Stuff You Should Know - How Migraines Work

Episode Date: December 16, 2010

Most people know what a migraine headache is -- some from painful experience -- but there's a lot more to this "neurobiological condition" than an achy noggin. Josh and Chuck explore the symptoms, triggers and mysteries of migraines in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jackmove or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is always is Charles W. Chuck Bryant suffering from what looks like a headache. I just did that. Okay. That was method podcasting.

I know. And I was falling for it on purpose. So what's your witty intro? Because this is a fan request. One of our super fan buddies, yeah, Coop. Chuck. Oh, was it? Yeah. Does he have migraines? Cooper. Well, we'll say his name, Aaron Cooper. He doesn't mind. No, he's all over the place. He has been asking for this podcast for a couple of years. And I finally wrote him the day I was like Merry Christmas Jerk. Yeah, can you imagine having a migraine? That's bad enough. Having a migraine in Kansas is like a million times worse. And having to listen to us make fun of it. Aaron requested this and we just want to go ahead and say Aaron has the auras, which we'll get to. He has alternating sides that they occur on. Sounds pretty, yeah. And having since he was a kid

and he has his triggers, food base sometimes, sugar, caffeine, water, and he has his treatment now, which is when he sees the aura, he knows it's coming. Two excedrin migraines, dark room, and water and nap for like an hour and a half. And he says he's gotten way better at staving them off. Good. So that's Coop. I said I would feature you. So there, now give me my money. There's the introduction. Is it really? Oh, I'm glad you did that because I had none. Oh, okay. Great. Yeah. Welcome to the podcast. So Chuck. Yes. Well, let's talk about migraines. Sounds like from what you just described, Cooper is sadly a pretty typical migraine sufferer in that you have to really pay attention to it yourself, figure out what works for you, what triggers it,

when it's coming, and basically treat yourself. Because doctors don't really have much of an idea of what migraines are. We know that they're not headaches, because headaches are caused by vasoconstriction in the brain. Tightening of blood vessels, right? That is right, Chuck. They used to think that migraines were caused by vasodilation, just the opening of blood vessels in the brain. Right. That's still a common factor in migraines, but that's not the only piece to the puzzle, right? Yeah. Like you said, migraines typically focus on one side or the other. They seem to be passed down among families. Yeah, I think if one of your parents had migraines, you're about 50% more likely, and if both of your parents had them, you're 70% more likely to have them.

You were 70% in trouble. Yeah. Yeah. Did your parents have them all? Did they? No. Have you ever had one? No. You don't get them? No. And I seem to remember my mom or my dad saying that they had them, but it may have been a cluster headache. We'll get to those later. There's other things. 10 times likelier that it was your dad that said that then. Because men are 10 times more likely to get cluster headaches. But women are more likely to get migraines, right? Like 18% of women get migraines and 6% of men. That would make women three times more likely. Yeah. That's in America. At least 12 to 24 Americans have migraines. 24 million. There's 100 homeless people worldwide. Correct. And this is the general

overview. They can last anywhere from a few minutes to some reports of years without stop, which- Can you imagine? Why would you be alive still? Yeah, exactly. I can't imagine that. Even an hour would be horrible, but years, days, months, it's horrible. Yeah, I don't get headaches much at all. But when I do, I'm not a happy camper. No. Loss of vision, vomiting, tremors, stroke-like symptoms. These are what migraines can do to you. Right. And you hit upon something with that last one, the stroke conditions or stroke symptoms. Yeah. The migraine has been kind of, it's been taken out of the realm of headaches and has recently been reclassified as a neurobiological condition. Yeah, it's a big deal. And the stroke symptoms you talked about, some migraine, a type

of migraine sees sufferers suffer from these stroke-like symptoms like they have cognitive impairment, like they can't recognize words. Right. All of a sudden- Numbness, like their arm will go numb. Yeah. They can't talk correctly. Yeah. And when that happens, there's a migraine coming. Right. Yeah. There's our setup. Yes. Oh, also triggers. That's a big one too. Yeah. There's always a trigger and they can, we'll talk about the triggers in detail, but they can vary. It's all according to the person. They're different for everybody. Right. So here's what we know so far is going on in the brain. Right. Yes. There's some sort of trigger. Right. And we'll talk about triggers, but let's say the example used is you didn't eat like you normally do. Yeah,

you didn't get out for lunch at noon. Right. And something in that lack of routine or change in routine sets off the nociceptors in the brain, pain receptors. Remember? Oh, yeah. Yeah. The nociceptors release chemicals called neuropeptides. Yeah. And neuropeptides are unique. They're neurotransmitters, which means that this is how one neuron communicates with another. They create the electrochemical impulse that creates the language of the brain. Right. You know a lot about this stuff now. I do. Well versioned the brain, my friend. Yeah. But the, and this is where it relates to migraines, neuropeptides, these proteins can be a neurotransmitter or they can be a neuromodulator. Right. And a neuromodulator can turn the volume up or down

on the transmission of other neurotransmitters. Right. In this case, these neuropeptides turn the volume way up on the pain receptors in the brain. And so all of a sudden you start to experience a headache like you've never had before in your entire life. Yeah. Basically makes these pain sensing cells way more sensitive than they ever would have been. Right. The neuropeptides also for some reason relax blood vessels in the brain, which causes the vasodilation. Mm-hmm. But they also think that this is what causes the auras. Oh, really? Yeah. Now the auras, I don't even think we said what that is. It's like sort of a hallucinogenic visual thing that happens. Lights, lines, blurry things,

and they will. Or tunnel visions, a really common one. And they will proceed. It's a warning sign, like migraines are coming. Yeah. Maybe 30 minutes, maybe a day, but it's a common. Right. So that's what auras are. Right. And they think that that comes from this vasodilation in the brain. Like basically your, your brain's just doing something screwy because all of a sudden there's a lot more blood flow in it. Maybe something's getting pressed on, somebody's getting a lot more oxygen. It's overworking. Who knows? Well, they can also cause leakage, actual leakage. Right. Eventually they, and that makes the tissue around the brain swell in your skull. So you have a lot more oxygen. You have leaking blood vessels. You have these auras and you have this cascade of

heightened pain reception in the brain. And there is your migraine. Yeah. As far as we understand it now. This is the most recent thinking of what migraines are. I know. Some guy just told us this like 30 minutes ago. 30 minutes ago. Hot off the presses. Yeah. And since we mentioned triggers, we should talk about those for a second. They can depend on, they're not even the same for everyone as Ku pointed out. They can be different things for him. Like sometimes he said caffeine will trigger it. Sometimes a lack of caffeine will trigger it. Right. It seems like the one, the one constant in migraines is that they are, they are triggered by change. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, true. Do you like that? Yeah. That's really good. Thanks. So like food related. Some say that caffeine,

alcohol, cheese, gluten, nuts, soy, MSG, they can be triggers. Smells. Strong smells. Foods with strong smells like sauerkraut, onions. Cologne. You get on an elevator with somebody with really heavy perfume. You might get off with an aura happening. Yeah. And you're going to be like, curse you, Snoop Dogg. They can be behavioral. Like we said, if you don't get enough sleep, or if you didn't eat on time, or if you're stressed, or maybe you just had sex, or you're not having sex, not having sex. I can, that's a real bummer. Exercise. You exercise too hard, or you don't exercise enough. So it's, it's, you never can tell. That's what makes migraines such jerks. No. And this is, we should say, like all of these are, are like the characteristics,

the symptoms of all of the migraine sufferers in the world. Yeah, sure. For one person, it might be, they might be no sex, anchovy, caffeine, sufferer. That's my Friday night, dude. Right? Yeah. There's also hormones. Yeah. And that's why they think that women might have more than men because of hormonal changes that women experience that men do not. Right. And there's a lot of correlate of evidence. Thank you. Backing up. That implicate hormones in, in, in migraines. Like migraines typically start after puberty. In women. Right. When the hormones really start kicking in. Yeah. They are very, very rare in women after menopause when hormones are depleted. They actually can

come about again in post-menopausal women with hormone replacement therapy. They can correlate with menstruation. Yep. And, and when a woman becomes pregnant, has been pregnant, the migraine is often subside or just go away completely. Right. So there's something to that. Oh yeah, there's a lot to it. The sad thing is, is we have no idea what it is. Right. You know, there's some poor schmo out there having a migraine right now. Yeah. And there's nothing anybody can do to help them right now. Well, maybe the, the dulcet tones of Josh Clark and his earbuds will make that go away. You think? Maybe. Because there are environmental factors that can make them happen. So maybe they can make them go away. I would think that the dulcet tones of my voice would cause a migraine.

No, no, no. Like a flashing light. Like remember the Nissan Pulsar? Yeah. Do you remember the brake light went beep, beep, beep? Oh yeah. They actually had to slow the pattern because people were having seizures apparently. Really? That is probably an urban legend, but it's a good one that I remember from the 80s. That sounds very much like an urban legend. Loud noises, strong smells, like we said, weather pattern, like rain. Yeah, rain, some big one. Yeah. Either when it's about to come on or it's just changed, subsided. Right. Especially when it happens quickly, e.g. the summer. Right. The change in barometric pressure, I suspect, has a lot to do with that. Josh, what are the types of migraines? Well, Chuck, there is the classic migraine. We're

going to start with the second first. Okay. There's the classic migraine that is preceded by an aura of some sort. The head pain comes on and you're in big trouble. Right. There's also chronic migraines, which are arguably among the worst. That's more than 15 a month. Yeah. Basically, it's a lot of classic migraines. Right. Common migraines. This is migraine pain with no aura. Yeah, no aura. Yeah. This is like a Burger King of horrible headaches, isn't it? However you want it. Yeah. But they did say that the common migraine, though, while you may not have an aura, there might be feelings of euphoria or cognitive problems signaling like here it's coming. Right. Which is so depressing if you think about it. Man, I feel great. And then you think, oh,

crap, here comes the migraine. There are or, I'm sorry, ocular migraines, which you get aura symptoms without the pain of the headache. And they can just be like 30 minutes and they go away. So I don't understand if there's no pain involved. And all you're getting is the hallucinogenic aura symptoms like, what's the rub? I mean, imagine it's distracting, but right. And it's probably a little concerning. Like you're like, am I losing my mind? Do I have a brain tumor? Yeah, that's true. I'd like to hear from someone that suffers from ocular migraines. Actually, I want a better understanding of that firsthand. Abdominal migraines, common in children, pretty awful. It's like all of the symptoms of a migraine except for the head pain. So you have

sensitivity to light, nausea, vomiting, screeching at anybody who tries to talk to you, that kind of thing. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy, number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops,

are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil asset for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Dr. Laurie Santos, host of the Happiness Lab podcast, the show that presents the latest science based strategies to help us live happier, more joyful lives. In a special new year season of the Happiness Lab, I look at the pressures we all feel to change for the better in 2023, and how if we're not careful, those pressures can make us feel worse. If I'm honest, it's just hard, man. It's really, it's really, it's really hard to be present.

With the help of my favorite scientists and experts, we look at overwork and explore whether striving for career success is really the root to happiness. Too many of us bring the best of ourselves to work and then bring the leftovers home. And we'll see why latching on to FAD New Year's diets and exercise plans may not be the best way to give our bodies what they're really craving. When I look back now, I think how unrealistic of me to think that an issue as complex as an eating disorder or disordered eating or body image could just be fixed because it's a date on the calendar. Listen to the Happiness Lab on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, the other thing Coop said is that he very much used to experience, well, he still

experiences the nausea, but he said that he has gained such control over his vomit reflex that he has not thrown up since 1984, since Ghostbusters, he said. Wow. Yeah. And he also referenced Seinfeld, of course, because. I was going to say the black and white cookie. That's right. Then there are cluster headaches, which we mentioned that men get more often and they are not migraines, but they say they may be the most painful headache of all. But you remember in Donnie Darko where Drew Barrymore tells everybody there's some linguists who said that cellar door is the most beautiful phrase in the English language? Cluster headaches, those two words. They evoke. Do you know what a grape shot cannonball is?

What it looks like? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I see one of those, but they're white and squishy balls that are connected together, almost like tumors, but they're real circular. They're spherical, right? What are you talking about? And they start to like kind of drip and fall off, but they're constantly replaced. That's what comes into my mind when I hear the word, the term cluster headache. Geez. Well, it sounds like it's that bad because it's a sudden explosion of pain. Uh, after you've gone to sleep, like you'll be asleep and you'll wake up with this happening very quickly and it's usually behind one of your eyeballs. I think that's what my dad used to have because he used to talk about it's right here and you'd point at his eye and I would

just laugh and say, dad, you're so funny. Give me some money. So, uh, I'm getting that one in one way or another. The reason they call them cluster headaches is because they occur a bunch of times over the course of a couple of weeks, then they'll go away like for a year, maybe, but then they'll come back in clusters, in clusters over several weeks or whatever. And then go ahead with the thunder clap headache because I never heard of that. Uh, thunder clap headaches are, um, very sudden, very severe. They're pretty much cluster headaches, except they don't follow the same pattern. They just kind of come and go. They don't seem to follow any kind of pattern, really. Yeah, it's like they're shorter. Right. But, um, if you get a thunder clap headache,

you may have blood pooling in your brain and you need to go see a doctor. Yeah, that's, it's a pretty good sign that there's something very wrong with your brain. Yes. Um, and we should say cluster headaches and thunder clap headaches don't tend to occur in families, whereas migraines do. Oh, look at you. So, uh, how do you know, how do you get diagnosed with this? Basically, you go in and say, I think I have a brain tumor and the doctor starts running tests on you using MRIs, CAT scans, spinal taps. They rule everything else. Everything else is ruled out and they go, I think you might have migraines. Right. But since we can't really explain migraines, we, I can't say for certain. Spinal tap. You ever had one of those? No. Well, there's no reason

that you should have. Have you? No, of course not. Well, not of course not. People have them, but I just, you know, you always laugh at spinal tap because the band and the, the movie, but you don't think about a needle going into your spine. That's what they're doing. They're tapping your spine. Like you tap a maple tree for syrup. And it's a big, it's a big long, like pretty heavy gauge. Oh, I'm sure. Needle. It's not like a tiny one. It's big. I'd need more than a local anesthetic for that, my friend. Knock me out completely. I don't know that they can because they probably would have to be cognizant and aware and in control of your body. So you don't move. Wow. No, thank you. Some weird symptoms. We talked about nausea and vomiting and stuff like that.

You can also fart a lot. I've saw that. Flatulence, right? Problem flatulence? You can urinate a lot. You can be really thirsty. You can smell weird things that aren't there. You can think that your appendages have grown in size. Like my arm is grown. If they actually have, it's probably just overeating. If your arm grows. If your appendages grow in size. Food cravings, temporary blindness, no fun. No. This is what Coop suffers from. Poor guy. And he still takes the time to do all those Photoshop jobs of us. He did a really good job with the Step Brothers one. I mean, did you look at the detail in it? They're all really good. That was the peak. So you got a migraine, Josh. What do you do? Well, again, people seem to treat themselves or tend to

treat themselves. They figure out what their triggers are. So they become very aware. If you're a chocolate sitar shouldn't exercise, right? If that's you. That's my Friday night. You're going to stay away from exercise. You're going to stay away from sitar music. Pretty easy. And you're going to not eat chocolate, which sucks, but that's what you're going to do. And so you're going to prevent it. Right. There's acute treatment and there's preventative treatment. So you can prevent it by paying attention to what triggers these things. Right. Paying attention to if you get an aura, then your acute treatment kicks in. Maybe you are going to treat yourself acutely even before an aura kicks in if you've exposed yourself to one of your triggers. Sure. And then if you do

get the idea that you're going to have a migraine, you can often treat them like Coop said with a couple of Excedrin migraines, which are really just NSAIDs. Yeah. Tylenol, Advil, non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs. Right. And that's going to keep your brain from vasodilating, supposedly. Yeah. And with Excedrin, we should say that they specifically made the migraine pill and it's a combination of aspirin, acetaminophen, and caffeine, which migraine people said that works for me. Oh, totally. So they said, all right, we'll sell it to you. If you take these before head pain comes on. Yes. Once your head pain comes on, you need something stronger called Sumitriptan. Yeah. Sumitriptan, which is also called Immatrix. Remember the Immatrix adds with

the semi coming at you? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, apparently this stuff works after your head has started exploding. Yeah. It works pretty well from what most people say, right? Right. I think also, it's one of those things where it either works for you or it doesn't. I guess if it works really well, you're going to go all over the internet and see how great it is. Right. But I think it can not work in people. But if you have nausea, if you have vomiting, fortunately for you, there is Sumitriptan. I hope that's how you say it. Yeah. Suminazel sprays. Yeah. So you can't puke that back up. There's also injections. If you go to the hospital with a migraine, they're probably going to give you an injection of that. But as the author says in this article,

you can get your very own Immatrix injection. Yeah. Keep yourself a shot. Yeah. Preventative, they found that, and this is always so weird with me for prescription drugs, when they find the off label use, they're like, well, your blood pressure meds are stopping your migraines. That's cool. And there's a whole host of these, antidepressants. Yeah. Like I said, blood pressure medication, antihistamine, seproheptidine, cholesterol, drugs, cardiovascular, calcium, channel blockers, they can all help with migraines. With channel blockers, I wonder if that has to do with this, if it slows down the transmission of neurotransmitters, because they go through ion channels. That's where the actual molecules go through. I bet you're right. So I wonder if

that has something to do with it. And then obviously with like blood pressure medicine, that's going to keep vasodilation from occurring. And then serotonin, they figured out that, like you said, antidepressants and other drugs that act on serotonin regulation or production have been shown to alleviate migraines or keep migraines from coming on. So serotonin has something to do with it. Serotonin, hormones, anchovies. The crazy brain. Citar music. Botox. Supposedly. Well, they just found that one of the weird side effects reported was that fewer migraines and fewer headaches, but no one should go out and get botox to relieve their migraines. We're not saying that. It's just, we call that a sidebar.

We do. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Step out of piss y'all. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. Cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we

would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Dr. Laurie Santos, host of the Happiness Lab podcast, the show that presents the latest science based strategies to help us live happier, more joyful lives. In a special New Year season of the Happiness Lab, I look at the pressures we all feel to change for the better in 2023 and how if we're not careful, those pressures can make us feel worse. If I'm honest, it's just hard, man. It's really hard to be present. With the help of my favorite scientists and experts, we look at overwork and explore whether striving for career success is really

the root to happiness. Too many of us bring the best of ourselves to work and then bring the leftovers home. And we'll see why latching onto FAD New Year's diets and exercise plans may not be the best way to give our bodies what they're really craving. When I look back now, I think how unrealistic of me to think that an issue as complex as an eating disorder or disordered eating or body image could just be fixed because it's a date on the calendar. Listen to the Happiness Lab on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. And what about what Emily likes to call hokey pokey treatments and what other people call alternative medicine? Well, the one that jumped out at me is butter burr. Yeah, I'd never heard of that. I hadn't either, but it's an herbal

supplement. The problem is, it may contain cancer-causing compounds. Yeah. So it's like, no more migraines or early death from cancer. Yeah. I don't know. Riboflavin, eat your broccoli, coenzyme Q10 supplements. CoQ10. Oh, you know about CoQ10? Sure. Fever few. It's an herbal supplement that apparently helps. It's an anti-inflammatory. Yeah. And then there are different things you can do, like massage, breathing techniques, yoga, acupuncture has been said to help some folks. If you're into this alternative thing. I think whatever helps. Well, sure. You know. Well, Chuck, let's finish this. Let's bring this migraine to an end. With famous people? Yeah. So apparently there is a theory of the migraine personality. Yeah.

That people who have migraines are more driven, more creative. Yeah. And then there's a lot of people who are driven and creative or were who had migraines like- Or were before migraines killed them. Right, exactly. Virginia Wolf, Cervantes, Nietzsche, Elvis. Yeah. Freud, Monet, Van Gogh. It's also possible that all these people just happen to have migraines and were creative and famous. And there really isn't a migraine personality. You know, Percy Harvin? He's a Minnesota Vikings receiver. Yes. Played for the Florida Gators. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, why did they just have a visceral reaction to that name? Yeah. He's a migraine sufferer and he'll, I mean, it keeps him out of practice out of games. He has to go basically home and

seclude himself in a dark room. Apparently they're really, really bad. Yeah. Despite the effect he played for Florida, I don't want to, I don't want to wish that on anybody. Maybe Tim Tebow. Maybe. Who's this Auburn coach? Gene Chiswick? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What about him? Let's wish some migraines on him. You got anything else? I'm done. So, Coop, I hope, buddy, you have a good Christmas and that your migraines hopefully enlightened you some. He's probably like, nah. Yeah, I already knew all this. Yeah. Thanks anyway. This is what I've been waiting two years for. Well, how about this? Let's wish, let everybody just go and wish that the scientists will hurry up and cure migraines. Okay. How about that? If you want to learn more about migraines and see a picture

of a brain getting hit by lightning, you can type that word in. Oh, we didn't talk about the word migraine. Check the etymology of the word migraine, I should say. It comes from two words, hemicrania, half a brain, remember? It only hits part of your brain at once. And another word, migrum, which is actually now another word for migraine. But migrum, back in the 18th century, meant basically a low feeling on a whim or what a delicate woman would experience, you know, when she, you know how women used to feign or they think women feign it a lot or whatever. This was associated with the migraines were associated with women. So migrum, hemicrania, migraine. Gotcha. If you want to learn more about migraines and hemicrania and migraines and

seagrams, sure. Type in either seagrams or migraine in the search bar at howstuffworks.com and that should bring up something interesting. Okay. You should. Since I said, hey, any search bar is time for listener mail. Josh, this is about first kisses. We got a lot of great emails. I'm going to read one of them now because this is a nice message attached. Hi guys, including Jerry. I just listened to your podcast on kissing and made me think about my first kiss. I'm 27 years old and my first kiss happened, but two years ago when I was 25 growing up, I never dated and sadly not by my own choosing. I would admire the popular boys from afar and imagine what it would be like to kiss them when, go ahead. Oh, okay. When high school came around,

I had a lot of friends, but began feeling bad about myself because I never had a boyfriend. No one was interested in dating me. I was always the best friend who was just one of the guys. Wait, Chuck, I'm confused. Is this from a guy or a girl? This is from a girl. Oh, okay. I took a long time. It took a long time, but eventually I gained a tentative piece with just being single. Then one day, string swelling. Then one day, I met Dylan. Awesome. We became friends. Six months later, a miracle happened. He actually was interested in me and I was interested in him at the same time. We started dating. We had our first kiss, which quickly turned into a full blown makeup. Wow. Which, you know, usually the first kiss does. He did it right. That's

going from, you know, zero to 60 pretty fast. Right. It was amazing and completely worth waiting for. We are still together and the kisses are frequent. All to say that I want to encourage, here's where the good message comes in. All to say that I want to encourage anyone out there who feels like they are a late bloomer in life in the romance department. I believe there is a lid for every pot and someday that person who was worth the wait will show up in your life. I'm a side note. When I first started listening to your podcast, I thought the woman at the beginning was saying from house to forks.com. I was very confused how it related. That is from Leah in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Earth. Leah, thank you very much for writing in. Stay warm up there in Calgary this

winter. I was a late bloomer, not 25, but you're just ignoring that. Well, you threw me off. I want to hear some late bloomer stories. None. I was just a late bloomer and there people bloom at different times and I'm still blooming, buddy. I want to hear late bloomer stories that don't necessarily have anything to do with kissing. But if you bloomed lately in some realm, I want to hear about it. Do you want to hear about it? Absolutely. We want to hear some emails about it. You can wrap it up and send it to StuffPodcastsathowstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. To learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner of our homepage.

The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. Brought to you by the Reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff, stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil answer for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Everybody on Monday, Wednesday, Friday on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts.