47.080 else to do the surgery. Yeah, that part so essentially 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:49.719 in the in the case of like a full stomach removal, 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:53.359 you're talking about the esophagus being connected directly to the 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:57.640 small bowl. So an entire and a shortcut, if you will, 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.600 an entire road of the highway has been removed and 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:04.440 then hooked up right, And it has parallels to gastric 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.080 bypassed right, which is when you take a bit of 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:08.520 the stomach and you tie it off and you make 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:11.520 the stomach smaller so that the person is able or 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:15.120 not able to digest as much food and therefore lose weight. 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.879 And it's really something that's very helpful for obesity. But 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:21.600 it's the same idea is that you adapt to it 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:24.520 and eventually, you know, those teaspoons of food that you 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.440 have become a little bit fuller. Now, someone who has 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:31.600 gastric bypass or I guess rocktomy, they're not necessarily gonna 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:34.080 be able to eat like, you know, a whole pizza. Yeah, 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:36.320 it's gonna it's my understanding, It's gonna be a lot 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.879 more like smaller meals as throughout the day. But the 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:42.640