Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Does Shrimp Make My Husband Drunk?

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

Have you ever wanted to ask a real doctor questions that aren’t really advice? Dr. Sydnee answers listener questions about infecting yourself with a virus, refusing opioids, and difficult veins. And don’t worry - there are some poop questions as well.Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/

Sawbones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, talk is about books. One, two, one, not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a man, I'm not a for the mouth. Wow. Hello everybody and welcome to Saul Bones, my little tour miss guy, the medicine

I'm your co-host Justin McElroy. And I'm Sydney McElroy. And I'm just a Sydney McElroy. If I was a doctor, if I was a doctor, I would never ever, ever, ever ever say my name without doctor at the beginning. It would always be just a doctor, Dr. McRoy, always.

Even if I was... There's no need. If I had the MD, if I worked, I got my MD, I'm gonna... Or your DO. Or even, you know what? Even I will make this concession. Even if you have one of the, like a PhD,

like a pretend doctor like that, I would definitely still have a doctor like me. No, okay, Justin, did you just... I would just like to point out to all you PhDs out there. I would never call you pretend doctors. And Justin, you should know that it is, I would say more difficult to get a PhD than an MD or a D, not that I have a DO, I'm not insulting my fellow colleagues who are DOs, but I think we could all agree, all of us who practice medicine that PhDs seem harder

to get, you have to argue something in front of people and present it at defendant, I believe, and it takes longer. And I think it seems more difficult. You have to write big long papers. But I don't have either. And here's what I'm saying. If that is so upsetting to you,

your intellectual inferior Justin McAroy, maybe you need to like, maybe there's some work you need to do. You know what I mean? If you're hurt by what I said, you should maybe do some work. I think they get tired of being called pretend doctors when they are ever as much doctors.

Not just doctors, I never would say that. That is what you said. Rachel, check the tape and see if I said pretend doctors. I would just listen. Well, hold on, wait. you said Rachel check the tape and I said I would just listen. Well, I'll wait Rachel just check the tape So there's whatever sort of doctor whatever sort of doctor degree you have if you are angry about what has been said on this Podcast please direct all your angry letters to Justin and not to me all of you doctors work hard for your titles And everybody who's not a doctor, why do we have to divide it just in? We listen, that was a kind of a stratified society based on levels of education.

That's what I'm doing. That's what I'm doing. I want to build everybody up. Okay, so Dr. Justin Nackaroy. I love it. Okay, that's not what I said. I'm saying that you do like the leadism, the structural leadism in academia,

if it benefits you, but not if it's me. I'm saying dispense with the titles, I'm just Sydney. I'm just Sydney. And I'm just, I'm just your friend Sydney who wants to do a podcast with you. You know, I'm Dr. Justin McAroy, but you can just call me Jamie and or Hoops. Don't ruin my replies.

You're incredible. Get PhD. You know, I'm kidding, but that's, that's all I wanted to say. I love all the points. If you're here today, you worked hard to get here. Whatever you did. You're here today every step on your journey brought you to this moment. We're listening to our podcast where we're going to talk about your weird medical questions that you said.

That's, you could probably tell from that loose energy. It's one of our favorite kinds of episodes to do where we just dig into the mailbag with all the your weird queries. And you know what, we don't normally typify things as weird on this show. We try to avoid that sort of like, you know, judgment of you or dear listeners, but I think you are self-assigning as weird. They listen to one end to one of these episodes. Well, here's the thing, you are because when I decide like, hey, we haven't done one of those,

in a while, we should do one of those episodes. I go through my email and Justin knows this, I don't delete any emails ever under any circumstances. Pretty much. And I go through it back through the saw bones email and I search weird medical questions. And this is how you title your emails. So you know, we both know it's weird. And also, by the way, I'm not criticizing, I appreciate that because it makes it really easy to search. So you can always send your weird medical questions to us anytime. Because when we decided to do one of these episodes, that's how I find your questions.

I just do that search. So title it that way and we'll all agree that it's weird because this is why it's not medical advice, right? I know. I know you're not telling people, but I am saying. That's why it's weird. It's just interesting. It's like, it's like, it's like, it's just stuff you want to know.

Just stuff that, yeah, curiosity. This first one's from Justin, McAroy. When I need American chocolate, my teeth hurt sometimes. And that used to be a problem for me, but they don't really hurt anymore. Could you read the first real question? Yeah, okay, I'm just sharing that we all have weird medical stuff.

I don't know why American chocolate makes your teeth hurt. I really don't. You, sorry, hun. I don't know why it used to. If you would have listened, I think you have a tooth problem. And as we have discussed on the show many times, you need to talk to a dentist about your teeth.

Nami. I'm going to do it later. I haven't been to any of the day actually. Oh, good. Did you ask what time? No, do you want to share that? What time today? What time?

2 30. Oh. I have a weird question. My husband has a shrimp allergy. Apart from the symptom of an itchy mouth, he also says that his tolerance to alcohol goes way down. It typically takes quite a few drinks to get him to act drunk. He's a big guy and used to run a bar. But if he's ingested shrimp, we're not going to make through all these questions. This really is shrimp heaven now.

This guy's blood. It takes far fewer drinks to get him to feel and tipsy. If he's already been drinking it pretty suddenly hits him hard and even comes drunker. If you could go to a bar and be like, listen, I don't have a lot of cash tonight. So I'm gonna need three beers and eight shrill. Why would shrimp allergy sudden decreases tolerance? three beers and eight shrimp. Hahaha. Hahaha. Hahaha. Hahaha.

Why would shrimp allergy sudden decreases tolerance like this? Is it some sort of histamine reaction, psychosomatic? I hope, uh, uh, I hope you can help solve this medical mystery because Google has not been helpful. Thank you. Strange shrimp symptoms in Chicago. Okay. This is, this was a tough one for me.

I'd never heard of this. So I had to do some searching and I don't really have a straightforward answer as to why in this order things would happen. I thought though that there is a phenomenon here that is real, that is not psychosomatic, that is an interaction between allergies and alcohol ingestion that we're still like understanding. We have a growing body of understanding, but we're still not completely there. There is a relationship.

Some alcohol, for instance, contains histamine, so it's pretty straightforward. If you're having allergic reaction and you drink alcohol, you can worsen it. Or you can, because it does have histamine in it, some people just say like, my nose runs when I drink alcohol. That was actually another email we got. Sometimes my nose runs. When I drink alcohol. Yeah, well, some alcohol has histamine in it.

So there you go. There you go. Alcohol has also been noted to increase something called IgE, which is one of the antibodies that reacts and that is released and reacts in an allergic reaction. So you get more Ig, if you have more Ig already, and then you're exposed to something you're allergic to, you could have a stronger reaction, does that make sense? So the, in general, the people who study allergies and immunological reactions say that the in general alcohol lowers the amount of allergen necessary to cause reaction,

makes allergen related allergic reactions develop more quickly and increases the severity of those reactions. So I know this is backwards though, right? Like you're asking me why would shrink, make you drunker? And I'm saying alcohol would make your shrimp allergy worse. So the reaction, I know this is the wrong order, but why it would work the other way around is still. I mean, what we'd have to imagine is that in some way your allergic reaction is impeding his ability to break down the alcohol in a timely fashion. Because that's really what it is, right? As we metabolize alcohol and break it down

to its final byproducts and excrete it from our bodies, we become not drunk. If you slow down that time, one, you get a build up of things like acid out of hide, which can make you feel bad, and two, and that's what you can build up if you have like, not an allergic reaction to alcohol, but if you're somebody who's a slow metabolizer and, anyway, and you have a bad reaction to drinking a lot, you get flushed and nauseous.

Two, it can also make you drunker if you're slower to break it down. So there's definitely an interplay between an allergic reaction and alcohol. There's definitely an interplay between an allergic reaction and alcohol. There's definitely an influence. For the time being, I'd be careful with shrimp and beer, I guess. Yeah, and I'm sorry in advance that you've likely been banned from every red lobster in the tri-county area. One just won, uh, uh, uh, I pulled up their drinks, honey. There's one called the lobster Caesar. A lobster.

That's a drink. This lobster tail topped creation starts with spice, mott's, clomato, mixed with smearnau vodka, garnish with a fresh lime wedge and pickled beans. One sip and you'll be a Caesar believer. Whatever's happening to you is just because of that drink. That has nothing to do with. That's not your fault. That's red lobster's fault. That's red lobster's fault. They over served you on the a lot of coladas. So I don't know it's interesting. I know that's not a clear cut answer to the question, but there is an interplay between the two you you you're spot on and recognizing it. And I don't know like maybe we need to do a study. Here's one from Bex. Weird medical question.

I bet a lot of people have, why do old injuries hurt when it gets cold or rainy, or is this just a common myth in our heads? Love your show and wishing you well. So this phenomenon dates back like, Hapokriti's wrote about this. The idea that an old injury will hurt when it's cold or rainy or whatever. So this is definitely something that humans have noticed for a really long time, which makes us think there's something happening, right?

If we keep talking about it over and over and over, either that or somebody read hypocrite's and repeated that and then somebody repeated that and somebody, and on and on and on. So it could just be, you know, confirmation bias. You notice that your knee hurt, you looked outside, it was raining and then you thought about, does my knee hurt and it hurts and then you, but your knee hurt, you looked outside it was raining and then you thought about does my knee hurt and it hurts and then you, but your knee also hurt that day that it was sunny and you didn't notice because

it was sunny. You know what I'm saying? So obviously there's always that sort of of interplay and I don't have like a study again, nobody's who would do that study. Somebody would. Somebody would do any study. But also an area that's been damaged and healed, you could have nerves as they healed that are slightly more sensitive to changes in things like temperature or pressure. And that's so a storm would cause pressure changes in fluid, right? Bermetric pressure changes. So your joint fluid could have pressure changes. And if you have sensitized nerves, maybe you do get pain in that joint. Same thing if the air around the joint is very cold. You're more sensitive to temperature now because of those healed nerves, and so the pain

would be more intense. So there are some possible mechanisms that have to do with just those nerves that have healed and the sensitivity in them now. That's definitely possible. I can't tell you conclusively because again, I don't I don't know I don't know what we do with that information Warming a joint can't help though. I will say that if your joint hurts more when it's cold actually applying like some Warmth to the joint does help ease the pain so I'm a cisgender woman both my mom and my grandma

I've told me it's bad to drink too much carbonated water because it steals calcium from your bones They say it's especially bad for women's health because it increases the risk of osteoporosis. Is this really a thing? Or is there any reason Fizzy Water be worse for you than carbonated water? It just seems like one water should be as good as the other and I love the bubbles. Thanks so much. Love the show. Jen.

This comes, this came out of a study. So there is a route to this, although it has been misinterpreted. There was the Framingham osteoporosis study in 2006, and many things came out of it, but one of them suggested that older women who drink cola have a lower bone mineral density in their hips, not in other places, just in their hips.

Colour are carbonated drinks. This was about cola. This was about soda, cola, I don other places, just in their hips. Cola or carbonated drinks? This was about cola. Oh, okay. This was about soda, cola, I don't know, whatever you want to. What they found though, because they did look into other carbonated drinks, and there was no connection to other carbonated things. So it wasn't the fizzy, that was the problem, right? Because it was really associated with cola.

The thought was that phosphorus in the drinks, in carbonated drinks, was leaching calcium from your bones. Is that a thing? That doesn't seem to be happening, no. That is not what the issue is. They also found that people in the study who were drinking more cola were taking in less calcium. At first they thought they were drinking less milk, they didn't really find that,

but they did find that you were, for some reason, you were taking in less calcium if you were also drinking cola. I don't know. There's obviously there's other. You're not drinking milk. There's other things happening there. You're not drinking yogurt. And also maybe it has something to do with caffeine. There may be an associated with caffeine as well. But at the end of the day, what they said was, it isn't fizzy water. Fizzy water is not the issue. You can drink the fizzy water. It's okay. Can I reinfect myself with a virus I've already had? For instance, right now I got a nasty

non-COVID cold. And because it suddenly chilly outside, I'm using my lip balm pretty regularly. I would never show my lip balm with someone while I'm sick. I would just go ahead if I get at a little carbon there. just probably don't share your lip balm at all. But should I ever use this one again? Can a virus live somewhere like that for a long time as even possible to get the exact strain of virus already had? So that's from Liza, contagious and clad, and there were about re-infecting with that

track. With the exact same virus, yeah. So, I mean, if it, I mean, obviously that is the virus that is already in your body, you're gaining immunity to that strain. Eventually, would you be sensitive to it again? Yes, but by the time you'd be sensitive to it again, the viral particles on your trapsick will have died. Viruses all live different times outside the body.

Every virus, every sort of kind of class of virus is different. And so some viruses are especially hearty and can live a really long time on surfaces. Some of them, not very long at all, none of them will outlive that immunity you have to the virus. So no, using your chapstick,

you're not gonna keep re-infecting yourself. And I can't even come up with a scenario where like, well, but you are increasing your viral load like every time you use it. I think all of that would be pretty far-fetched. It is important to know you shouldn't share your chapstick. I don't share your chapstick. Yeah, you shouldn't share your chap.

That is good. And I will say though, I have been in situations recently where people have offered chapstick where I have seen this phenomenon occurring again. I felt like that would go away forever with COVID. A lot of people thought handshakeing would go away forever with COVID. A lot of people thought handshakeing would go away forever with COVID, right? It didn't.

As someone running for office, I can tell you. You like it. We like chapstick. People love shaking hands. People love sharing chapstick. They love that stuff. I would say never share your chapstick. I don't think there's a great reason

to get rid of your chapstick in this situation. I wouldn't. Just if it experiences something, anything, just wait. I'd never finished a chapstick. You're a finished chapstick? No. It goes away. No one knows where they go.

I know that. They go and the nail clippers go, which is, I have no idea. They just disappear. I've bought 20 pairs of nail clippers in my life. I use one at a time. How is this possible? Mine are under the seat of my car because they've fallen out of my pocket when I'm driving.

They're in the couch. Mine is children. Mine is still interesting. Or that you've chosen to use their mine. My chap sticks. Oh, okay, I thought you were talking about your nail clipper. No, I know where my chap sticks go. I just can't get, they're all under my seat

because they're in my scrub pocket and when I sit down the scrub pocket gaps and then it falls and it gets down under my, I'm never gonna get that. That's enough. Why does my period affect my bowel movements? This is a, I thought this was important to highlight because I was once told in medical school

that if you're, if you ever have changes in your bowel movements with your periods, it's because you have endometriosis. Ooh. Like 100%. And like actually everybody who had menstrual cycles in the class was encouraged to raise their hand if they've ever had diarrhea during a menstrual cycle. Whoa!

Please don't do that. Doing it on the first day. All you teachers out there, don't do that to your students. For numerous reasons, don't do that. Because all of us who had periods felt the need to raise our hands and admit that we had diarrhea. And then also be diagnosed based on that. You may or may not have endometriosis, that is nothing, that is not it.

A lot of people experience differences in bowel movements while they're on their menstrual cycle. It has to do with a couple things. One is prostaglandins, which are the same substances that cause cramps, and the amount of them can also cause different intensities in cramps and all that. It can also cause diarrhea, it can speed things up. Conversely, progesterone can actually slow things down. So later, towards the end of your cycle,

you may have some constipation. So you get a diarrhea in the beginning, constipation at the end. Not everyone will experience this, and everybody who does could to varying degrees. It may be subtle, it may be intense. Obviously, it would also have to do with like what you ate and all these other things that influence our bound movements. But that is a real thing that happens. It is just part of the whole chemical hormonal milieu that changes during that point in the cycle. If it's intense enough

to concern you, please do go seek your provider and discuss that with them. But generally speaking, it is not uncommon or something to be worried about. We got a lot more for you, but we are going to take a quick break. And then we will come back with more of your questions right after this in the building department. Let's go. The medicines, the medicines, that escalate my car for the mouth. Hi, I'm Jackie Cation. Hello, I'm Laurie Tomerton. We do a podcast called the Jackie and Laurie Show

and you could listen to it anytime you it because there's hundreds of episodes. Yeah, I mean we've been doing comedy forever and we're both quick. So why don't you listen? Before we leave this not only terrible business, but this awful world and find out why we can't because we love it so. Yeah. Jackie and Lorde Show, every week you're on MaximumFun.org. Hi, it's Jesse Thorne, the founder of MaximumFun.

I am breaking into this programming to say, thank you to MaximumFun's members. Your purchases in this year's Post Max Fun Drive Patch Sale raised over $50,000 for Trans Lifeline. Maybe you already know about the good work that Trans Lifeline does. If you don't, they're a Trans Run organization that offers direct emotional and financial support

to Trans people in crisis. If you wanna learn more about the work trans lifeline does or support them further go to trans lifeline.org. Thanks for supporting maximum fun, thanks for supporting trans lifeline and thanks for being awesome people who want to do good in the world. This question is kind of theoretical so you may have less of an answer. Recently, two of my friends got COVID. They got it well together at the exact same time with the exact same symptoms. Presumably, they got it from the same source, meaning identical strain.

One had two COVID shots, the other had three. The friend who had three was less severely ill, even though she is immunocompromised. And the one who had two is not. Obviously, this is only two data points, but it would suggest that vaccination alone is more effective than the human immune system. Is there any scientific basis for this? Could this just be a fluke? Is there any evidence that even when immunocompromised, vaccinated people are better protected than non-immunocompromised,

unvaccinated people? I thought this was a good question to address, because you're hitting on something that I think was you were saying the right thing, and this was a big point of misinformation throughout the last couple of years, or however, through the last million years that we have been trying to understand and fight COVID. So first of all, you are absolutely right. These are two data points, and you can, you can't draw a ton of conclusions from that. It's anecdotal.

This isn't, you know, so I mean, it's always good to point that out. But you're illustrating something that a lot of people have argued about, which, and you will hear this, that our immune systems are better at protecting us against viruses than vaccines, and that the immunity we build up

after getting through COVID is better, that natural immunity, quote unquote, is better than vaccine induced immunity. Those are not true. No, there are things because we've talked about how vaccines work. There are things we do with vaccines to induce a robust immune response that has been shown to outlast, to engage the entire immune system in a way that being infected or exposed to COVID doesn't, or any virus doesn't necessarily do. It could, but it doesn't necessarily.

So vaccine-induced immunity tends to be better most of the time than natural immunity. So you know, in these two specific people, I don't know what the difference was. There are still obviously people who get much sicker than others with COVID. There are a lot of studies ongoing to figure out what are all those factors. There's some things we know for sure, some certain underlying chronic illnesses and things,

but there's lots of it we don't understand yet. Why does one person get this sick and this person doesn't get that sick? Yeah. You know, we tried to tie to age in the beginning, and then we saw people who were elderly, who had mild courses and people who were younger, who had severe courses. We don't know. There's still a lot that we have to learn. It will be a long time before we understand everything about COVID. That's just the nature of a novel virus. But it is a good

reminder that vaccine-induced immunity with COVID, we know is the better way to go than just hoping for natural immunity after you presumably survive COVID if you get it. So please get vaccinated if you haven't. It's the best way to protect yourself from severe illness and death. Please get boosted if you haven't, we've been boosted. Oh, you know what we are. We are a fully vax to the max family. Yeah, we haven't been hitting hard enough this season, but it is flu shots season, by the way. Go out there and get your flu shots too. Please, please, this get your flu shots. Get your, yeah, flu shots get your COVID booster,

the new by valent booster. If you qualify for it, right now we have RSV going around, flu is going around, the upper respiratory infectious, infection season is in full swing. I would say earlier than normal and more intensely for sure than normal. And there is no thought that's going to let up through the entire winter. We're seeing a lot of stuff that maybe people hadn't gotten, they're getting, for the last couple years, they're getting now because nobody's wearing masks and nobody's distancing and people are sharing their chopsticks again. So please go get the vaccines that you are eligible for. It is incredibly important for all these reasons we just talked about. Cool. Let's see. What's next here? Why do some people have difficult things? This gets on. There's more of the question. Oh, there's more of the question.

I had to get some blood tests somewhat recently, and one of the flabotomist could find a vein, she couldn't get a good blood draw. I was feeling thirsty, so we agreed I'd focus on hydration that day and come back the next day, but it wasn't an easier the next day. When I told my sister about it, she said, yeah, once when I got blood drawn, the guy told me I have tiny veins. Is this associated with any broader negative health outcomes? That's from Carrie and Carrie. When I told my sister about it, she said, yeah, once when I got blood drawn, the guy told me, I have tiny veins. Is this associated with any broader negative health outcomes? That's from Carrie and Carrie. The phlebotomus was just having an off day.

It's not your veins. It's a poor artist who blames their tools on your case, their medium. They, if the real pros, the heavy hitters, they're going to come in and find that vein no scope every time. You are making so many phlebotomists and nurses and all kinds of people who draw blood so angry right now. Hey, you're not already angry with me for talking out of my butt.

I can't imagine this is gonna put them over the edge, but yeah. I mean, obviously, like, if I am the one drawing your blood, it is very likely that I am the problem. I am not very skilled in drawing blood. That is an interesting thing to know. Most of us physicians have not drawn a lot of blood in our career. Now some have.

I know there are going to be physicians out there going, well, I do this every day. Sure. There are exceptions to that. In medical school, I was required to do it three times to get signed off on. Yes. That is, that is bracing. I can just take a moment. And so you see a junior doctor and they're like,

I'm a real doctor and I'm ready to take your blood. And then they've done it three times. Well, that's because we don't usually, so like in a lot of hospital systems, the physician isn't drawing the blood. Oh, sure, okay. Yeah. So it's like, it's not a big part of our training because, I mean, my opportunity, the

only reason I have started pursuing, like actually I've done it since then, very recently, just in the last couple of weeks, with Jan, the RN who works with me, volunteers with me over at Harmony House. She has allowed me to draw her blood a few times to practice. I know, because she's incredibly talented at it and I suck at it. And so I have been practicing learning how to draw blood better because I am in a resource limited setting now where my ability to draw blood would be very beneficial.

In a hospital, me being able to draw blood is not particularly useful. There's lots of people who do it better than me, whose job it is to do it all the time. I am not the best person in the room to do it. Now, since I'm the only person in the room a lot, it's a useful skill. Yeah, but Desmond Island lost an area.

If you're like, if the one doctor that was on your plane comes up with like, him made a bamboo needle, I'm ready to go for it. You're gonna see like, they know what you're doing. I've been thinking of this, they're an actor. I have been good hands. My point is, and I've actually had this request before, if you are in the hospital and whoever's trying to stick you

is having trouble sticking you, I've had patients say, can I have the doctor do it? Nine times out of 10, that is not your best option. You know what? That is not, we are not your best option. It is good to know your lane, that's not your best option. That is not your best option. It is good to know your lane, that's not my lane. But all that being said, there are no. I was kidding earlier, it must be very unpleasant

to unnecessarily jab people with a needle when you can't find the vein. It's gotta feel very bad. I can't imagine. I do other procedures that require like making sure you do it right, immediate. And it feels terrible. You want to do the absolute best you can,

and if you don't get it right the first time, of course it feels terrible. And everybody's trying their best, but there are no broader negative health outcomes with not being able to get a vein. For some people, they're easy stick. You can look. You can look at your arms and usually tell pretty easily,

like do you have prominent blood vessels or not. There are many factors that go into exactly why your vessels might be easier to stick or not. It has nothing to do with like, I mean, hydration can affect it. That's a good point. Like it is good when you go in for a blood draw to go in while hydrated.

Okay, good enough. That does make you a little bit easier to stick. If you're really dehydrated, if you've ever gone and sick, because you've been vomiting, and they wanna stick you to give your fluids, you know, you're harder to hit. No matter how easy your veins are, and typically you could be harder to hit at that point. But hydration can affect it, but don't stress about this. I don't want anybody to

worry. If you've been a hard stick, that doesn't necessarily mean there's anything you could have other health problems, but that has nothing to do with it. That doesn't mean anything. Have you heard of the bug bite thing? It's a little hand-powered suction device that's supposed to treat insect bites. The makers claim it works by extracting the irritant from the bite. Is that actually possible? If not, what could it be about the suction that makes the bite itch less? That's from Juliana. So I looked up the bug, but you remember the bug bite thing when we saw it on Shark Tank?

Yeah. I looked it up because when I saw it on Shark Tank, I meant to do that. And then I don't know. We probably went to bed afterwards and I never did. Because I wanted to see the studies. I'll be honest, I couldn't find any study. I found a lot of like articles about it.

There's a ton of like magazines and news sites and things that just wrote about it. People who tried it, like journalists who like attempted to use it and reviewed it and things that just wrote about it, people who tried it, like journalists who attempted to use it and reviewed it and things like that, to try to talk about it. I didn't really find, if there were studies, like even like a Google Scholar search, I couldn't find articles.

Yeah. Yeah. If you look at the top bar on their website, you see by now now how it works, mom on a mission, real stories. That to me is like, woo, woo, woo. Well, there's a lot of testimonials. Now, it doesn't mean that it doesn't work,

but it does mean that like if you're looking for studies, I don't have any to point to. As far as I can tell, what they are trying to do is just like literally vacuum suction, the saliva and whatnot that immediately is on your skin when you get a bug bite. The problem is that the reaction that your body is going to have to that is going to happen fairly quickly. So from what I found from a lot of reviews, not testimonials, because testimonials are people saying it works. I want to look lot of reviews, not testimonials, because testimonials are people

saying it works. I want to look for reviews. This is not science, these are reviews. From people using it, what I found is that if you, as soon as you get the bug bite, like immediately, like you see the bug, you brush it off your arm, or you smush it, maybe. I don't know what you decide to do. That's up to you. If you grab this suction device and immediately put it

on your arm, it does reduce the reaction according to reviews. This is not science, these are reviews. Because you have immediately removed some of the saliva or whatever that is on your skin. However, if you wait any amount of time and the problem with that is that a lot of us don't know we got bitten by a bug right away.

Like how often do you immediately see a mosquito bite versus like you look at your arm and go, oh, I got bitten by something. By the time you notice it, you're probably already having the reaction. And then it's too late. It's not going to work at all then. Because there's nothing to suction. So I think, I mean, I don't have science to tell you if it works. I think if you have it, like if you're out in the evening when there are bugs and you have it in your pocket and the second you got bitten by a bug, you used it, it may reduce your reaction somewhat, for sure.

Their big argument is that then you don't have to use chemicals and a lot of the chemicals that they're talking about, like using some cortisone cream or something, I don't know what you're worried about that chemical doing. I think that my problem with it is more that it's sort of playing on this false fear we have of quote unquote chemicals. When in fact, we are surrounded and filled with chemicals at all times. A chemical is not something that is inherently dangerous or bad. And I think sometimes that word gets thrown around

is like, we don't want a chemical, we want a natural solution. Well, no, I mean, chemicals save our lives in many ways. So- Why is it chemical? What's that all about? I don't think we need to worry about putting some cortisone cream on a bug bite. Most of us, I'm speaking in generality.

So I don't know. If you want to use it, I don't think it's going to harm you. I've seen, I saw no reason that they said, don't use it on like your face or neck unless you want a hikki. But otherwise, I don't know. There's no science. I got no science to tell you.

It's taking literally all of my energy to not go full dad and just be like, it's a bug bite. Just you can't just have a bug bite. Sorry, champion bug bite. That happens in life. And the thing is, if you are... We don't have the plastic for everything that happens to you. I'm sorry, you bug a bug bite, Tex.

I don't know what to say. If you are someone who has severe reactions to bug bites, certainly allergic reactions to bug bites, the bug reactions to bug bites. The bug bite thing is not what you need. I mean, I don't know if you need, if you've been to a doctor and you need an EpiPin, then please carry one if you've been diagnosed and prescribed one. Or if you do have severe reactions and you haven't been to a provider, go to one. But if it's just like a red itchy bump, I don't know. I think this, you could try this as long as it's not on your face and neck.

My dad got an neuropathy and got overprescribed opioids and got addicted. My brother was also prescribed by the same doctor and ended up moving from prescription drugs to heroin after my dad passed. He's clean now. I'm terrified of getting injured and prescribed painkillers.

I'm a ride share driver in a city with a lot of DUIs and a lot of gun violence. I'm less afraid of getting shot and more and or getting into a car accident than going into an ER with a serious injury and being given pain killers and anything up with an addiction. Can you refuse drugs in the ER? Are there negative repercussions? Sorry. For refusing pain treatments, I'd rather deal with the pain of a traumatic injury than have to get off opioids. This is a major fear I have. Sid, what do you think?

I think I thought this was a good question to ask because yeah, well, because one, this is a big fear a lot of people have. And there's two sides to it. There is a place for opioids in treating pain. Absolutely. There are reasons valid medical reasons why we use opioids. They're not just bad. And I say that living in West Virginia and taking care of people with substance use disorder every single day, opioids are not always bad when they're used in appropriate settings,

at appropriate doses for appropriate durations of time. Then it's okay. There are times where you go in with a painful condition and there isn't a medication that's going to help alleviate the pain in that moment in the way that an opioid would. You know, if someone comes in with a broken bone and I give them a Tylenol, that's not going to cut it. That's just the truth. So, while it is always good to be cautious about any medicine you're taking, it is important to know that opioids aren't always completely forbidden for us.

And I think that some of us who live, especially in areas like we do, you get that sort of impression. I'm that kind of patient. I'm very hesitant. Even after surgery, just in kind of tests. I was incredibly hesitant to take anything. That being said, if you are concerned about that, what I would just do is voice that concern with the person who's providing your care. This is a good point whenever you're, quote unquote, refusing some sort of care. I think that there's a lot of worry that you're going to get labeled as like AMA, uncooperative, difficult against medical advice,

those kinds of things. And certainly, it isn't a good thing that will end up in a patient chart saying patient-refused care. That sounds really bad. So I think that, and on our end as the medical providers, if a patient says, I don't want to take that, it is our job to say, can you share with me your concern so we can talk through it?

Because obviously, I thought you needed it. You don't want it. Let's talk that through. That's a good thing that we could discuss. And unfortunately, that doesn't always happen, right? Providers don't always ask the right questions and do the job we should. But what I would just do is be really honest. I have this concern.

It's not, you know, I don't want this to happen to me. I've seen this happen to other people around me. Is there an alternative? Do you feel like this is the only, could you help me understand? Could you help me understand how we're going to prevent these consequences from happening, these things that I'm worried about?

It's totally fair to ask all those questions. And if a provider isn't willing to provide you with those answers or take the time to explain things, that's, it's perfectly fair to ask all those questions. And if a provider isn't willing to provide you with those answers or take the time to explain things, it's perfectly valid to say, I need somebody to answer someone else command. Can you get somebody else to come? If it's one type of provider in the hospital, I need somebody else. It's okay to ask for a patient advocate.

That's always okay to say like, I feel like we're not communicating well. Do you have a patient advocate who could help facilitate this? That's somebody whose job it is to come in the room, hear your concerns, and help advocate for you to the healthcare facility. It's okay to do that. Ask the questions. Don't ever fee, and I think the worst thing to do is just say, I don't want any of that. No, and not further the conversation. Say, I have concerns, and here's why, and ask the questions. And then the impetus is on them to make sure and answer your questions and make you feel comfortable with whatever treatment plan you to agree on. Before we close, real quick said, you'll be relieved to hear a couple of poopers for you

to close out on. You love questions about poop. You love talking about poop. I love that poop for you. Here's a straight poop on poop. Ever notice, sometimes when you poop, the volume seems much larger than the amount of food you've eaten recently. What's up with that? Where's this extra matter coming from? Well, I will tell you. It's not just food that ends up in your poop. There's a lot of microbiotics in there

and different parts of your body that you don't eat anymore, that you slough off, like skin cells in our body or constantly regenerating, right? So this not just food is also dead skin, like dead organics in you that are ready to come out because they've died and been replaced by fresh healthy cells.

What do you think about that? I mean, it's that way you think. There's some truth in some of that that you said. So there are like organisms, like bacteria. A lot of our poop is bacteria too. So that's in there. Some of the stinkingness. Uh-huh, well, yeah.

And there are like, yeah, like fat, or I guess like yes, dead intestinal cells. Yes, all those sorts of things, sloughing off, sure. Not like in large numbers, that's a whole other thing. But like, okay, yeah, all those sorts of things, sloughing off, sure, not like in large numbers, that's a whole other thing, but like, okay, yeah, waste from our bodies, in addition to the food that we ate, waste that has been produced, there's also water, and so that bulks up stool, you know, to like, there's water in there too. And then there are things that expand to like fiber and things that you eat, and then absorb water and expand and get larger.

Right. And you've also got to remember that, and you know what, this gets into the second question, because this person sent in to poop questions. Occasionally, thank you, Kristen, you're here. Occasionally, generally after eating in a restaurant, I find myself urgently needing to find a bathroom 15 or 20 minutes after eating.

I was in the impression that food takes several hours to run this way through your digestive system. They told us 12 hours in school. I'm sure it's different for other people. Is this after a lunch distress caused by something in your restaurant food, or is it just a coincidence? Thanks for all you do, and sorry for being gross. It's not gross.

It's a beautiful miracle for you, and body, thank you, Kristen, much for you. So that's why I was gonna say, this gets into the second question. Poop doesn't, you are not pooping out what you just ate. Like in this example, 15 or 20 minutes after you ate, you are not pooping that stuff out. It takes, it does take a while for food to travel through the digestive system. It varies from person to person, from age to age, metabolism to metabolism, whatever

you ate, how much water you ate. There's a lot of factors that go into how fast food moves through the digestive track. Now water can blast right through you, right? Yeah. Well, but you pee a lot of that out too. But it can get you water to pee is a faster journey than cheeseburger to do. Yeah, you can sit and chug a bunch of water and have to pee pretty quickly. I used to do a fun trick when I was peeing and I would drink while I was peeing and it would seem like I was just never gonna stop. It's fun. You got it. I'm not as much younger than.

I was maybe in my mid-30s. Your kidneys are constantly filtering your blood and removing things including water from it constantly, every second constantly, right now, right now, right now, right now. You are not pooping constantly. You are not removing poop from your body constantly. It takes a while for things to move through there. So what is happening when you poop right after you eat is that's your gastro-colic reflex, which means food hits the stomach that comes down the esophagus, hits the stomach, and

it starts sending waves through the intestine, which is long, right? You got to go all the way through the small intestine and then through the large intestine and then finally to the rectum and poop. And is it sending that peristalsus those waves squishing the food and moving it along? Stuff gets moved further down. So things that are further in the digestive process are getting moved closer to your butt while the food is coming in through your mouth. So that's not the food you just ate. Now there are some conditions that can exaggerate that reflex and make it happen quicker and stronger so that it feels like I just ate and now 15 minutes later, oh my god, I got to

go to the bathroom. And some of that could be because of something like irritable bowel syndrome or something else. Some of it might just be where you are at that moment. If you're really anxious, you might notice this happening. Somebody who is experiencing a lot of anxiety or nervousness, maybe you're about to go, I don't know, do a live podcast or something. I don't know if this sounds familiar to you in any way. Are you, does this happen to you sometimes when you're a court saubans? No, I'm at you and your family and your... Oh, in our bathroom. This isn't really a trial. So much, it's a podcast, so maybe just keep moving.

Anyway, that's what's coming out. It's not the food you just ate. The food you just ate sent a signal to the food that you ate yesterday or last night or whatever, that like, hey, move it along, I'm coming in, make some room. That's what that is. It's like when you put... It's like when you put another hot glue stick in the back.

You're not shooting out that hot glue stick, but it is pushing the rest of the hot glue out from the tip of the poop. That is a good, it's not quite that like mechanical. Your entire intestine is not packed full of poop at all times that is slowly being pushed through. That is why it is a metaphor rather than me insisting that your life is hot. Good, good. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast.

We hope you've enjoyed yourselves. Thanks, the taxpayers for these. There are some medicines as the intro and outro program. And thank you to you, you yourself for listening. We are so flattered that you continue to spend your time with us. And speaking of spending time with us, do you want to see a very rare and create a sadly recently rare, hopefully not rare for a very long time, uh, solbones live because on November 10th, in Cincinnati, the tap theater, November 11th in Detroit, at the Masonic in November 12th,

Washington, D.C. at the day, D-A-R Constitution Hall. You can see sawbounds opening for my brother, my brother, me and Cincinnati. That show will also include Schmanners. And in DC, that show will also include wonderful. You're getting a lot of podcasts for your buck there. So we hope that you will come and join us. I'm really excited we haven't done a live show

since before the pandemic. Yeah, so if you go to McR us. I'm really excited. We haven't done a live show since before the pandemic. Yeah. So if you go to McRoy.Family and click on events, you can see a list of those. There aren't a ton of tickets for those three shows. So you want to hop on that. Also, we're doing Taz in DC on November 13th with Brennan Lee Morgan. That will not be a saw bone show, but it will be fun. So come out to that again.

And one other quick thing I wanted to address, we would never run political ads on our show. That is never something we would agree to or in any way, sign up for. That's not our show. This has nothing to do with me running for office, by the way. No, no, no. Last episode there was a technical glitch,

it was what it was, a technical glitch that surfaced some not so pleasant political ads to some of our beloved listeners through our dynamic ad insertion platform. That was a hiccup, a glitch. It was not intentionally intended for that. We apologize for anybody. We were ads.

We would never do that. We would never run, we don't run any political ads on our show and we certainly wouldn't run political ads that run contrary to our own values. Yeah. We wouldn't run any political ads. So I apologize that won't, that will never happen at least that we would agree to.

That is going to do it first for this week. Until next time, my name is Justin McRoy. I'm Cindy McRoy. And as always, don't draw a hole in your head! All right! Yeah! Maximumfun.org. Comedy and culture. Artist-don't?

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