August 5, 2025 • 35 mins
A medical question-and-answer guide for the curious reader. The authors, a novelist/screenwriter and an emergency room doctor, respectively, tackle a wide range of common, often humorous, medical queries that people might be too embarrassed to ask their doctors. Their collaboration stemmed from a chance meeting at a hospital where Goldberg was a medical advisor and Leyner a writer for a TV show. The content covers diverse topics from food and body oddities to drugs, alcohol, and medicine in popular culture, offering scientific explanations alongside anecdotal humor and personal exchanges between the authors.
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You can listen and download our episodes for free on more than 10 different platforms:
https://linktr.ee/book_shelter
Get the Book now from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Nipples-Hundreds-Questions-Doctor-Martini/dp/1400082315?&linkCode=ll1&tag=cvthunderx-20&linkId=d416d23c8f1452aece8bd82d1069b021&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to a deep dive into well, those wonderfully weird
questions you might only dare to ask after maybe your
third martini. We're talking about everything from why your peace
smells funny after asparagus to whether you can actually break
your penis?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, those kinds of questions. And our missions always is
to take our source material and really pull out the
most important nuggets of knowledge and insight. We want to
offer you that shortcut to being truly well informed.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Exactly, And today our source isn't just a stack of articles,
It's a whole book. Why do you men have nipples?
Hundreds of questions you'd only ask a doctor after your
third martini. It's by Mark Liiner and Billy Goldberg, MD.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Right, And this deep dive it's not just about the
answers themselves, is it. It's also about the fascinating, often
pretty hilarious story behind how this book even came to.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Be the origin story, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
The equally strange minds who decided to tackle these questions.
So get ready to explore some of life's most let's say,
embarrassing and intriguing medical miss but you know, with enough
humor to keep you hooked. Okay, let's unpack this.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Okay, so let's start with your origin. Imagine being a doctor,
Billy Goldberg. He's a New York City emergency room doctor. Right.
You spend years, literally years in tough medical training, mastering
all this complex stuff, only to find yourself at a
cocktail party and suddenly you're looking at someone's weird mole
(01:24):
or explaining why their brother in law has terrible.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Gas happens all the time to doctor's apparently.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, so, doctor Goldberg, he'd actually been collecting these kinds
of bizarre, everyday medical questions for years. He saw this gap,
you know, stuff people wondered but never really asked.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
He just needed a push to actually write them down exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
And that push came from a really unexpected place. He
got hired as a medical advisor for an ABC medical drama.
It was called Wonderland.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Oh okay, and.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
The show aimed to really capture the chaos and well
the gore of a real er. And this job, it's
set the stage for a pretty extraordinary meeting.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Okay, So who did he meet?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Well, Billy was told his next visitor, someone coming to
the er set, would be a novelist named Mark Liner.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Mark Lioner. Billy did a quick Google search, right, and
Laner comes up described as a Dinsian postmodern superhero. What now, Yeah,
author of novels like My Cousin, like astroentrologist. Billy was intrigued,
definitely confused, and just completely unprepared for who was about
to walk in. I can imagine, so one really cold
(02:27):
night in the er, Billy meets Liner, and according to
Billy himself, nothing in his medical career could have possibly
prepared him for this guy. Okay, he described him as
having the heavily muscled torso of a Bulgarian weightlifter and
the weepy histrionic temperament of a teenage girl.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Wow, that's quite the description, right.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And Laner is apparently just scarfing skills, babbling away and
immediately starts hitting Billy with this like bizarre and encyclopedic
knowledge of really arcane medical facts like what oh, stuff
like Fijian folk remedies for cannibal indigestion, the history of
turf toe, the prevalence of extra testicles in Wilke's Bar, Pennsylvania,
just wild stuff. Clearly, Laner was this self taught medical obsessive,
(03:09):
totally unique.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Okay, this is getting weird. So what happened next?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
This is where it gets even better. The very first
patient they saw together that night was an EDP, an
emotionally disturbed patient. And this guy is wildly agitated, screaming
I am Superman, motherfucker.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Oh boy.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So Billy goes to try and calm him down right
standard procedure, but Layner just coolly watching, puffs some more skittles.
It makes this completely unorthodox suggestion, which was give him cryptonite.
He actually said that he did, and Billy recalls they
just hearing those words somehow seemed to calm the patient
down enough for them to actually administer treatment. It's bizarre.
(03:49):
H Billy apparently left his shift that night thinking, this
strange man is going to profoundly affect my life.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I bet okay, So that's Billy's side. What about Lanner?
Where did his medical obsession come from?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
He came from a long line of lawyers, but he
had this deep, almost obsessive, lifelong fascination with all things medical.
Really yeah, while other kids were reading like Sports Illustrated,
he was eagerly waiting for the annals of gastrointestinal surgery. Seriously,
he begged his parents for trips to Philadelphia's Moodor Museum.
(04:21):
You know the place with all the medical oddities like
giant colon's and stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Oh yeah, I know that place instead of Disney World.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Instead of Disney World. He apparently considered becoming a doctor,
but was put off by the pre med students he encountered.
But the fascination stuck and eventually led to his first novel,
My Cousin, My Gastorentrologist.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Okay, so that explains the weird medical knowledge, right.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
It was those graphic medical details in his books that
actually got him the Wonderland writing gig. So he meets Billy,
maybe expecting just another boring doctor, uh huh, But that
night in the er was a total revelation for him too.
It wasn't just watching the drama you know, the chef
hit with Cleaver, the guy with.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
His ear in a bag of ice, right, the voyeurism.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It was more about seeing Billy's reaction, his genuine compassion,
and how he handled the suffering in that insane environment.
Liner felt this immediate connection.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So the show gets canceled.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, Wonderland didn't last long, but their unlikely friendship continued
and then Billy pitched his idea, this book collecting all
those cocktail party medical questions he'd been hearing for years.
He Liner jumped at it. Apparently his first thought was, Hey,
I can make a shitload of money and do almost
no work.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Typical writer.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Maybe maybe, Billy adds Riley that the result is all
my hard work.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So that's the story, and it's pretty amazing. It really
sets the stage for the kinds of questions in the book,
these slightly embarrassing things people only ask after a.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Few drinks exactly, And it means for you, the listener,
we get to explore all these fascinating facts without any
of the awkwardness of asking your own doctor about say,
floating pooh.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Okay, so let's dive into the questions themselves. Where does
the book start.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well, naturally, it starts with what we put into our bodies.
Chapter one is you Are what You Eat. The scene
is set at a fancy carc avenue party. A liner
is being crude, of course, and they run into this
guy who's all greasy from an Atkins diet. That's the mood, right,
and it leads to all these food related questions.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Like the classic does chewing gum really take seven years
to digest.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, that one comes up a lot, and the answer
is a definitive No. Gum is mostly indigestible, sure, but
it passes through your system pretty quickly, just like other
indigestible fiber.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
But there's a twist, right there is.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, the sweetener sorbitol, which is common in sugar free gum,
actually acts as a laxative, so while it doesn't hang
around for years, it definitely helps move things along. You
might even see it again if you look closely.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Okay, good to know, and sticking with digestion outputs asparagus p.
Why the smell? Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yes, that distinct aroma is thanks to a sulfur compound
called merkaptin, or rather the breakdown products of a spirogusic.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Acid, and not everyone gets it correct.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
It depends on your genes. You need a specific enzyme
to break down the compound and produce the smelly volatle chemicals,
and interestingly, there might also be a genetic component to
whether you can even smell it. A study found forty
six percent of British people produce the odor, while one
hundred percent of French people did.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Uh Okay, what about brain freeze that sudden headache from
ice cream?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Right? This phenopalatine ganglia neualogia if you want.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
To be technical, Ah, okay, maybe not.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Uh huh. Yeah. So one theory was rapid cooling of
air in your sinuses, but the more likely explanation involves
the rapid cooling and then rewarming of blood vessels in
the moof of your mouth. This triggers pain receptors connected
to a nerve bundle called this phenopalatine ganglion. Basically, your
brain gets confusing signals.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Makes sense now a crucial one for many Chocolate and acne?
Does it cause breakouts?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Good news here. The book confirms there's basically no scientific
evidence that chocolate causes acne.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Really, that's a big myth busted.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
It is. Acne is much more strongly linked to hormones,
genetic stress, bacteria, stuff like that. The even site studies
where people ate tons of chocolate like ten times the
normal amount and saw no significant increase in ACTE compared
to a control group.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
So eat the chocolate. What about food cravings then, especially
say women craving chocolate during their periods.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, the book touches on this people often suggest reasons
like magnesium deficiency or maybe self medicating for mood changes,
but there's actually very little solid scientific support for a
direct physiological.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Cause, so it's more psychological.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
It seems that way, more likely linked to cultural associations
or comfort eating habits. But the book does mention a
fascinating related medical term, pica pika. Yeah, it's the compulsion
to eat non food items like dirt, clay, or paper.
Sometimes it's linked to nutritional deficiencies like iron deficiency, and
iron deficiency can also cause a specific craving for ice,
(08:58):
which has its own name, pugophysia.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Wow. Okay, So from food, where does the book go next?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It moves on to body oddities, all those little quirks
and questions about our own bodies. The chapter intro involves
Liner playing shoots and ladders, winning kids lunch money, and
then finding his Cinderella, a woman with web toes.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Ohwa's classy. So what oddities do they cover? Knuckle cracking
is that bad? Ugh?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
The knuckle cracking myth? No, the book confirms it doesn't
cause arthritis. That popping sound, it's just gas bubbles nitrogen
mostly bursting in the synovial fluid that lubricates.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Your joints, so it's harmless.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Mostly chronic forceful cracking might over time lead to some
ligament stretching or maybe slightly decreased grip strength in some studies,
but definitely not arthritis. That's a big relief for chronic crackers.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Definitely. Okay. The big one, the title question, why do
men have nipples?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
It's actually pretty straightforward biology. We're all mammals, right, and
very early in embryonic development for about the first six weeks.
All embryos follow basically a female developmental template.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Ah okay.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Then if the Y chromosome is present, it kicks in
and triggers male development, but the nipples have already formed
by that point, so men are simply left with nipples
and even a small amount of breast tissue as remnants
of that initial shared blueprint.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So they're just there pretty much.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Although it's worth noting men can get breast cancer, though
it's rare, and conditions like gynocomastia abnormal breast enlargement sometimes
seen with steroid use, do happen.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Interesting. What about morning breath? What's the scientific scoop on that?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, the Pooh Fairy visit as Australians apparently call it
or tasting like the vulture's dinner in England lovely images.
The real cause is a combination of things, mainly anaerobic
bacteria that thrive without oxygen, multiplying in your mouth Overnight.
Saliva flow decreases when you sleep, creating a dryer environment
(10:55):
or zero stomia where these bacteria flourish and produce smelly,
volatile sulfur compounds.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So brush your teeth.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Definitely regular brushing, and don't forget your tongue, where lots
of these bacteria lifts. Lossing and staying hydrated helps a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Got it? And when your foot falls asleep that pins
and needles feeling.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, paresthegia. What happening is that pressure on the limb,
like when you cross your legs, is compressing the arteries and.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Nerve cutting off circulation exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
It reduces blood flow, depriving the nerve tissues of oxygen
and glucose. This disrupts the nerve signals. The nerves start
firing abnormally, sending those burning, prickling or tingling signals back
to your brain.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
And shaking it helps because.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Shaking it or just moving relieves the pressure, blood flows back,
the nerves start getting oxygen again, and as they wake up,
the tingling often intensifies for a bit before returning to normal.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Okay, it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Next chapter, chapter three, All You Ever Wanted To Know
About Sex? The setting is Layiner naturally mixing tabasco, bree
and tequila into a spicy sex balm oh dear, ignoring
warnings about contact dermatitis. This inevitably turns the party conversation
towards sex questions.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Right, So, first up, is sperm nutritious or fattening?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Huh? Okay? The book breaks it down. The average aculate
is about a tea spoon, contains two hundred to three
hundred million sperm and has only about five calories.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Off calories and exactly a.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Meal, not at all. It contains some protein fruit tooase
which gives spurm energy, water, vitamin C, zinc, prostaglandins. The
book calls it a veritable breakfast of champions. But no,
it's not significantly nutritious or fattening.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Good to know, now, the spery one. Can you actually
break your penis?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yes, you absolutely can. It's called a penile fracture. It's
not a bone breaking, obviously, but a rupture of the
tough fibrous tissue sheath that tunica albiginia that surrounds the
erectile tissues when they're engorged with blood.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
How does it happen?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Usually happens during sex, often with an awkward angle or thrust.
It causes immediate pain, swelling, bruising, and loss of erection,
and it's a medical emergency, requiring surgery to repair the
tear and prevent potential long term issues like erect heeled
dysfunction or curvature.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Ouch is right, definitely ouch. What about masturbation myths? Does
it cause blindness, hairy palms, stuttering?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Absolutely not. The book firmly debunks these old, persistent myths.
They're completely unfounded.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Any actual science on masturdation.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Interestingly, some recent research mentions suggests that more frequent ejaculation,
like over twenty one times per month might actually be
linked to a lower risk of developing prostate cancer later
in life. So quite the opposite of causing harm and
definitely know harry palms.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Okay, mythbusted. Let's talk shrinkage. Is that real?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yes, shrinkage is a real physiological phenomenon. Cold air, cold water,
even feelings like fear, anger, or anxiety can trigger it.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
What causes it, It's basically the.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Body trying to conserve heat or reacting to stress. Muscles
in the penis and scrotum like the Dartose muscle, contract
pulling the testicles and penis closer to the body for
warmth and protection. Blood flow also shifts. This makes the
penis appear short temporarily.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Do size matter otherwise? The book tackle that it does.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
It notes that while non erect size varies a lot
between men, this variation is much less apparent when erect. Importantly,
studies consistently show no correlation between penis size and things
like hand size or foot size, another myth.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
And for sexual partners.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
For women, the book points out that the most sexually
sensitive parts of the va china are generally concentrated in
the outer third, so from a functional pleasure perspective, size
isn't necessarily the most critical factor.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Okay, what about female ejaculation and the G spot controversial topic.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Very but the book presents the evidence. More recent research
does suggest that female ejaculation is real for some women.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
What's the evidence?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Studies have found higher levels of prostatic acid phosphatase PSA,
a substance also found in male semen in the fluid
expelled by some women during orgasm compared to their urine.
This points towards the skeen's glands, located near the urethra,
which are sometimes called the female prostate. As the source
and the g spot, named after doctor Ernst Grafenberg, who
(15:02):
first described it. It's believed to be a small sensitive
area on the front upper wall of the vagina a
few inches inside. Stimulating it can be highly pleasurable for
some women, though not all report sensitivity there. It's located
near the uretra, which is why some women report a
sudden urge to urinate when it's stimulated. It's still debated
whether it's a distinct anatomical structure.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Fascinating stuff. Okay, moving on, what about treating things yourself?
Chapter four?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Right? Can I treat it myself? The chapter opens with
Billy finding Lanner trying to treat the hostess's blistered cheeks
caused by his own spicy sex balm with a cold shower,
A good reminder of the medical principle do no harm.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Indeed, so first aid questions, can you take tetracyclin antibiotics
meant for your fish tank if you run out.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
The book strongly advises against this. While yes, some tablets
might technically contain the same drug and dosage, you absolutely
cannot vouch for the purity, manufacturing standards or safety of
medications intended for animalimals, so don't do it. Definitely not
stick with human grade pharmacy dispensed medication prescribed by a doctor.
The risks of contamination or incorrect dosage are too high.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Okay, what about putting butter on a burn? My grandma
used to say that, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
It's a very common old wives stale, but it's a
bad IDEA Butter or any greasy substance actually traps the
heat in the skin, prolonging the pain and potentially worsening
the burn. He can also increase the risk of infection.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
So what should you do?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
The best immediate treatment for most burns is cool, not ice,
cold running water for a good ten to twenty minutes. Interestingly,
the book does mention some medical literature from India suggesting
boiled potato, skins or honey as potentially useful kitchen supplies
for burns, mainly for their moisture retaining and antibacterial properties
in certain situations, but cool water is the go to
(16:48):
first step, right.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Okay the friend's question. Does peeing on a jellyfish sting
actually help?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Uh? The famous friend's scene. No, don't believe everything you
see on TV. Urine can actually make it worse.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
The skinging cells on jellyfish tentacles are called nematocysts. Things
like fresh water, alcohol, ammonia, and yes, sometimes the composition
of urine contriger these cells to fire more, releasing more
venom and increasing the pain.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
So what's the right thing?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Rinse the area thoroughly with household vinegar if you have it,
as it deactivates the nematicysts of many common jellyfish species.
If vinegar isn't available, rinsing with salt water from the
ocean is the next best option, not fresh water.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Good tip and cotton swabs and ears. Everyone does it?
But why is it bad?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Because your ears are actually designed to be self cleaning.
Ear wax or seramon naturally traps dirt and dust and
then gradually moves outwards towards the ear opening, where it
dries and falls out or is washed away.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
So swabs interfere exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Using cotton swabs pushes the wax deeper into the ear canal,
potentially causing blockage or impaction against the ear drum. You
also risk scratching the delicate skin of the ear canal
or even perforating your ear drum. Doctors regularly have to
move impacted wax, broken swab tips, and sometimes other things
people stick in their ears, like beads, insects, even pen caps.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yikes. Okay, let's move to Chapter five, Drugs and Alcohol.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Right. The scene here involves Laner nursing tequila while the
Atkins guide Jeremy Burns, is now asking for prescriptions for
everything from oxyconton to vicotin too, ketamine, the horse tranquilizer.
It definitely sets the stage for questions about intoxication.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Starting with that old saying beer before liquor, never sicker,
liquor before beer, never fear true.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Nope, the book says there's no scientific basis for this
at all. The order in which you consume different types
of alcohol doesn't likely make a difference to how sick
you get or how bad your hangover is.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So what does.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
It's simply the total amount of alcohol consumed the speed
at which you drink it, and how dehydrated you become.
Hangovers are mainly caused by dehydration, the irritating effects of
alcohol on your stomach, lining inflammation, and disrupted sleep cycles.
The only real cure is time, rehydration and rest. The
book does list some famous hangover cures, though, from the
(19:03):
prairie oyster to IV fluids. If you happen to be
dating a doctor.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Okay, what about poppy seeds and drug tests? Can eating
a bagel make you test positive for heroin?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Surprisingly, yes it can. Poppy seeds come from the opium poppy,
the same plant used to make heroin and morphine. Eating
enough poppy seeds, like in a bagel or in a muffin,
can lead to detectable levels of opiates, specifically morphine and
codeine in your urine.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
So you could fail a drug test.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
You could get a positive result on an initial screening test. Yes. However,
confirmatory tests can usually distinguish between poppy seed consumption and
illicit drug use. They look for specific metabolites or higher
concentrations typically associated with drug abuse, but it can cause
an initial positive.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Wow. Does drinking alcohol actually kill brain cells? That's a
common fear.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
The book clarifies this. Light to moderate drinking generally does
not kill entire brain cells.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Or neurons, but it does affect the brain.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Oh, definitely. Alcohol can interfere with brain function and communication.
It can damage the dendrites, which are the little branches
on neurons that receive signals from other neurons. This can
contribute to the temporary effects like slurred speech, impared judgment,
and coordination problems.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
What about heavy drinking?
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Heavy chronic alcohol abuse is clearly linked to neurological damage
and brain shrinkage. It can lead to serious conditions like
Runicki Khorskov syndrome, which involves severe memory loss, confusion, and
coordination problems, primarily due to a thiamine vitamin B one
deficiency caused by alcoholism. So while casual drinking doesn't kill cells,
(20:37):
wholesale long term abuse is definitely destructive.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Got it and beer goggles? Is that a real scientific phenomenon?
Do people look more attractive when you're drunk?
Speaker 2 (20:46):
According to the book, Yes, It cites in actual studies
from the University of Glasgow with a fantastic title, alcohol
consumption increases attractiveness Ratings of opposite sex faces a possible
third writ to risky sex.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
They actually studied that.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
They did, and they found that participants who had consumed
alcohol rated phases as significantly more attractive than participants who hadn't.
So beer goggles are scientifically validated.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Amazing, So okay. Chapter six must be bathroom humor.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
You guessed it. The setup involves Liner lecturing on global
variations in wiping techniques. After a celebrity orthodontist confesses to
wiping standing up, Lanard declares, we need to honor everyone's
way of wiping. It definitely pushes the boundary.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
It certainly does. So can you drink your own urine
if you're, say, stuck somewhere?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
The book says small amounts are probably says in an emergency.
Normal urine is about ninety five percent water and is
generally sterile when it leaves the body. The rest is
uree assaults and other waste products. Well, it's not ideal.
While some cultures practice urine therapy, the book mentions a
former Indian prime minister who drank his daily time. It's
not a sustainable source of hydration because you're re ingesting
(21:55):
the waste products your body tried to get rid of
in a true survival situation. It might buy you a
tiny bit of time, but it's not long term solution
and can eventually worsen dehydration.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Okay, can you really light a fart on fire?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yes? Absolutely. The flammability comes from gases produced by bacteria
in your colon as they break down undigested food. Specifically,
hydrogen and methane are flammable.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
What are farts mostly made of?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
An average fart is about fifty nine percent hydrogen from
swallowed air, twenty one percent hydrogen, nine percent carbon dioxide,
seven percent methane, and about four percent oxygen. Less than
one percent is made up of the sulfur containing compounds
like hydrogen sulfide that actually make it stink, but the
hydrogen and methane provide the fuel for ignition.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Good to know for party tricks. Maybe why does poo
stink so bad, often worse than the food smelled going in?
And why does it sometimes float?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
The stink is all down to bacterial action in your colon.
As bacteria break down undigested food matter, they produce various gases,
including those lovely sulfur compounds like hydrogen sulfide, rotten egg smell,
more captins and indol Your diet and your unique gut
microbiome definitely affect the intensity in specific aroma, and the
(23:05):
floating floating pooh is usually due to a higher content
of gas trapped within the stool produced by that same
bacterial fermentation. More gas makes it less dense than water,
so it floats. It can sometimes be related to diet
like lots of fiber, or occasionally malabsorption issues, but often
it's just normal variation.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
What about holding your pea? Is it dangerous? Can your
bladder actually explode?
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Your bladder is highly unlikely to explode just from holding
it too long, very strong muscular organ. However, chronically holding
it or holding it to extreme discomfort isn't great. Well.
A very full bladder is more susceptible to injury or
rupture if you experience trauma, like in a car accident. Also,
habitually ignoring the urge to pee might over time stretch
(23:48):
the bladder muscle or potentially increase the risk of urinary
tract infections. For some people, your body has a mixturition reflex. Basically,
the bladder signals the brain it's full if you ignore it, consistently. Actually,
the reflex can become so strong it overrides your voluntary control,
leading to leakage or intense discomfort.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
So listen to your body.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Generally, yes, going, you need to go okay.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Chapter seven takes us into medicine from the movies and TV.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Right, and the intro involves Liner's game of charades being
mistaken for a seizure, highlighting how much Hollywood shapes and
sometimes MisShapes are perceptions of medicine.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
So how accurate was a show like Er?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
The book suggests it did a decent job capturing the pace,
the chaos, and the emotional feel of an er. However,
for dramatic purposes, medical procedures and patient cases were often
exaggerated or condensed.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Any examples, Yeah, they mentioned.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
A specific case shown on Er where a baby had
a coat hanger stuck in its throat, depicted with lots
of bleeding and emergency surgery. In the real life case
it was based on, the doctors apparently just reached in
and pulled it out quite simply, less trauma but more realistic.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
What about movie amnesia, the kind where someone forgets their
entire life.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
That's almost entirely a Holly would invention. Real life amnesia
is rarely that total or permanent. It usually involves loss
of memory for a specific period, often around a traumatic event,
retrograde amnesia, or difficulty forming new memories. Ant aerograde amnesia
forgetting your entire identity is extremely rare outside of films
and soap operas.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Okay the pulp fiction scene. Injecting adrenaline straight into the
heart for an overdose.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Real not really standard practice.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
No.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
While intercardiac injections were done historically in extreme emergencies, it's
very risky nowadays. Adrenaline epidephyn for cardiac arrest is given
intravenously or sometimes down in breathing tube. And for an
opiate overdose like meal Wallace's, the correct drug would be
narcan melog zone, an opioid antagonist, usually given intravenously or intranasally.
(25:49):
The direct heart stab is pure movie drama.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Can you die from choking on your own vomit like
the drummer in spinal tap?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yes, sadly, that is a very real danger. It's called
aspiration inhaling vomit into the lungs when someone is heavily
intoxicated with alcohol or drugs, their gag reflex can be suppressed.
If they vomit while unconscious or semi conscious, they might
breathe the vomit into their airway and lungs, leading to suffocation, pneumonia,
or death. It's why putting heavily intoxicated people in the
recovery position is so important. John Bonham of led Zeppelin
(26:19):
is another famous example.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Okay, and the Seinfeld junior mint incident. What if something
did fall into a patient during surgery, Well.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Surgeons leaving things behind like sponges or instruments does occasionally happen, unfortunately,
though it's rare with modern counting protocols. But a sugary
item like a junior mint that would almost certainly cause
a significant infection or inflammatory reaction inside the body cavity,
not a miraculous recovery.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Good to know. One more from the movie's chapter, is
it dangerous to eat another human being?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Purely? From a nutritional standpoint, human flesh is just meat,
so it's not inherently dangerous and could sustain life in
a dire survival situation like the Andy's flight disaster. However,
there's a huge exception eating the human brain. Why the
eating human brain tissue can transmit a fatal disease called kuru.
It's a type of prion disease similar to mad cow
(27:07):
disease BS. It causes neurodegeneration, leading to muscle weakness, loss
of coordination, dementia, and ultimately death. It was saviously observed
in the four people of New Guinea, who practice ritualistic cannibalism,
including consuming the brains of their relatives. So rule of
thumb for cannibals avoid the brain.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Duly noted Chapter eight, Old Wives Tales.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Yes, the scene is four am at the party, everyone's
exhausted liners recovering from a brawl naturally, and gives a
lecture on historical myths like visigoths eating juniper berries thinking
it gave them strength. It just gave them gas. Perfect
setup to debunk common misconceptions.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Okay, the classic Do you really have to wait thirty
minutes after eating before swimming?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Absolutely not. Yes, zero medical evidence supports this. Your body
starts digesting food immediately, while strenuous exercise right after a
huge meal might be on comfortable for some, there's no
increased risk of drowning due to cramps caused by digestion
it's just a myth passed down by overly cautious parents.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Good staring at a solar eclipse? Will it make you blind?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
It probably won't cause complete permanent blindness for most people
after a brief glance, but it absolutely can cause serious
and potentially permanent eye damage called solar retinopathy. The intense
UV and infrared radiation from the sun focuses on the retina,
literally burning the photoreceptor cells. Even a few seconds of
direct viewing can cause damage, leading to blind spots or
(28:32):
distorted in vision. While some studies suggest the damage might
be less severe than previously thought, in some cases the
risk is very real. Never looked directly at the sun,
especially during an eclipse without proper certified eye protection.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Right. How about starve a fever, feet a cold? Any truth?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
This one's murky. The book suggests there isn't clear scientific consensus.
Some research hints that fasting might stimulate certain immune responses,
beneficial for bacterial infections often associated with fevers, while eating
might boost response is better suited for viral infections like
common colds. But it's complex, and other studies show fasting
can weaken the immune system.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
So what's the best advice, common sense approach.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Really listen to your body. If you have a fever
or a cold, the most important things are rest and fluids.
Eat if you feel hungry, choosing nourishing foods, but don't
force yourself if you don't have an appetite, don't deliberately
starve yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Okay, pop brocks and coke. Can that combination kill you?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
No? This is a total urban legend, famously attached to
Little Nike from the Life Cereal commercials, who, by the way,
did not die from this. He's alive and well what happens?
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Then?
Speaker 2 (29:41):
You just get a lot of fizzing from the carbon
dioxide released by both the candy and soda. It might
cause some gas or burping, but it's completely harmless. Just
another example of bizarre health misinformation spreading like wildfire.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Okay, last chapter, Getting older.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Yep, Liner's feeling his age, wondering about his prostate, which
leads into questions about the changes that come with aging,
some less pleasant than others, but also maybe some perks,
like senior discounts.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Do you really lose taste buds as you get older?
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yes, that's true. The number and sensitivity of our taste
buds generally decline starting around age forty five or fifty.
You begin life with maybe nine thousand taste buds, and
that number can drop significantly in old age, often to
less than half.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Does it affect certain tastes more often?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Sensitivity to salty and bitter flavors declines the most. This
is one reason older adults might add more salt to
their food. Our sense of smell also tends to decline
with age, and smell is hugely important for perceiving flavor,
so that contributes to hearing. Sight and touch sensitivity also
generally decrease.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Why does hair turn gray?
Speaker 2 (30:45):
It's due to the pigment producing cells called melanocytes located
in the hair follicles. As we age, these cells gradually
die off. Fewer melanocytes mean less melanin pigment is produced
and incorporated into the hair shaft. Hair without pigment is
actually trans loosened, but it appears gray, silver, or white,
depending on light reflection and how much pigment remains. Is
(31:06):
it just age mostly ag in genetics, but premature grain
can also be linked to factors like smoking, stress, certain
autoimmune diseases, and vitamin deficiencies. Particularly vitamin B twelve.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Do we actually shrink as we get older?
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yes, most people do lose some height as they age,
typically an inchure, maybe a bit more over several decades.
What causes it, It's mainly due to changes in the spine.
The disks between the vertebrae lose fluid and compress over
time due to gravity. Also, bone density can decrease osteoporosis,
potentially leading to compression fractures in the vertebrae. Loss of
muscle mass and changes in posture can also contribute.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Is there really such a thing as male menopause?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
This is a really controversial topic. It's sometimes called andropause,
laid onset, hypogonadism, or atom energen deficiency in the aging male.
It refers to the gradual decline in testosterone levels that
occurs in men as they age.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Does it cause symptoms like female menopause?
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Some men do experience symptoms like fatigue, lethargy, depression, irritability,
decreased libido, and erectile dysfunction as their testosterone levels decline. However,
unlike the relatively rapid drop and estrogen during female menopause,
the decline in testosterone is usually much more gradual. Many
experts argue that these symptoms are often caused by other
(32:20):
factors common in aging, like obesity, medication side effects, sleep, apdia,
or psychological issues like midlife crisis, rather than solely by
low testosterone. Testosterone replacement therapy is available, but remain controversial
regarding its benefits versus risks.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Okay, what about excessive ear hair that seems to appear
in older men.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Ah? Yes, that impresses sprouting. It's often linked to genetics
and seems particularly associated with the Y chromosome, which is
why it's predominantly seen in males. Hormonal changes with age
might also play a role in triggering the growth from
follicles that were previously less active. It even has a
Guinness World Record category.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Wow. Final question, and nails keep growing after death?
Speaker 2 (33:01):
No, that's another persistent myth. Hair and nail growth requires
cell division and hormonal regulation, which cease entirely after death.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
So why does it look like they do.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
The illusion is created because the skin retracts as the
body dehydrates and shrinks after death. This retraction of the
skin around the hair, follicles and nail beds makes the
existing hair and nails appear longer or more prominent, but
they haven't actually grown.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Okay, that makes sense. So we've taken this really wild
ride through why do men have nipples? From that crazy
origin story with the doctor and the novelist to the
actual science behind all those questions you might think about
but maybe hesitate to ask.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Yeah, and it really shows how just being curious, even
about seemingly silly or embarrassing things like you know, fart, flammability,
or why we have nipples, can lead to some genuinely
fascinating insights. It helps dispel.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Myths, it absolutely does. It's that shortcut to being well
informed we always talk about, but packed with surprising facts
and quite a bit of humor along the way.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Definitely, And the book itself born from just random cocktail
party chatter and an er doctor noticing what people really
wanted to know. Yeah, it just reminds you that the
human body is this constant source of wonder and mystery
and yeah, sometimes a fair bit of awkwardness.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
It really is what stands out most to you from
this whole exploration, I think just.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
The sheer range of questions people have, and how something
that starts as an embarrassing thought can actually connect to
real biology, genetics, even psychology. It validates that curiosity absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Maybe a final thought for everyone listening, if we can
find this much humor and frankly fascinating science and the
questions we're only brave enough to ask after a few drinks,
what other deep truths about ourselves, about our bodies, about
our health are we maybe too embarrassed or too polite
to explore properly?
Speaker 2 (34:53):
That's a great question.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Perhaps the most eliminating questions, the ones that lead to
real understanding, are often the ones we tend to keep
clar us to our chests, maybe until that third martini
gives us the courage
Welcome to a deep dive into well, those wonderfully weird
questions you might only dare to ask after maybe your
third martini. We're talking about everything from why your peace
smells funny after asparagus to whether you can actually break
your penis?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, those kinds of questions. And our missions always is
to take our source material and really pull out the
most important nuggets of knowledge and insight. We want to
offer you that shortcut to being truly well informed.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Exactly, And today our source isn't just a stack of articles,
It's a whole book. Why do you men have nipples?
Hundreds of questions you'd only ask a doctor after your
third martini. It's by Mark Liiner and Billy Goldberg, MD.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Right, And this deep dive it's not just about the
answers themselves, is it. It's also about the fascinating, often
pretty hilarious story behind how this book even came to.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Be the origin story, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
The equally strange minds who decided to tackle these questions.
So get ready to explore some of life's most let's say,
embarrassing and intriguing medical miss but you know, with enough
humor to keep you hooked. Okay, let's unpack this.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Okay, so let's start with your origin. Imagine being a doctor,
Billy Goldberg. He's a New York City emergency room doctor. Right.
You spend years, literally years in tough medical training, mastering
all this complex stuff, only to find yourself at a
cocktail party and suddenly you're looking at someone's weird mole
(01:24):
or explaining why their brother in law has terrible.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Gas happens all the time to doctor's apparently.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, so, doctor Goldberg, he'd actually been collecting these kinds
of bizarre, everyday medical questions for years. He saw this gap,
you know, stuff people wondered but never really asked.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
He just needed a push to actually write them down exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
And that push came from a really unexpected place. He
got hired as a medical advisor for an ABC medical drama.
It was called Wonderland.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Oh okay, and.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
The show aimed to really capture the chaos and well
the gore of a real er. And this job, it's
set the stage for a pretty extraordinary meeting.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Okay, So who did he meet?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Well, Billy was told his next visitor, someone coming to
the er set, would be a novelist named Mark Liner.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Mark Lioner. Billy did a quick Google search, right, and
Laner comes up described as a Dinsian postmodern superhero. What now, Yeah,
author of novels like My Cousin, like astroentrologist. Billy was intrigued,
definitely confused, and just completely unprepared for who was about
to walk in. I can imagine, so one really cold
(02:27):
night in the er, Billy meets Liner, and according to
Billy himself, nothing in his medical career could have possibly
prepared him for this guy. Okay, he described him as
having the heavily muscled torso of a Bulgarian weightlifter and
the weepy histrionic temperament of a teenage girl.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Wow, that's quite the description, right.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And Laner is apparently just scarfing skills, babbling away and
immediately starts hitting Billy with this like bizarre and encyclopedic
knowledge of really arcane medical facts like what oh, stuff
like Fijian folk remedies for cannibal indigestion, the history of
turf toe, the prevalence of extra testicles in Wilke's Bar, Pennsylvania,
just wild stuff. Clearly, Laner was this self taught medical obsessive,
(03:09):
totally unique.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Okay, this is getting weird. So what happened next?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
This is where it gets even better. The very first
patient they saw together that night was an EDP, an
emotionally disturbed patient. And this guy is wildly agitated, screaming
I am Superman, motherfucker.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Oh boy.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So Billy goes to try and calm him down right
standard procedure, but Layner just coolly watching, puffs some more skittles.
It makes this completely unorthodox suggestion, which was give him cryptonite.
He actually said that he did, and Billy recalls they
just hearing those words somehow seemed to calm the patient
down enough for them to actually administer treatment. It's bizarre.
(03:49):
H Billy apparently left his shift that night thinking, this
strange man is going to profoundly affect my life.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I bet okay, So that's Billy's side. What about Lanner?
Where did his medical obsession come from?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
He came from a long line of lawyers, but he
had this deep, almost obsessive, lifelong fascination with all things medical.
Really yeah, while other kids were reading like Sports Illustrated,
he was eagerly waiting for the annals of gastrointestinal surgery. Seriously,
he begged his parents for trips to Philadelphia's Moodor Museum.
(04:21):
You know the place with all the medical oddities like
giant colon's and stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Oh yeah, I know that place instead of Disney World.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Instead of Disney World. He apparently considered becoming a doctor,
but was put off by the pre med students he encountered.
But the fascination stuck and eventually led to his first novel,
My Cousin, My Gastorentrologist.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Okay, so that explains the weird medical knowledge, right.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
It was those graphic medical details in his books that
actually got him the Wonderland writing gig. So he meets Billy,
maybe expecting just another boring doctor, uh huh, But that
night in the er was a total revelation for him too.
It wasn't just watching the drama you know, the chef
hit with Cleaver, the guy with.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
His ear in a bag of ice, right, the voyeurism.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It was more about seeing Billy's reaction, his genuine compassion,
and how he handled the suffering in that insane environment.
Liner felt this immediate connection.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So the show gets canceled.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, Wonderland didn't last long, but their unlikely friendship continued
and then Billy pitched his idea, this book collecting all
those cocktail party medical questions he'd been hearing for years.
He Liner jumped at it. Apparently his first thought was, Hey,
I can make a shitload of money and do almost
no work.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Typical writer.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Maybe maybe, Billy adds Riley that the result is all
my hard work.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So that's the story, and it's pretty amazing. It really
sets the stage for the kinds of questions in the book,
these slightly embarrassing things people only ask after a.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Few drinks exactly, And it means for you, the listener,
we get to explore all these fascinating facts without any
of the awkwardness of asking your own doctor about say,
floating pooh.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Okay, so let's dive into the questions themselves. Where does
the book start.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well, naturally, it starts with what we put into our bodies.
Chapter one is you Are what You Eat. The scene
is set at a fancy carc avenue party. A liner
is being crude, of course, and they run into this
guy who's all greasy from an Atkins diet. That's the mood, right,
and it leads to all these food related questions.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Like the classic does chewing gum really take seven years
to digest.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, that one comes up a lot, and the answer
is a definitive No. Gum is mostly indigestible, sure, but
it passes through your system pretty quickly, just like other
indigestible fiber.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
But there's a twist, right there is.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, the sweetener sorbitol, which is common in sugar free gum,
actually acts as a laxative, so while it doesn't hang
around for years, it definitely helps move things along. You
might even see it again if you look closely.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Okay, good to know, and sticking with digestion outputs asparagus p.
Why the smell? Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yes, that distinct aroma is thanks to a sulfur compound
called merkaptin, or rather the breakdown products of a spirogusic.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Acid, and not everyone gets it correct.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
It depends on your genes. You need a specific enzyme
to break down the compound and produce the smelly volatle chemicals,
and interestingly, there might also be a genetic component to
whether you can even smell it. A study found forty
six percent of British people produce the odor, while one
hundred percent of French people did.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Uh Okay, what about brain freeze that sudden headache from
ice cream?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Right? This phenopalatine ganglia neualogia if you want.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
To be technical, Ah, okay, maybe not.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Uh huh. Yeah. So one theory was rapid cooling of
air in your sinuses, but the more likely explanation involves
the rapid cooling and then rewarming of blood vessels in
the moof of your mouth. This triggers pain receptors connected
to a nerve bundle called this phenopalatine ganglion. Basically, your
brain gets confusing signals.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Makes sense now a crucial one for many Chocolate and acne?
Does it cause breakouts?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Good news here. The book confirms there's basically no scientific
evidence that chocolate causes acne.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Really, that's a big myth busted.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
It is. Acne is much more strongly linked to hormones,
genetic stress, bacteria, stuff like that. The even site studies
where people ate tons of chocolate like ten times the
normal amount and saw no significant increase in ACTE compared
to a control group.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
So eat the chocolate. What about food cravings then, especially
say women craving chocolate during their periods.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, the book touches on this people often suggest reasons
like magnesium deficiency or maybe self medicating for mood changes,
but there's actually very little solid scientific support for a
direct physiological.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Cause, so it's more psychological.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
It seems that way, more likely linked to cultural associations
or comfort eating habits. But the book does mention a
fascinating related medical term, pica pika. Yeah, it's the compulsion
to eat non food items like dirt, clay, or paper.
Sometimes it's linked to nutritional deficiencies like iron deficiency, and
iron deficiency can also cause a specific craving for ice,
(08:58):
which has its own name, pugophysia.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Wow. Okay, So from food, where does the book go next?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It moves on to body oddities, all those little quirks
and questions about our own bodies. The chapter intro involves
Liner playing shoots and ladders, winning kids lunch money, and
then finding his Cinderella, a woman with web toes.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Ohwa's classy. So what oddities do they cover? Knuckle cracking
is that bad? Ugh?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
The knuckle cracking myth? No, the book confirms it doesn't
cause arthritis. That popping sound, it's just gas bubbles nitrogen
mostly bursting in the synovial fluid that lubricates.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Your joints, so it's harmless.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Mostly chronic forceful cracking might over time lead to some
ligament stretching or maybe slightly decreased grip strength in some studies,
but definitely not arthritis. That's a big relief for chronic crackers.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Definitely. Okay. The big one, the title question, why do
men have nipples?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
It's actually pretty straightforward biology. We're all mammals, right, and
very early in embryonic development for about the first six weeks.
All embryos follow basically a female developmental template.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Ah okay.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Then if the Y chromosome is present, it kicks in
and triggers male development, but the nipples have already formed
by that point, so men are simply left with nipples
and even a small amount of breast tissue as remnants
of that initial shared blueprint.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So they're just there pretty much.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Although it's worth noting men can get breast cancer, though
it's rare, and conditions like gynocomastia abnormal breast enlargement sometimes
seen with steroid use, do happen.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Interesting. What about morning breath? What's the scientific scoop on that?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, the Pooh Fairy visit as Australians apparently call it
or tasting like the vulture's dinner in England lovely images.
The real cause is a combination of things, mainly anaerobic
bacteria that thrive without oxygen, multiplying in your mouth Overnight.
Saliva flow decreases when you sleep, creating a dryer environment
(10:55):
or zero stomia where these bacteria flourish and produce smelly,
volatile sulfur compounds.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So brush your teeth.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Definitely regular brushing, and don't forget your tongue, where lots
of these bacteria lifts. Lossing and staying hydrated helps a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Got it? And when your foot falls asleep that pins
and needles feeling.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, paresthegia. What happening is that pressure on the limb,
like when you cross your legs, is compressing the arteries and.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Nerve cutting off circulation exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
It reduces blood flow, depriving the nerve tissues of oxygen
and glucose. This disrupts the nerve signals. The nerves start
firing abnormally, sending those burning, prickling or tingling signals back
to your brain.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
And shaking it helps because.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Shaking it or just moving relieves the pressure, blood flows back,
the nerves start getting oxygen again, and as they wake up,
the tingling often intensifies for a bit before returning to normal.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Okay, it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Next chapter, chapter three, All You Ever Wanted To Know
About Sex? The setting is Layiner naturally mixing tabasco, bree
and tequila into a spicy sex balm oh dear, ignoring
warnings about contact dermatitis. This inevitably turns the party conversation
towards sex questions.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Right, So, first up, is sperm nutritious or fattening?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Huh? Okay? The book breaks it down. The average aculate
is about a tea spoon, contains two hundred to three
hundred million sperm and has only about five calories.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Off calories and exactly a.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Meal, not at all. It contains some protein fruit tooase
which gives spurm energy, water, vitamin C, zinc, prostaglandins. The
book calls it a veritable breakfast of champions. But no,
it's not significantly nutritious or fattening.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Good to know, now, the spery one. Can you actually
break your penis?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yes, you absolutely can. It's called a penile fracture. It's
not a bone breaking, obviously, but a rupture of the
tough fibrous tissue sheath that tunica albiginia that surrounds the
erectile tissues when they're engorged with blood.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
How does it happen?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Usually happens during sex, often with an awkward angle or thrust.
It causes immediate pain, swelling, bruising, and loss of erection,
and it's a medical emergency, requiring surgery to repair the
tear and prevent potential long term issues like erect heeled
dysfunction or curvature.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Ouch is right, definitely ouch. What about masturbation myths? Does
it cause blindness, hairy palms, stuttering?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Absolutely not. The book firmly debunks these old, persistent myths.
They're completely unfounded.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Any actual science on masturdation.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Interestingly, some recent research mentions suggests that more frequent ejaculation,
like over twenty one times per month might actually be
linked to a lower risk of developing prostate cancer later
in life. So quite the opposite of causing harm and
definitely know harry palms.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Okay, mythbusted. Let's talk shrinkage. Is that real?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yes, shrinkage is a real physiological phenomenon. Cold air, cold water,
even feelings like fear, anger, or anxiety can trigger it.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
What causes it, It's basically the.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Body trying to conserve heat or reacting to stress. Muscles
in the penis and scrotum like the Dartose muscle, contract
pulling the testicles and penis closer to the body for
warmth and protection. Blood flow also shifts. This makes the
penis appear short temporarily.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Do size matter otherwise? The book tackle that it does.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
It notes that while non erect size varies a lot
between men, this variation is much less apparent when erect. Importantly,
studies consistently show no correlation between penis size and things
like hand size or foot size, another myth.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
And for sexual partners.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
For women, the book points out that the most sexually
sensitive parts of the va china are generally concentrated in
the outer third, so from a functional pleasure perspective, size
isn't necessarily the most critical factor.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Okay, what about female ejaculation and the G spot controversial topic.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Very but the book presents the evidence. More recent research
does suggest that female ejaculation is real for some women.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
What's the evidence?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Studies have found higher levels of prostatic acid phosphatase PSA,
a substance also found in male semen in the fluid
expelled by some women during orgasm compared to their urine.
This points towards the skeen's glands, located near the urethra,
which are sometimes called the female prostate. As the source
and the g spot, named after doctor Ernst Grafenberg, who
(15:02):
first described it. It's believed to be a small sensitive
area on the front upper wall of the vagina a
few inches inside. Stimulating it can be highly pleasurable for
some women, though not all report sensitivity there. It's located
near the uretra, which is why some women report a
sudden urge to urinate when it's stimulated. It's still debated
whether it's a distinct anatomical structure.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Fascinating stuff. Okay, moving on, what about treating things yourself?
Chapter four?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Right? Can I treat it myself? The chapter opens with
Billy finding Lanner trying to treat the hostess's blistered cheeks
caused by his own spicy sex balm with a cold shower,
A good reminder of the medical principle do no harm.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Indeed, so first aid questions, can you take tetracyclin antibiotics
meant for your fish tank if you run out.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
The book strongly advises against this. While yes, some tablets
might technically contain the same drug and dosage, you absolutely
cannot vouch for the purity, manufacturing standards or safety of
medications intended for animalimals, so don't do it. Definitely not
stick with human grade pharmacy dispensed medication prescribed by a doctor.
The risks of contamination or incorrect dosage are too high.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Okay, what about putting butter on a burn? My grandma
used to say that, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
It's a very common old wives stale, but it's a
bad IDEA Butter or any greasy substance actually traps the
heat in the skin, prolonging the pain and potentially worsening
the burn. He can also increase the risk of infection.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
So what should you do?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
The best immediate treatment for most burns is cool, not ice,
cold running water for a good ten to twenty minutes. Interestingly,
the book does mention some medical literature from India suggesting
boiled potato, skins or honey as potentially useful kitchen supplies
for burns, mainly for their moisture retaining and antibacterial properties
in certain situations, but cool water is the go to
(16:48):
first step, right.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Okay the friend's question. Does peeing on a jellyfish sting
actually help?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Uh? The famous friend's scene. No, don't believe everything you
see on TV. Urine can actually make it worse.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
The skinging cells on jellyfish tentacles are called nematocysts. Things
like fresh water, alcohol, ammonia, and yes, sometimes the composition
of urine contriger these cells to fire more, releasing more
venom and increasing the pain.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
So what's the right thing?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Rinse the area thoroughly with household vinegar if you have it,
as it deactivates the nematicysts of many common jellyfish species.
If vinegar isn't available, rinsing with salt water from the
ocean is the next best option, not fresh water.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Good tip and cotton swabs and ears. Everyone does it?
But why is it bad?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Because your ears are actually designed to be self cleaning.
Ear wax or seramon naturally traps dirt and dust and
then gradually moves outwards towards the ear opening, where it
dries and falls out or is washed away.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
So swabs interfere exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Using cotton swabs pushes the wax deeper into the ear canal,
potentially causing blockage or impaction against the ear drum. You
also risk scratching the delicate skin of the ear canal
or even perforating your ear drum. Doctors regularly have to
move impacted wax, broken swab tips, and sometimes other things
people stick in their ears, like beads, insects, even pen caps.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yikes. Okay, let's move to Chapter five, Drugs and Alcohol.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Right. The scene here involves Laner nursing tequila while the
Atkins guide Jeremy Burns, is now asking for prescriptions for
everything from oxyconton to vicotin too, ketamine, the horse tranquilizer.
It definitely sets the stage for questions about intoxication.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Starting with that old saying beer before liquor, never sicker,
liquor before beer, never fear true.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Nope, the book says there's no scientific basis for this
at all. The order in which you consume different types
of alcohol doesn't likely make a difference to how sick
you get or how bad your hangover is.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So what does.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
It's simply the total amount of alcohol consumed the speed
at which you drink it, and how dehydrated you become.
Hangovers are mainly caused by dehydration, the irritating effects of
alcohol on your stomach, lining inflammation, and disrupted sleep cycles.
The only real cure is time, rehydration and rest. The
book does list some famous hangover cures, though, from the
(19:03):
prairie oyster to IV fluids. If you happen to be
dating a doctor.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Okay, what about poppy seeds and drug tests? Can eating
a bagel make you test positive for heroin?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Surprisingly, yes it can. Poppy seeds come from the opium poppy,
the same plant used to make heroin and morphine. Eating
enough poppy seeds, like in a bagel or in a muffin,
can lead to detectable levels of opiates, specifically morphine and
codeine in your urine.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
So you could fail a drug test.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
You could get a positive result on an initial screening test. Yes. However,
confirmatory tests can usually distinguish between poppy seed consumption and
illicit drug use. They look for specific metabolites or higher
concentrations typically associated with drug abuse, but it can cause
an initial positive.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Wow. Does drinking alcohol actually kill brain cells? That's a
common fear.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
The book clarifies this. Light to moderate drinking generally does
not kill entire brain cells.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Or neurons, but it does affect the brain.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Oh, definitely. Alcohol can interfere with brain function and communication.
It can damage the dendrites, which are the little branches
on neurons that receive signals from other neurons. This can
contribute to the temporary effects like slurred speech, impared judgment,
and coordination problems.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
What about heavy drinking?
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Heavy chronic alcohol abuse is clearly linked to neurological damage
and brain shrinkage. It can lead to serious conditions like
Runicki Khorskov syndrome, which involves severe memory loss, confusion, and
coordination problems, primarily due to a thiamine vitamin B one
deficiency caused by alcoholism. So while casual drinking doesn't kill cells,
(20:37):
wholesale long term abuse is definitely destructive.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Got it and beer goggles? Is that a real scientific phenomenon?
Do people look more attractive when you're drunk?
Speaker 2 (20:46):
According to the book, Yes, It cites in actual studies
from the University of Glasgow with a fantastic title, alcohol
consumption increases attractiveness Ratings of opposite sex faces a possible
third writ to risky sex.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
They actually studied that.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
They did, and they found that participants who had consumed
alcohol rated phases as significantly more attractive than participants who hadn't.
So beer goggles are scientifically validated.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Amazing, So okay. Chapter six must be bathroom humor.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
You guessed it. The setup involves Liner lecturing on global
variations in wiping techniques. After a celebrity orthodontist confesses to
wiping standing up, Lanard declares, we need to honor everyone's
way of wiping. It definitely pushes the boundary.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
It certainly does. So can you drink your own urine
if you're, say, stuck somewhere?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
The book says small amounts are probably says in an emergency.
Normal urine is about ninety five percent water and is
generally sterile when it leaves the body. The rest is
uree assaults and other waste products. Well, it's not ideal.
While some cultures practice urine therapy, the book mentions a
former Indian prime minister who drank his daily time. It's
not a sustainable source of hydration because you're re ingesting
(21:55):
the waste products your body tried to get rid of
in a true survival situation. It might buy you a
tiny bit of time, but it's not long term solution
and can eventually worsen dehydration.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Okay, can you really light a fart on fire?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yes? Absolutely. The flammability comes from gases produced by bacteria
in your colon as they break down undigested food. Specifically,
hydrogen and methane are flammable.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
What are farts mostly made of?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
An average fart is about fifty nine percent hydrogen from
swallowed air, twenty one percent hydrogen, nine percent carbon dioxide,
seven percent methane, and about four percent oxygen. Less than
one percent is made up of the sulfur containing compounds
like hydrogen sulfide that actually make it stink, but the
hydrogen and methane provide the fuel for ignition.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Good to know for party tricks. Maybe why does poo
stink so bad, often worse than the food smelled going in?
And why does it sometimes float?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
The stink is all down to bacterial action in your colon.
As bacteria break down undigested food matter, they produce various gases,
including those lovely sulfur compounds like hydrogen sulfide, rotten egg smell,
more captins and indol Your diet and your unique gut
microbiome definitely affect the intensity in specific aroma, and the
(23:05):
floating floating pooh is usually due to a higher content
of gas trapped within the stool produced by that same
bacterial fermentation. More gas makes it less dense than water,
so it floats. It can sometimes be related to diet
like lots of fiber, or occasionally malabsorption issues, but often
it's just normal variation.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
What about holding your pea? Is it dangerous? Can your
bladder actually explode?
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Your bladder is highly unlikely to explode just from holding
it too long, very strong muscular organ. However, chronically holding
it or holding it to extreme discomfort isn't great. Well.
A very full bladder is more susceptible to injury or
rupture if you experience trauma, like in a car accident. Also,
habitually ignoring the urge to pee might over time stretch
(23:48):
the bladder muscle or potentially increase the risk of urinary
tract infections. For some people, your body has a mixturition reflex. Basically,
the bladder signals the brain it's full if you ignore it, consistently. Actually,
the reflex can become so strong it overrides your voluntary control,
leading to leakage or intense discomfort.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
So listen to your body.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Generally, yes, going, you need to go okay.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Chapter seven takes us into medicine from the movies and TV.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Right, and the intro involves Liner's game of charades being
mistaken for a seizure, highlighting how much Hollywood shapes and
sometimes MisShapes are perceptions of medicine.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
So how accurate was a show like Er?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
The book suggests it did a decent job capturing the pace,
the chaos, and the emotional feel of an er. However,
for dramatic purposes, medical procedures and patient cases were often
exaggerated or condensed.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Any examples, Yeah, they mentioned.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
A specific case shown on Er where a baby had
a coat hanger stuck in its throat, depicted with lots
of bleeding and emergency surgery. In the real life case
it was based on, the doctors apparently just reached in
and pulled it out quite simply, less trauma but more realistic.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
What about movie amnesia, the kind where someone forgets their
entire life.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
That's almost entirely a Holly would invention. Real life amnesia
is rarely that total or permanent. It usually involves loss
of memory for a specific period, often around a traumatic event,
retrograde amnesia, or difficulty forming new memories. Ant aerograde amnesia
forgetting your entire identity is extremely rare outside of films
and soap operas.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Okay the pulp fiction scene. Injecting adrenaline straight into the
heart for an overdose.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Real not really standard practice.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
No.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
While intercardiac injections were done historically in extreme emergencies, it's
very risky nowadays. Adrenaline epidephyn for cardiac arrest is given
intravenously or sometimes down in breathing tube. And for an
opiate overdose like meal Wallace's, the correct drug would be
narcan melog zone, an opioid antagonist, usually given intravenously or intranasally.
(25:49):
The direct heart stab is pure movie drama.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Can you die from choking on your own vomit like
the drummer in spinal tap?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yes, sadly, that is a very real danger. It's called
aspiration inhaling vomit into the lungs when someone is heavily
intoxicated with alcohol or drugs, their gag reflex can be suppressed.
If they vomit while unconscious or semi conscious, they might
breathe the vomit into their airway and lungs, leading to suffocation, pneumonia,
or death. It's why putting heavily intoxicated people in the
recovery position is so important. John Bonham of led Zeppelin
(26:19):
is another famous example.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Okay, and the Seinfeld junior mint incident. What if something
did fall into a patient during surgery, Well.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Surgeons leaving things behind like sponges or instruments does occasionally happen, unfortunately,
though it's rare with modern counting protocols. But a sugary
item like a junior mint that would almost certainly cause
a significant infection or inflammatory reaction inside the body cavity,
not a miraculous recovery.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Good to know. One more from the movie's chapter, is
it dangerous to eat another human being?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Purely? From a nutritional standpoint, human flesh is just meat,
so it's not inherently dangerous and could sustain life in
a dire survival situation like the Andy's flight disaster. However,
there's a huge exception eating the human brain. Why the
eating human brain tissue can transmit a fatal disease called kuru.
It's a type of prion disease similar to mad cow
(27:07):
disease BS. It causes neurodegeneration, leading to muscle weakness, loss
of coordination, dementia, and ultimately death. It was saviously observed
in the four people of New Guinea, who practice ritualistic cannibalism,
including consuming the brains of their relatives. So rule of
thumb for cannibals avoid the brain.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Duly noted Chapter eight, Old Wives Tales.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Yes, the scene is four am at the party, everyone's
exhausted liners recovering from a brawl naturally, and gives a
lecture on historical myths like visigoths eating juniper berries thinking
it gave them strength. It just gave them gas. Perfect
setup to debunk common misconceptions.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Okay, the classic Do you really have to wait thirty
minutes after eating before swimming?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Absolutely not. Yes, zero medical evidence supports this. Your body
starts digesting food immediately, while strenuous exercise right after a
huge meal might be on comfortable for some, there's no
increased risk of drowning due to cramps caused by digestion
it's just a myth passed down by overly cautious parents.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Good staring at a solar eclipse? Will it make you blind?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
It probably won't cause complete permanent blindness for most people
after a brief glance, but it absolutely can cause serious
and potentially permanent eye damage called solar retinopathy. The intense
UV and infrared radiation from the sun focuses on the retina,
literally burning the photoreceptor cells. Even a few seconds of
direct viewing can cause damage, leading to blind spots or
(28:32):
distorted in vision. While some studies suggest the damage might
be less severe than previously thought, in some cases the
risk is very real. Never looked directly at the sun,
especially during an eclipse without proper certified eye protection.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Right. How about starve a fever, feet a cold? Any truth?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
This one's murky. The book suggests there isn't clear scientific consensus.
Some research hints that fasting might stimulate certain immune responses,
beneficial for bacterial infections often associated with fevers, while eating
might boost response is better suited for viral infections like
common colds. But it's complex, and other studies show fasting
can weaken the immune system.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
So what's the best advice, common sense approach.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Really listen to your body. If you have a fever
or a cold, the most important things are rest and fluids.
Eat if you feel hungry, choosing nourishing foods, but don't
force yourself if you don't have an appetite, don't deliberately
starve yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Okay, pop brocks and coke. Can that combination kill you?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
No? This is a total urban legend, famously attached to
Little Nike from the Life Cereal commercials, who, by the way,
did not die from this. He's alive and well what happens?
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Then?
Speaker 2 (29:41):
You just get a lot of fizzing from the carbon
dioxide released by both the candy and soda. It might
cause some gas or burping, but it's completely harmless. Just
another example of bizarre health misinformation spreading like wildfire.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Okay, last chapter, Getting older.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Yep, Liner's feeling his age, wondering about his prostate, which
leads into questions about the changes that come with aging,
some less pleasant than others, but also maybe some perks,
like senior discounts.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Do you really lose taste buds as you get older?
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yes, that's true. The number and sensitivity of our taste
buds generally decline starting around age forty five or fifty.
You begin life with maybe nine thousand taste buds, and
that number can drop significantly in old age, often to
less than half.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Does it affect certain tastes more often?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Sensitivity to salty and bitter flavors declines the most. This
is one reason older adults might add more salt to
their food. Our sense of smell also tends to decline
with age, and smell is hugely important for perceiving flavor,
so that contributes to hearing. Sight and touch sensitivity also
generally decrease.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Why does hair turn gray?
Speaker 2 (30:45):
It's due to the pigment producing cells called melanocytes located
in the hair follicles. As we age, these cells gradually
die off. Fewer melanocytes mean less melanin pigment is produced
and incorporated into the hair shaft. Hair without pigment is
actually trans loosened, but it appears gray, silver, or white,
depending on light reflection and how much pigment remains. Is
(31:06):
it just age mostly ag in genetics, but premature grain
can also be linked to factors like smoking, stress, certain
autoimmune diseases, and vitamin deficiencies. Particularly vitamin B twelve.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Do we actually shrink as we get older?
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yes, most people do lose some height as they age,
typically an inchure, maybe a bit more over several decades.
What causes it, It's mainly due to changes in the spine.
The disks between the vertebrae lose fluid and compress over
time due to gravity. Also, bone density can decrease osteoporosis,
potentially leading to compression fractures in the vertebrae. Loss of
muscle mass and changes in posture can also contribute.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Is there really such a thing as male menopause?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
This is a really controversial topic. It's sometimes called andropause,
laid onset, hypogonadism, or atom energen deficiency in the aging male.
It refers to the gradual decline in testosterone levels that
occurs in men as they age.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Does it cause symptoms like female menopause?
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Some men do experience symptoms like fatigue, lethargy, depression, irritability,
decreased libido, and erectile dysfunction as their testosterone levels decline. However,
unlike the relatively rapid drop and estrogen during female menopause,
the decline in testosterone is usually much more gradual. Many
experts argue that these symptoms are often caused by other
(32:20):
factors common in aging, like obesity, medication side effects, sleep, apdia,
or psychological issues like midlife crisis, rather than solely by
low testosterone. Testosterone replacement therapy is available, but remain controversial
regarding its benefits versus risks.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Okay, what about excessive ear hair that seems to appear
in older men.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Ah? Yes, that impresses sprouting. It's often linked to genetics
and seems particularly associated with the Y chromosome, which is
why it's predominantly seen in males. Hormonal changes with age
might also play a role in triggering the growth from
follicles that were previously less active. It even has a
Guinness World Record category.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Wow. Final question, and nails keep growing after death?
Speaker 2 (33:01):
No, that's another persistent myth. Hair and nail growth requires
cell division and hormonal regulation, which cease entirely after death.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
So why does it look like they do.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
The illusion is created because the skin retracts as the
body dehydrates and shrinks after death. This retraction of the
skin around the hair, follicles and nail beds makes the
existing hair and nails appear longer or more prominent, but
they haven't actually grown.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Okay, that makes sense. So we've taken this really wild
ride through why do men have nipples? From that crazy
origin story with the doctor and the novelist to the
actual science behind all those questions you might think about
but maybe hesitate to ask.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Yeah, and it really shows how just being curious, even
about seemingly silly or embarrassing things like you know, fart, flammability,
or why we have nipples, can lead to some genuinely
fascinating insights. It helps dispel.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Myths, it absolutely does. It's that shortcut to being well
informed we always talk about, but packed with surprising facts
and quite a bit of humor along the way.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Definitely, And the book itself born from just random cocktail
party chatter and an er doctor noticing what people really
wanted to know. Yeah, it just reminds you that the
human body is this constant source of wonder and mystery
and yeah, sometimes a fair bit of awkwardness.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
It really is what stands out most to you from
this whole exploration, I think just.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
The sheer range of questions people have, and how something
that starts as an embarrassing thought can actually connect to
real biology, genetics, even psychology. It validates that curiosity absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Maybe a final thought for everyone listening, if we can
find this much humor and frankly fascinating science and the
questions we're only brave enough to ask after a few drinks,
what other deep truths about ourselves, about our bodies, about
our health are we maybe too embarrassed or too polite
to explore properly?
Speaker 2 (34:53):
That's a great question.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Perhaps the most eliminating questions, the ones that lead to
real understanding, are often the ones we tend to keep
clar us to our chests, maybe until that third martini
gives us the courage
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