Ever hear of a blood bank? In Canada, they now have a "poop bank"!

This cool article lays it out, but simply put—some people need to get healthy poop transplanted into their bodies. Why? It has to do with a deadly bacteria known as C. difficile and… oh, read the article!

Yes, this is the worst coffee table book ever.

Dissections: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine

Urine Wheel of Fortune!

Five hundred years ago, doctors used the Urine Wheel. It helped them diagnose diseases based on the color, smell, and taste (!) of the patient’s pee. Yay. (Via.)

Wait—barfing is GOOD for us?

Ever see someone barf? Ever feel like barfing after you saw it?

Then congratulations! That means you are sensitive to other people’s feelings. Maybe! After all, everyone has the ability to feel the emotions of others. So when other people cry, you get weepy. When other people laugh, you grin and say, “What’s so funny?” so you can laugh too.

In this article, Dr. Jennifer Hanes says, “Humans are communal creatures, and if our ancestral brother began to vomit from spoiled food or other illness, likely we were exposed to the same [thing]. When one person vomits, our body begins to retch to expel the germs or poison that may be in our system . . . it developed as a self-preservation reflex.”

But whether it saves our life our not, barfing is the worst because, as a nurse says, “It's a multi-sensory experience – there’s the sight, the sound, the smell and – most of all – the memory.”

So when other people barf, we recall the last time WE barfed and—ulp.

That’s enough of that.

Time for an Ex-Lax Movie!

I'm guessing you know that Ex-Lax is a laxative, which makes this more amusing. It explains why Tommy is so terrible—he's constipated!

It doesn't explain why he's so manically excited at the end, though. Take it easy, kid. (Ad from LIFE magazine, February 1940. Thanks to Weird Universe for the tip.)

No tea for me, thanks.

Via.

A farrier is a horse expert who trims and shoes horses’ hooves. And they can also be country veterinarians. I mention this because I just read an interesting story that a farrier told Jonathan Eisen:

He then told me an amazing story about how the old school farriers used a special method to treat horses if they were sick with some sort of gastrointestinal distress. They would make the sick horse "poo tea" by taking feces from healthy horses and making it into a tea of sorts and then they served this to the sick horses.

Did you see that? “Poo tea”! (I don’t even want to know if this would work with humans.)

Looks like SOMEBODY has cat allergies.

This ad from the Philippines is for Drixine, a nasal decongestant.


It is also a bad idea. (Via.)

The Inside Story on Pee

By Speedliner.

I just finished an interesting article about urine and medicine! According to the piece, normal pee is "clear and pale yellow." People who need to drink more water get dark pee. Eating beets turn pee a red color (it’s safe!), and both blackberries and rhubarb can also give red or pink peepee. Eating a lot of carrots? You get orange pee. Lots of asparagus? Green (stinky!) pee.

If you eat a lot of salty food, you pee less. And (drum roll please), if you eat a lot of watermelon, you pee more!

Anyway, this explains why doctors take the piss from their patients. That is, they want urine samples because they show what people eat and drink. But pee also shows how well your body functions and gives clues to problems like “infections, inherited metabolic disorders, kidney disease, bladder cancers, diabetes, substance abuse, exposure to toxins, inadequate or excessive fluid intake.”

Conclusion: They call urine #1 for a reason!

Things were better in the old days.

Kids were polite and respected their elders.


People were well-mannered.


Heck, even the diarrhea was cordial!

"Take two aspirin and store your farts in a jar."

Back in 1665, doctors in England advised their patients to store their farts in a jar.



Really! 

See there was a great plague going around that was so scary, they named it the Great Plague. And the idea was that to defend yourself from this horrible disease, you’d open the jar and smell your old farts. (Because doesn’t smelling your farts always make you feel good?)

David Haviland —author of the book Why You Should Store Your Farts in a Jar— says (in this fine article by Monica Garske): 

“It was believed that the plague was caused by deadly vapors in the air so many doctors thought it could, in turn, be cured by bodily vapors. They figured an equally foul vapor, like a fart, could combat the disease, so they suggested patients store their farts in a jar. This way, when the plague appeared in their neighborhood, they could open the jar and inhale the fumes to ward off the bad vapors that came with the disease. It made sense to them.”

How silly! I guess that’s why people NEVER store their own farts in jars anymore. Today, we use Tupperware. That's civilization for you!

AOL article here, 

photo by Sira Hanchana. 

Constipated? Get the "Cannon Ball Massage"!

From LisaGenius.

Back in 1901, a good remedy for poop that wouldn't come out was a cannon ball. Of course! It only makes sense. By rolling the cannon ball over the body, the dried, constipated poop would be broken up into smaller, poop-able pieces!

Of course, the cannonball would also break your ribs into small pieces, but that's a small price to pay for a good poop!

"Put your heinie in the air!"

For people suffering from gas pains, my mother-in-law has always said, "Put your heinie in the air." That is, get on all fours and raise your butt up . . . and voilà!

If you can't picture that, this "health book" has a helpful illustration:

While this is well and good, my question is this: Why would anyone choose to do this on the floor of a public restroom? Two things are likely to happen there:

• Someone will see you and you'll feel slightly foolish.
• You will be covered in horrible germs and will then die a horribly germy death!

Do you suffer from "shy bladder syndrome"?

Also known as pauresis, this is a condition wherein the person can't pee in front of other people.

Or animals.

Or stuffed animals.

Expert Tip: To cure this problem, I recommend that a person socialize his or her bladder with other bladders. This can be done at "off-leash" bladder parks, or at bladder hootenannies.

You're welcome!

Book cover from here.

Hurray! Pepto-Bismol Brownies are here!

These are perfect for the times when you have bad diarrhea, but you also really want a chocolate brownie that's been baked with REAL Peptol-Bismol.

Actually, speaking of bad diarrhea . . . I think I just got it by looking at that label!

How can Bile Beans be healthy?

New York Times

Bile: A bitter greenish-brown alkaline fluid that helps with digestion. Bonus fact: It’s stored in the gallbladder!

Beans: Edible seeds that grow in pods. People who eat them often fart.

Smoking is GROSS. Just ask the FDA!

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is going to require cigarettes to be sold with graphic warnings about how disgusting and dangerous smoking is.

And trust me, some of the messages are pretty harsh, even grisly. But it's for an important cause, so I'll share some here! (They get worse as you go.)

You know, to see the next ones, click on the "Read more" below... and even then, I'm going to leave the worst one out. (It shows a smoker's mouth, and it's HORRIBLE.)

French laxatives work hard!

As you know, a laxative is any medicine or food that makes you want to poop. Yay! This old French laxative was especially amazing: After you drank it, tiny workmen scrubbed out your intestines. Sacré bleu!

Yes, your colon IS up your butt.

In Washington, billboards like this one were ALMOST posted by a government agency.

The idea is this: Your colon is the last part of your large intestine. It runs right up to your rectum. So your colon IS up your butt.

And since people over 50 are at risk for colon cancer, this billboard is encouraging health check-ups. So what's the problem? It turns out that some people in Washington think the ad is in "poor taste"! Sheesh.

Story here.

Good Name!

There's a rectal surgeon in Virginia named Dr. Inder Bhat.
(I'm just saying.)

I don't want a gigantic zit!

Lucky for me, there's Antiphlogistine! 

Based on the picture, it doesn't matter where your boil is.

Just rub Antiphlogistine in your eye and the boil will go away!