Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: What’s More Edible, Paper or Cotton?

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

It’s one of our favorite kinds of episodes, making use of Dr. Sydnee’s expertise and Justin’s street smarts: medical questions! Why do we fart? How long is the digestive tract? Why are all minor mouth injuries so awful? Does REM “detoxify” the brain? And am I experiencing nightmares, night terrors, or ghosts? (Sawbones does not claim any expertise on the matter of ghosts.) PLUS, an update on Cyclospora. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/ Asian Pacific Environmental Network: https://apen4ej.org/our-work/ Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinsawbones

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. Everybody, and welcome to Sawbones, Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine. co-host Justin McRoy. And I'm Sydney MacRoy. And we're about to head out to the beach here for the

annual McElroy family vacation. I'm wearing my parrot earrings. Not everyone can see that. So I'm just shown like there's prepared. It's a parrot. It's a little, it's just a parrot. Since you can't see, I'll describe it. It's an earring, but it's a parrot. Yeah, if you can imagine. If you can imagine a parrot. Imagine some other parrots you've seen, but much smaller and still. Yes. Very small. and hanging from an earlobe. That's exactly. And imagine two.

One for each year. Yeah, there's one on each year. Yeah. So we are headed out, but we wanted to take a moment before we go and do one of our favorite kinds of episodes. Take your questions. Mix them up with a little bit of SIDS research

and her kind of like book learning and a little bit of my street smarts. No, we just answer the questions. See if we can't come up with an answer, you know? Justin, I decided I sat down to do this episode. And of course, it's summer, so our children are with us a lot more, as you're aware. An unbelievable amount. 26 hours a day somehow.

What I also love is that they sing the entire time or talk. All the time. God, just different songs from Mean Girls so loud. Yeah, usually two different songs at the same time. No, I'm joking. Sometimes it's the same song, 10 seconds separated because one starts, I'd rather be me than be with you. and then the other one's like, oh, I love that joint. I'm going to start that one 20 seconds after yours.

And maybe we can finally just drive dad fully insane. Hopefully go absolutely cuckoo. I love it. Yeah, yeah, different brains. Different brains. It's beautiful. Different brains. I sat down to research and they sat down right next to me as in like physically like squished against me and are like, what are we doing?

I'm like, well, I'm trying to research podcast. They sensed I was in the bathroom and couldn't protect Sydney from them. And so they came and squished in with me, and they were like, what are you doing it on? And I was like, well, I was going to do some weird medical questions. They were like, we have some. And so they just rapid-fired the first five questions at me. Wow. So I've got our first five come from Charlie and Cooper.

They insisted I, well, Cooper insisted that I give her credit for hers specifically. And then the other five are from our listeners. Okay. Actually, the other four. Okay. Because then at the end, we're going to do a cyclospora update because there's new. There's news. There's new news.

New news. New news. We've got a lot to talk about. Our first question is from Cooper. And it's, why do we fart? Okay. Are you, maybe I could take a shot at these? Yeah.

Well, I mean, do you want to take like the existential philosophical? Why do we fart? Why do we fart? We fart to remind ourselves that we are human and that nothing is that serious. Because at any time, you could fart. So it can't be all that big of a deal. So your answer is we fart because it's funny. We fart.

No, well, it's funny because we're human. Okay. We fart because we fart. It's funny because we're people. Do you know why we fart? Do you know, like, what is? Sometimes when the food is so good that you cannot take stock of your chewing or you're swallowing, you can't really be mindful of all that.

Sometimes the food is so good, you've got to keep piling it in and some air gets in there with the food and the only way out is through. Well, the butt. What you were really answering is more, why do we burb? Oh, well, farts are just burps. No. Farts are just burbs that come out your butt. I mean, I guess it's possible that swallowed air could make it all the way through your

intestine, although more than likely if you're swallowing a lot of air while you're eating, that's going to come back up as a burp or just be resorbed if you don't burp. But most of the gas that we produce that is, Flatchelance that is a fart. Oh, floutis. Is being produced by bacteria in the intestines during the digestive process. So breaking stuff down, creating gas. Like how yeast, if you mix it with some sugar and warm water, will dissolve that sugar

and start to consume it. And the byproduct of that is the air bubbles that give the bread texture. Make bubbles. And that's why different foods will create, like, different amounts of gas. It depends on what is in there that the bacteria are breaking down or fermented. or whatever they're doing, how much CO2 and other gases, you know, sulfurous gases and whatnot they create, which is why, like, some foods are notorious for making you fart, like beans. There's more gas produced.

And then that also, this is so gross, that also affects the smell of the gas. It's gross, that fart smell? Some things that are broken down create more, like, sulfurous compounds in the gas. Stinkier. Some foods are stinkier farts. Yeah, so like... Like broccoli, right? Broccoli is a pretty stinky fart.

I mean, all of the cruciferous vegetables are going to create a lot of gas. I think, I think, like, protein, while it doesn't create as much as, like, fiber, I think, like, if you eat, like, a bunch of meat, that's... It's whatever our kids are eating. It's whatever our kids eat. That's what makes the most farts. And then it's all just, and it's all very individual, right? Like, it's all... Anyway, that's why we...

Most of, most farts are not. not swallowed air. They're actually gas that is being generated in our intestines and needs somewhere to go. And of course, some gas can be resorbed, but some cannot. And if there's a lot of it, it's got to come out. All right. Got to come out. Except for those of us who don't fart.

Ever. Ever, as far as you know. Our next question said, I don't have any questions in front of me. Yes. This is from Charlie. How to Taste Bud's work. Dang. Good question, right?

That's good. I know. It is a good question. It's not something that I get out. ask very often. I feel like we've said, have we busted the myth that there's different parts of your tongue that taste different things? Is that true? I feel like, I don't know. I've heard that before, but I don't know if it's accurate. That is a myth. Okay. Yeah. Generally speaking,

all parts of our tongue can taste all flavors. Okay. Yeah. So, no, that is a myth. They're not, if you look at, like, there are patterns. You can look up where it compares the where do you sense different tastes, like sweet and salty and whatever the best, and it's all overlapping. I wonder if it's sometimes like you can get some pain on the side of your tongue after you've been eating a lot of sour stuff. I wonder if that's a gay people the idea. Like if you can feel it more under the sides of your tongue. I don't know. That's a pervasive myth though.

But no, you can taste everything pretty much everywhere on your tongue. What are there options? So taste buds or taste papilla, if you prefer. Beds are fun. They're the bumps on your tongue that sense taste. Okay. Okay, first of all. So far, I am, you have not lost me.

So at, at the top of each bud, there's like a pool of liquid. Okay. That's got to dissolve the substance enough. What? Why are you looking at this range? Yeah. That it has chemicals in it that will then, like, enzymes that will break down. Uh-huh.

And then sense what in, because it's not the entire food, right? It's the, it's different substances in the, that, you know, you're going to sense the sweetness. You're going to sense the umami. You're going to sense the salty, whatever it is. So first, it's got to enter the fluid. It's like a little funnel. And when it's in there, the enzymes break it down.

They detect certain substances. Okay? And then those substances will activate nerve cells there by they change a protein in the wall of the sensory nerve cell. That's cool. And then that change releases a little messenger chemical, which will then continue that impulse on down the track of nerve cells up. Well, I shouldn't say down, up to your brain. That's wild. That's so...

And tell your brain, this is sweet. That's wild. That's so complicated. It's very complicated. How do we do that? The senses are very complicated. I mean, I know that sounds like a very broad statement. But like, and I've talked about the way the inner ear works.

Yeah, that was, forget about it. It's wild. And I won't go through that because it's too fascinating. It needs a whole episode all over again, which we've already done. But the hearing, the way we taste, even touch seems so simple, but there's numerous different kinds of nerve cells involved in light touch and firm touch and pain and pressure and vibration. Yeah. Our senses are incredible. That's amazing.

That, in short, that is what is happening. when you taste something. All right. Which was a good question. Charlie also had a good but much simpler question. How long is the digestive tract? 12 feet. Not exactly, but close.

10 to 12 feet. Well, could be around that. Not exactly. Mine is 11 feet. I had it measured. I had it. Oh, I had it extended. It was the 90s and we were all doing a bunch of different stuff.

You got your belly button pierced? I got my belly button pierced. And I was like, why you're in there? Your intestine. Give me the extension. And I can go, boh, 16 hours without, you know, it's a nice part. So the small intestine, I mean, it varies. There's a range.

Not all intestines are the exact same length. The small intestine can vary. And, man, I will tell you, I started searching, like, what is the exact length? And every, like, popular, because all the big academic centers, like, you know, Harvard and everybody will, like, put out their own sort of, like, here's some fun. information for patients to like this isn't for clinicians, this is just for patients, like answers like this. So you can like go to websites and find this kind of stuff from all these different academic med centers. And everybody is giving slightly different answers to this

question, by the way. So nobody knows. Well, I think it's because there's a range and different studies showed slightly different ranges. But generally speaking, the small intestine can be anywhere from nine to 16 feet. I did find a couple areas where they claim the small intestine is closer to 20 feet. So I think the point is it's somewhere in that range. The large, the large intestine is usually around five feet. So. Something. It's something else.

So then all together like, you know, 15, 20 feet, maybe up to 25 feet. Can you imagine? Depending on the individual. I know it didn't work like that, but can you imagine the moment when someone was making people and they're like, I got to get how many feet of it? 20 feet inside of there? That's impossible. And another five feet of the big stuff?

Dang, I don't know how I'm going to get, oh, I'm going to have to open them up in the back maybe. Is this where butts came from? They needed a little extra room? Dang. That's a tough, that's a tough order, 20 feet of that. Can't they just do it quicker? No, it takes a while to break out, get all the stuff we need out of the food in us and the stuff that we don't need out of us. That's exactly how the queuing system of Disney or any of the theme park works, though.

you wrap the line in on itself so it doesn't seem as long and people have other people to distract themselves. You know, that's why lines do that? Because people like to look at other people. So if you make the line spiral like that, then people can look at the other people in line and they like it better. See, I, but what they didn't prepare for is that it gives boomers too many opportunities to comment on what everyone in line is wearing. That's true. That's true. But someday we'll be boomers, right?

And then we'll want to do that. Is that how it works? We grow up into boomers as we could all work. Well, I don't think we'll be boomers. We'll just be elder millennials who get slammed as much as boomers do. I shouldn't perpetuate the boomer hate. I think it is part of aging that we begin to look at younger people around us and go, why are they wearing that? And Sydney told me.

Then we all do it. And then Sydney told me also they had a lot of lead and that has led to a brain poisoning of an entire generation. That is not coming from me. That is a pervasive theory on the internet. that I am aware exists and I told Justin exists. I do not know that there's any evidence for that. If you met my dad at lead poisoning is the only thing that tracks. I have not, if you're not familiar, if you don't know what we're talking about,

there is a theory out there that all of our parents. Not a scientific theory, right? We're exposed to a lot more lead in childhood because we didn't know the dangers of it. And that's why all of the stereotypes exist. I have never seen any studies. I've not seen any evidence. to me the idea that there's this entire generation is just like never mind yeah no I and I don't I am not per I don't want to perpetuate that theory because it's not I have not seen a study where they're like yeah and then we analyze lead levels and all of our parents and what's more edible paper or cotton this came from our genius daughter Charlie oh gosh um so my my my mom answer was neither don't eat those don't eat those I mean paper is probably is almost certainly non-tifes toxic because if it's a paper that is made like in the U.S. is probably designed for kids to eat pretty safely.

I know that there might be some dyes, but it's mainly paper. So I think you're going to be able to digest that okay, except for maybe some of the cellulose that's in there. I would guess that the bigger problem might be with cotton. I feel like that that would be, I don't know. In my head, I feel like that would be harder to digest. But I don't know. Well, so edible and digestible, I think, are two different. It's important to say those two different things.

I guess edible, either one, you could put into your mouth and get wet enough to then swallow. That's what we're saying, edible. You get either in there. Yeah. And more than likely. I've never really thought that's what edible meant, and I don't think anybody else. Are matchbox cars edible, Dr. Smarrow-McCrow? Sorry?

Sorry, Sid, are we saying digestible? Sorry, if I broke down a swing-line stapler into its small component parts and consume them, would it become an edible staple? Corn is edible, but not all parts of corn are digestable because you see it when it, I mean, look, when you go to the bathroom after you've eaten corn, look, look, you see it again, right? You see pieces of it because you didn't digest that. It went right through you. You couldn't digest it. We cannot digest paper or cotton. And I'm just talking about like if we're picturing a tiny piece of like a cotton ball and like a corner of a piece of notebook paper, right?

If we get into like what's on the cotton and the paper, it gets weird. You can't digest either. It is, it is, as you said, plant cellulose, we can't break it down. So it's just going to pass right through you. It shouldn't be toxic if it's a tiny amount. So I guess edible in the sense that like you're not going to die if you eat it. Okay, this is the, no, I think edible has to mean that you can derive some nutrient, Like, you have to, I think you have to be able to derive nutrition from consumption.

Like, I wouldn't describe gum as edible. Okay, well, then neither are edible, if that's the definition. If we're talking about safety to pass through your intestines, if there are tiny pieces of paper, that will probably pass easier than cotton, only because cotton can clump. And if you ate a lot of cotton, that could be dangerous, theoretically. If you ate a whole bunch of cotton, you could create, like, a blockage. Yeah. So. There you have it, folks.

But my advice is don't eat either. Don't eat either. Don't eat them. Don't do it. The last question from our kids before we take a break was from Cooper. How do we catch a cold if we aren't near someone who has one? She amended to or like if we don't do something dirty or something. Terms are they live on surfaces for a while, right?

That's, I think. What was the word for that? There was a word we talked about a lot. Phomites. Yeah, foamites. I think it's good for, and maybe it's something that as adults we understand a little more intuitively. But it's always a good reminder that just because you weren't around somebody who was sick doesn't mean you weren't around the particles that someone who was sick left behind,

doorknobs and surfaces and, you know, the handles in the bathroom we always worry about. But like, if you think about phones or, you know, things that we would use in an office space that a lot of people might touch. People really should be more scared all the time. No, I'm saying it's the importance of hand washing. It is why if you're sick, you shouldn't be out in public, like if you're sick with something contagious, you should stay home until you're not contagious. And if you, either way, you should wash your hands every time you go to the bathroom. You should wash your hands when you touch your mouth or face. Because that's what happens, right? You rub your nose because it itches and then you touch a surface and now you maybe have left some residue behind that then

Cooper, even if she's not doing something dirty could pick up. Let's take it with Greg. Let's go to the billing department. Yeah, let's go. My Codds for the mouth. Our listeners also had some queries. You were going to help stamp out, Sid. Yes, Justin. I'm reading the questions this time. Yeah, I love it.

You like this? You didn't share it with me. So I'm just kind of like your beautiful co-hub. Well, I don't have a, I didn't open them. You just weren't prepared today. I was. I was overly prepared. It's true.

We got a lot going on. This is from Caroline. And she addressed it to Dr. Sidney and Mr. Justin Nuddery Public. So I thought you'd like that. Fair enough. I've got one heck of a canker sore. Sorry, I censored you there, Caroline, but I can't say HE double hockey sticks on this show.

I got one heck of a canker store, canker store or mouth ulcer. I have all the finest cankers. What sort of size can I assist you? I know there's all sorts of reasons. I know there's all sorts of reasons. People get canker sores. I usually develop them after an accidental lip bite or an overzealous brushing incident. But what I can't figure out is why it is an ulcer form, as in why a crater shape.

When I get a cut or scrape on my arm, it stays in that shape, gets better over time, doesn't turn into an ulcer. Is there something different about mouth bacteria? Do they have instructions in their DNA to turn all minor mouth injuries into a stinging cereal bowl of agony? I have a theory about this, but I don't know if it's right or not. And I would like for you to tell me before you tell me the right thing. Go for it. This was a fascinating question, Caroline. It took me on quite a journey.

Okay. I would say that the healing mechanism for these two things is. different by which I mean that the skin closes over to protect the has a mechanism for closing over to prevent further stuff from getting in there right we have like scabbing technology in our arms but you can't have scabbing technology in the mouth because it's super wet so the healing has to be a little bit more of an open-ended healing style and so it just doesn't have the mechanism to close over in the mouth. So it has to heal a different way. That's my theory. You're sort of right, but I will say, don't feel bad about not being completely right.

Because as I began to research ulcer formation in general, like the pathophysiology of ulcers, we are still understanding this. This is still not a completely understood because there are lots of reasons why ulcers form, not just one. And everyone is slightly different. And we are still trying to figure out the exact series of inflammatory and immune response and pathogenesis from the offending organism, everything that goes together to make not just like a cut, but an ulcer. From a biological standpoint, these things are the pits. Because it sucks in your body to bite your cheek one time and then your body's like, I got to remind you about this for a week. Like, I never can have this happen again. Like, why do you need such a stringent reminder

about this? Why does this have to be such a production? Sometimes what has happened, and you may not have known because we use our mouth so much, is that there was a blister first. Oh, yeah. Like whatever the, whatever mechanism of injury, whether it was from like a bite or sometimes these just appear from like viral illnesses or from like if you eat really acidic foods, right? Sometimes there was actually a blister there briefly and then it popped and you didn't even know. like a lot of patients won't necessarily catch what we call the vesicle or blister form of these illness of these ulcers and then it opens up but it's basically what is happening you've got some sort of inflammation and then there's this cycle of our body trying to fix it and heal it and recover it and we are putting a lot of like we are increasing blood flow to that area and this is this is similar in skin ulcers so we're going to increase blood flow. We're going to increase all of these little signals for healing and then to draw more things to it, these little like sort of signaling proteins and things to say, come here, white blood cells,

come here, cytokines, come here, inflammatory mediators, come here, we need your help. We've got to heal something. And all of this increased blood flow increases swelling and fluid accumulation in this area. And we're actually doing damage as we're trying to heal. So part of it is our body's immune response attacking. the area and then creating more damage. It's a really complex process that has to do with like increased vascular pressure in the area of the injury, which then leads to fluid leakage from the vessels.

And then we get areas that are kind of being crushed by the increased fluid. So then you've got more cell death. It is an incredibly complex pathophysiology that leads to an ulcer. It was fascinating. I started reading about it because I treat tons of skin ulcers. I mean, like, every day of my life I am treating some sort of ulcerative skin lesion. And I have not taken the time to sit down and think about, I don't know exactly all of the mechanism. I mean, I understand why it happened, like, pragmatically.

But then every little, like, cell signaling pathway that's happening inside that ulcer, I have not taken the time to think about all of that. So, it's like, it reminds me of, like, if there is a crime in someone's house, then the, the police and the ambulance and everybody, just go to the house. This reminds me if there's a crime in like a city street where they have to do like the perimeter. You know what I mean? They're telling everybody like,

back up, give us room. We got to help these people. And just like the people that can come in. But around the circle, around the edge, people are getting angrier because they want to see. You know, they want to get in. And they, but you can't, it's an open crime scene because it's in the middle of a street.

So you can't like get everybody out of there and clean it out. That's what reminds me of. Yes. Yes, it is. It is like that. And it's, I, I was reading through specifically oral ulcers this. Oh, gosh.

Man, I came with illustrations. You swiped it right up on me there, big dog. And every, as Justin can attest, these are all different ways that ulcers form. And every one of these are different pathways to an ulcer formation, depending on, like, was it from an infection? What was it from an infection? Was it an immune condition? Was it what a lot of us have, which are just like recurrent apthos stomatitis, recurrent apthus ulcers, which is what you You're often like, in my family, we call them fever blisters.

Some people call them cancars, cold sores. Yeah, and they're inside, the inside the mouth. Because if it's an outside the mouth, then we're probably talking about herpes, and that's a different, again, that's a different formulation. But it's a fascinating thing why ulcers form. And the answer is it's different for every single reason you get an ulcer. Generally, we're talking about a breakdown in the surface. The surface mucosa or epidermis, if it's skin, has broken down.

revealed the inner layers, and now it's going to take a long time to heal, and that healing process is going to perpetuate the ulcer for a while. There you go. It's fascinating. That is fascinating. I had no idea. Yeah, I'm going to be reading about it a ton after this. For fun.

I mean, we're headed to the beach. So what better beach read could be? For fun. This is what I'm going to do while I'm at the beach. I'm going to study ulcer formation in the mouth and skin. Our next question, what's the difference between nightmares and night terrors, and is there an age limit to either of them? Doctors told me that my son had night terrors.

most of his childhood. He's now 17 and still has them from time to time. I, middle-aged, woke up screaming and kicking my legs because I saw someone standing over my bed. The entire house woke up took me a long time to fall asleep again. Last night, my son had a, oh, and even now I remember every moment and every emotion. Last night, my son had a similar experience. He was yelling and kicking and everyone in the house woke up. He says he remembers at all.

A family friend said it's ghosts. Is it ghosts? So the question is, were they nightmares, were they night terrors? Or ghosts? Or ghosts? Night terrors and nightmares are different. nightmares most anyone at any age can experience they are dreams so they happen during rapid eye movement or REM sleep and they are of some sort of terrifying nature they upset you a nightmare you

typically wake up from the physical reaction is one we would expect of fear so like maybe your heart's racing maybe you're a little sweaty you feel anxious you remember it you remember the dream you remember waking up and usually after you can kind of calm down, you can go back to sleep. So what has been described here would be nightmares, because in both cases, our patients remembered the event, right? And you can scream and yell and make noises as you wake up from a nightmare because you're waking up in that process. A night terror happens in the deeper stages of sleep, in deep, slow wave sleep. So that is not a dream necessarily. It's a very physical reaction that the patient is having to something that has been

triggered in the brain. It's different than a nightmare. You don't remember it. And you're usually never fully awake in a night terror. And it typically isn't children, although we can see cases of this in adults. This is typically something that we primarily see in children. Someone having a night terror, if you hear them screaming or yelling or they're kicking in bed and you go to talk to them, they are not going to be awake. They will not know what's happening. The most important thing you can do is keep them safe in that moment, make sure they either stay in bed or get back to bed if they've tried to get out of bed. And then they'll go back to sleep.

And most likely the next morning, they'll have no memory of any of that. And like I said, it's a different, it's kind of a different pathology because it's happening in a different form of sleep than dreams typically happen. Now, Sid, nightmares, night terrors,

I guess the question I have is, which one can Freddie get you in? Can Freddy get you in? If Freddy is in your nightmares. Can Freddy get you in a night terror? I think, listen, I don't know what the, like, lore is. of what stage of sleep must you be in for Freddie Krueger to get you, but my sense would be it has to be dream sleep.

Because he's in the dreamland. He's in dreamland. And dreams happen in REM sleep. So it has to be a nightmare. Not a night terror, though. Now, is it ghosts? That is not my area of expertise. I don't.

It's not Freddy. I mean, Freddy's a ghost. I mean, nightmares could be ghosts. That might be Freddie. I will say that if you remembered it, it was a nightmare. It is interesting. you said you thought you saw someone standing over you in night terrors classically and you'll see there's a painting famously that represents this a sleep paralysis demon sitting on someone night terrors

can feel like a presence but it's not a ghost not a ghost uh i just did a workbook on neurodivergent sleep with my occupational therapist and it claimed that r em sleep was critical for quote detoxifying the brain and as a long time listener of your podcast i'm always wary to believe anything that detoxifies the body other than our livers. However, I don't know enough about this process and if it's true or not. Does REM sleep do something to detoxify our brains?

What are the toxins in our brains that they're getting rid of? Thanks, Liam. REM sleep is important. You have to have REM sleep. It is not... I don't know that I would use the word detoxify because it's not getting rid of toxins.

It is doing something. It is doing something vital, but not detoxifying the brain. Okay, so there are several things we know REM sleep does. So while you are in rapid eye movement sleep, that's a sleep where you can dream, where Freddie can get you. Your brain actually goes through and can rewire the spaces where neurons brain cells connect. It's like pruning.

It's going through and making new connections. And without getting ample REM sleep will improve your ability to solve problems and improve your memory. We know this. It is critical to memory formation and then tackling new things the next day. It's when Bing Bong does his thing. It's when Bing Bong gets in there and sorts everything. Yeah, well, you are. I mean, you are kind of getting read of stuff.

Yes, it is like that. It also helps with mood because dreams help you process emotions. Dreams are actually important for that. They process fear. They process anxiety. They process sadness. And so you are more emotionally regulated if you get REM sleep. This is, you know, it's tricky about this to hear you tell it.

Like, it is, like, it's where detoxifying could be a useful metaphor in a sense. Like, metaphorically speaking, you are talking about, like, a mental version of it, but it has been so misused by so many parts of the medical community. It's, like, lost its metaphorical power. You know what I mean? You can't, it just, you can't say it's detoxifying, even though, like, in a sense, you're sort of metaphorically talking about that, but it's not. But it's not. It's not. It's not.

It, infants need a lot more REM sleep than adults, and that makes sense because it's part of brain development. We know that it is essential to just the central nervous system being fully formed. Yeah. And we also have some evidence that it protects against dementia. There was a study in neurology that showed for every 1% reduction in REM sleep, there was a 9% increase in the risk of dementia. Whoa. So if you had a, wait, say it again? For every 1% reduction in REM sleep, there was a 9% increase in the risk of dementia. So if you had a 10% reduction of your REM sleep, you have 10% less than, if you had 11% less REM sleep, then you would be almost guaranteed to have dementia.

I'm assuming this is on a regular sustained basis. So if you, that's a wild, that's a wild thing. We need R&M sleep. We need R.M. We need it. We need it. So much that if you have a night where you don't, you will rebound or if you have, like, during the night, if you're not getting R.A.m. sleep. As soon as your brain can, it will rebound into more R.E.M. sleep.

Like, every time you go, you fall back asleep, you'll immediately be back in R.E.M. Because your brain needs it so much. Hmm. Fascist. Justin. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. I was just soaping my pits with Selsome Blue.

Incorrect. You were just podcasting with me. Nice try. And I'm wondering, is the shampoo naturally blue or is it just die? There's no way it's natural. Well, hold on. Our listener thought that this would be a good ploy to get you to talk about brands. Do you think Seltsin Blue is naturally blue?

I haven't researched this, so I don't want to just guess. Go ahead. I know the answer. But I would say that if Seltson Blue is called Seltsin Blue, it's because there is something in the chemical makeup that makes it blue, and they just lean into it. No, they added dye. Son of a gun. Is selenium sulfide? Selson comes from the combination of the word selenium sulfide.

That's the active compound in there that actually treats whatever condition you're using sals and blue to treat. And it is a pale yellow color. So without the dye, it would be like a pale yellow. I don't know if it's just because it looks soothing or pretty or like it looks like something. I don't know. I don't know why, blue. I mean, that is beyond my medical expertise. I would never sit here and try to question the judgment of brands.

But she. I will say like a pale yellow color is not necessarily. I don't know. And maybe just to differentiate it because a lot of shampoos and conditioners are that sort of like white to cream to yellow kind of spectrum. So maybe this is to make it look like something different. Okay. Here's my, okay, this is my theory. What's the head and shoulders, Celsius and blues, dandruff, right?

What's the one that I use that's like prescription strength? Niseral. Nis are all, right? They're all blue. Here's my theory. Dandruff is white. So they want something that is a different color from Dandruff. So it doesn't feel like you're putting.

It feels like a cleaning thing that you're getting the white stuff out. I don't know. That's a theory. Well, and I would wonder if one was blue first. And this is a brand research, not a medical research. I wonder if one was blue first.

And so the others followed suit. And now I've got to find it. Now I'm fascinating. Well, you'll have to give us a follow-up on our next episode. Right now, I'm going to give you a brief update on cyclospora. This is as of three minutes before I finished researching.

We used to do history. I know. So the CDC has expanded the cyclospora outbreak. It is now in nine states. So in addition to Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia. Now, it's not a great. Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania are now linked to the outbreak. So, okay, it's really interesting because if you read, they're still saying we think it was the shredded iceberg,

lettuce that people ate at Taco Bells and that it was from Taylor Farms Day Mexico. That is still what they're saying. However, again, we do not have conclusive evidence that it was in those products. There is still a voluntary recall of all of them. So you still don't eat them. If you have them, don't eat them. But we now have 1,947 people infected across the nine states. 98 have been hospitalized.

Thank goodness no one has died. at this point. Y'all got to stop getting lettuce on your tacos. Come on. It's fast food taco. You don't have to get lettuce on it. Nobody's making you. I've ordered the tacos there without lettuce every single time,

45 years old, I'm doing fine. What's interesting is that they, in North Carolina, they have individuals that do not appear to have eaten any shredded lettuce from Taco Bell. And that maybe they think it's from some parsley or cilantro. So that's confusing because they're, then that would mean we've got multiple outbreaks going on, which we, I mean, this does happen. Like, every year there are some cyclosporic cases, right? Like, so the idea that there would be in one state, you'd have some connected to parsley. In another state, it would be shredded lettuce is not

brand new. Maybe we got some confirmate, I don't know what the word is, but like when we're already looking for it. So we're like lumping these together. So, well, I think we are because right now, a lot more people are ordering, like, everyone who's going in for diarrhea is saying like, can't either, should I be tested or can I be tested or maybe the clinicians are testing more frequently because it's on their minds. So we're going to catch more of that sort of baseline cyclospor we would have anyway. But like if you look at there's a very impressive chart with the Washington Post put together. That is wild.

Where for this year we're at 7,909 total cyclospor cases in the U.S. And that's compared to at this point, you know, last year we were at, what is this? I don't know. It was less than a thousand. It's very low. You can't even tell. The graph is weird. The point is we've way more cases than we usually have this time of year. Are we testing more? I would guarantee we are. I know we're testing more because in my healthcare system right now, the turnaround if we order a cyclospora test is almost three times as long, I believe, as it normally would be because of the bulk of testing the lab core is having to do right now. They just can't keep up with the demand for testing. And the testing already has like a lag. of multiple days. So, of course, we're going to find more cases.

So, yeah, we're going to find more cases because we're testing more. But it does appear. And there's also an unrelated outbreak somewhere that they have said. The FDA said there's also appears to be another contamination somewhere, but we don't know where or how big that is yet. Great. Perfect. So there's more cases.

I would still avoid the shredded lettuce from Taylor Farms, New Mexico. I mean, there's been a recall. So my expectation is they're not serving that at any time. Taco Bells at this point. That would be my expectation. But if you do have those bags in your fridge, please throw them away. I don't eat them. And I don't know what to say about parsley and cilantro. This is, listen, I will say, I know I said not everybody can grow their own food and I stick by that as a privilege. If you would like to get a couple little herbs and start a little window silk garden, some parsley and cilantro, this may be a good moment. If you've thought about it,

if you want to take the plunge, you can start them from seed even. And that's pretty cheap to do. Yeah. Right there in your windowsill. This could be your moment. This could be the moment. Maybe just maybe grow a couple of herbs. And it's fun.

And it's very, listen, it's very fun. You don't make it seem fun. You make it seem like you're pretty angry a lot of the time, Sid, I'll say. You don't seem happy about the outcomes. I'm angry because the vine bores destroyed all my zucchinis. And I'm not going to have zucchini this year. That is why I'm angry. I'm not angry about the parsley and the cilantro.

All right. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you liked it. Thanks to the taxpayers for the use of their song, Medicines, is the intro and outro of our program. It's been that way since we started, and I see no reason to change. That's going to do it for us for this week on Salbones. Until next time, my name is Justin McRoy. I'm Sidney McRoy.

And as always, don't drill a hole in your head. Maximum Fun. A Worker Owned Network of Artist-owned shows. Supported directly by you.