WEBVTT - How Do Belly Buttons Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey Brainstuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogel bomb here pop quiz. Do you think the

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<v Speaker 1>reason that you have an any or an outy belly

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<v Speaker 1>button has something to do with the way that your

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<v Speaker 1>bilical cord was cut and tied when you were born?

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<v Speaker 1>Come on, be honest. The persistence of the any outy

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<v Speaker 1>myth is exhibit a that we don't know jack about

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<v Speaker 1>our belly buttons. Your belly button is indeed the leftover

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<v Speaker 1>remnant of what was once the umbilical cord, the ropelike

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<v Speaker 1>connection between you and your birth parent, which supplied all

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<v Speaker 1>of your nutrients and oxygen when you were in the womb.

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<v Speaker 1>When you were born, someone helping with the birth likely

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<v Speaker 1>cut the umbilical cord a couple of inches away from

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<v Speaker 1>your belly and clamped off the remaining section. There's no

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<v Speaker 1>actual tying involved. Once it's clamped, the small section of

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<v Speaker 1>umbilical cord dries up and falls off in about a week.

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<v Speaker 1>What's left is the umbilicus, commonly no own as the

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<v Speaker 1>belly button, and the shape and size of the belly

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<v Speaker 1>button depends entirely on the way that your skin heals

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<v Speaker 1>after the cord falls off. If you have an audie,

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<v Speaker 1>it's likely due to a mild umbilical hernia or slight infection.

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<v Speaker 1>At the site, a roughly of people have anies and

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<v Speaker 1>it's a jungle in there. According to a delightfully odd

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<v Speaker 1>scientific initiative called the belly Button Diversity Project, belly buttons

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<v Speaker 1>are home to a startling diversity of bacteria. The project

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<v Speaker 1>started back inn at North Carolina State University when a

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<v Speaker 1>team of young researchers got the idea to explore the

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<v Speaker 1>microbiome of the belly button. Would the bacteria colonies the

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<v Speaker 1>navel be different from those found on the rest of

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<v Speaker 1>the body. Using RNA sequencing, the researchers identified two thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>three hundred and sixty eight different species of bacteria living

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<v Speaker 1>in the navels of sixty volunteers. For reference, there are

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<v Speaker 1>only half as many species of birds or ants in

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<v Speaker 1>North America. Although eight species of bacteria dominated the belly

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<v Speaker 1>button microbiome, accounting for of the total population, there was

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<v Speaker 1>still incredible diversity among individual subjects. For example, no single

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<v Speaker 1>bacteria were found in every belly button, and two thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>one and eighty eight of the species were only found

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<v Speaker 1>in ten percent of sampled belly buttons. But what about

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<v Speaker 1>what's behind your belly button. We're not talking about navel gazing,

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<v Speaker 1>what's literally back there. Because just as your belly button

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<v Speaker 1>is a leftover remnant of the external umbilical cord, there

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<v Speaker 1>are also internal vestiges of the prenatal connection with your

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<v Speaker 1>birth parent. Remember that the purpose of the umbilical cord

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<v Speaker 1>is basically to circulate the carrier's nutrient and oxygen rich

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<v Speaker 1>blood in and out of the growing fetus. To do this,

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<v Speaker 1>the umbilical cord contains two types of lifelines, an umbilical

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<v Speaker 1>vein that delivers blood to the baby and two umbilical

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<v Speaker 1>arteries that carry waste and carbon dioxide out of the

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<v Speaker 1>baby and back into the parent, whose body can then

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<v Speaker 1>dispose of them. Inside the growing fetus, those umbilical veins

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<v Speaker 1>and arteries connect to the circulatory system, the liver and

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<v Speaker 1>the bladder. When the baby is born takes its first

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<v Speaker 1>lungfull of air and the umbilical cord is cut, the

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<v Speaker 1>internal sections of the umbilical veins and arteries also dry

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<v Speaker 1>up and harden into a type of ligament, but those

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<v Speaker 1>ligaments are still attached to the inside of the belly button.

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<v Speaker 1>One of the ligaments connects and bisects the liver. Another

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<v Speaker 1>stretches down into the pelvis, where portions of it may

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<v Speaker 1>still function as part of the circulatory system near the bladder.

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<v Speaker 1>In some babies, the vestigial artery running from the bladder

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<v Speaker 1>to the navel doesn't close entirely, and urine may leak

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<v Speaker 1>out of the belly button. A simple surgery can close

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<v Speaker 1>it back up, and if the eyes are the windows

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<v Speaker 1>to the soul, then the belly button is the window

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<v Speaker 1>to the gall bladder. In the field of minimally invasive surgery,

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<v Speaker 1>more surgeons are performing major procedures without serious scarring by

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<v Speaker 1>going through the belly button. Laparoscopic surgery is a type

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<v Speaker 1>of minimally invasive surgical procedure where surgeons make a small

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<v Speaker 1>incision in the navel and insert a laparoscope, which is

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<v Speaker 1>a telescope like tool with a light on the end

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<v Speaker 1>that enables doctors to see what's going on inside the

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<v Speaker 1>gut without opening up a large incision if tissue needs

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<v Speaker 1>to be biopsied or removed. Traditionally, one or more additional

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<v Speaker 1>small incisions are made to allow access, but now there's

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<v Speaker 1>a growing interest in single port laparoscopic surgery, wherein both

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<v Speaker 1>the laparoscope and flexible surgical instruments are inserted through a

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<v Speaker 1>special port plugged into a single incision in the belly button.

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<v Speaker 1>Not only is scarring hardly visible, but a single incision

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<v Speaker 1>shortens recovery time and lowers the RISKOD infection. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>is based on the article five things you Didn't know

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<v Speaker 1>about your belly button on how stuff works dot com,

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<v Speaker 1>written by Dave Rouse. Brain Stuff is production of by

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<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com

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<v Speaker 1>and is produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my

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<v Speaker 1>heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.