Gut Exhibit: Flow--Indigestion

Indigestion
Vomiting (or emesis) | Diarrhea | Constipation |

"Indigestion" by George Cruikshank (1792-1878) Image source

Indigestion is a condition that is frequently caused by eating too fast, especially by eating high-fat foods quickly. Symptoms of indigestion are as follows:

--A pain or a burning feeling in the upper portion of the stomach
--Feeling sick to one's stomach; nausea
--Feeling bloated
--Sometimes uncontrollable burping
--Heartburn
--A bitter taste in the mouth from stomach acid coming up into the esophagus.

Antacids neutralise excess stomach acid, and can provide temporary relief of indigestion.

Gastritis is a medical term for inflammation of the lining of the stomach. It means that white blood cells move into the wall of the stomach as a response to some type of injury. Gastritis does not mean that there is a peptic ulcer or cancer. It is simply inflammation — either acute or chronic. Gastritis has many underlying causes, from infection with the bacterium H. pylori, bile reflux, or excessive consumption of alcohol or certain foods or drugs like aspirin.

Gastritis can be healed by using medicines that reduce stomach acid, avoiding certain foods, alcohol and medicine.

Indigestion humor from The Onion

Gas-Bloated Americans Desperately Await Massive Antacid Airlift
August 7, 1996 | Issue 30•01

In what has been called the largest gastrointestinal rescue effort in history, the United Nations allocated $1.2 billion in antacid relief yesterday for the indigestion-wracked nation of America.

Operation Soothe and Coat
"There is great suffering in America, where every day people face the terrible pain of stomach upset, heartburn, and problem gas," a statement released by the General Assembly read. "Most members of the global community, who do not have to live with the constant threat of massive overeating as Americans do, cannot even imagine what it is like.

Read the full satirical article here.

Overeating

Image source

Overeating is a behavior that, while generally not a medical problem, in some cases is a symptom of binge eating disorder or bulimia. In more general terms it refers to the persistent consumption of excess food in relation to the energy that the person expends, leading to weight gain and often to obesity. This may be a brief or short term process (many people overindulge generally during festivities or while on holiday) or a longer term process. One organization that helps overeaters is Overeaters Anonymous, which operates a 12-step program. Overeating has been linked to the use of medications known as dopamine agonists, such as pramipexole. Learn more here.

Binge eating is a pattern of disordered eating which consists of episodes of uncontrollable overeating. It is sometimes as a symptom of binge eating disorder. During such binges, a person rapidly consumes an excessive amount of food, typically sweet high-calorie foods of a soft texture, such as ice cream or cookies. Most people who have eating binges try to hide this behaviour from others, and often feel ashamed or depressed about their overeating. Eating binges can be followed by so-called compensatory behaviour, acts by which the person tries to compensate for the effects of overeating. Examples of such acts are induced vomiting, fasting, and heavy exercising.

Although people who do not have any mental disorder may occasionally experience episodes of overeating, frequent binge eating is often a symptom of an eating disorder. Binge eating is a central feature of bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. It is also practiced by some people with an eating disorder not otherwise specified or anorexia nervosa. Learn more here.

Vomiting

Vomiting (or emesis) is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth. Although it has probably evolved as a mechanism for expelling ingested poisons, vomiting may result from many causes not related to poisoning, ranging from gastritis to brain tumors, or elevated intracranial pressure (ICP). The feeling that one is about to vomit is called nausea. It usually precedes vomiting, but it does not always lead to vomiting. Antiemetics are sometimes necessary to suppress nausea and vomiting, and in severe cases where dehydration develops, intravenous fluid may need to be administered.

The medical branch investigating vomiting, emetics and antiemetics is called emetology.

Grossology: The Science of Really Gross Things with a rubber replica of vomit on the cover

Vomiting is known by several other names, generally considered slang. Commonly used ones are: "hurling", "puking", "throwing up", "upchucking", "boking", "ralphing", "barfing", and "spewing".

Barfing Toys

"Blurp Ball" action toys: various animals retch things which another player tries to catch.

"Eat at Ralph's Diner" game in which players take turns "feeding" Ralph, until he vomits.
By the way, "to Ralph" is a common expression for vomiting.

Learn more about the vomiting here.

Grossology website

Grossology Touring Exhibition website

Grossology exhibit at Fernbank Museum of Natural History

Diarrhea

Nicaragua health warning poster. Source

Diarrhea or diarrhoea is a condition in which the sufferer has frequent watery, loose bowel movements (from the ancient Greek word for leakage; lit. "to run through"). In the Third World, diarrhea is the most common cause of death among infants, killing more than 1.5 million per year.

Image sources left to right: diarrhea graphic; cartoon, diarrhea causes chart.

This condition can be a symptom, disease, allergy, food intolerance, foodborne illness or extreme excesses of Vitamin C or magnesium and may be accompanied by abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. There are other conditions which involve some but not all of the symptoms of diarrhea, and so the formal medical definition of diarrhea involves defecation of more than 200 grams per day (though formal weighing of stools to determine a diagnosis is never actually carried out).

It occurs when insufficient fluid is absorbed by the colon. As part of the digestion process, or due to fluid intake, food is mixed with large amounts of water. Thus, digested food is essentially liquid prior to reaching the colon. The colon absorbs water, leaving the remaining material as a semisolid stool. If the colon is damaged or inflamed, however, absorption is inhibited, and watery stools result.

Diarrhea is most commonly caused by viral infections or bacterial toxins. In sanitary living conditions and with ample food and water available, an otherwise healthy patient typically recovers from the common viral infections in a few days and at most a week. However, for ill or malnourished individuals diarrhea can lead to severe dehydration and can become life-threatening without treatment.

It can also be a symptom of more serious diseases, such as dysentery, cholera, or botulism.

Learn more about diarrhea here.

Read about treatments for diarrhea here.

Q & A about diarrhea here.

Traveler's Diarrhea Map

Source

Constipation

Image sources left to right: French cartoon; colon diagram;
Martin Luther wrote about his struggles with constipation

In common constipation, the stool is hard and difficult to void. Usually, there is an infrequent urge to void. Straining to pass stool may cause hemorrhoids and anal fissures. In later stages of constipation, the abdomen may become distended and diffusely tender and crampy, occasionally with enhanced bowel sounds.

While many feel that one should have a bowel movement every day, some people may only feel the need to defecate one to three times a week. Medical authorities seem to accept wide variations in toilet frequency as long as this does not cause any other symptoms. Defecating depends on dietary habits, exercise, fluid intake, and various other factors.

In people without medical problems, the main intervention is the increase of fluids (preferably water) and dietary fiber. The latter may be achieved by consuming more vegetables and fruit, whole meal bread and by adding linseeds to one's diet.

Laxative ad, circa early 20th century ---source

The routine non-medical use of laxatives is to be discouraged as this may result in bowel action becoming dependent upon their use. Enemas can be used to provide a form of mechanical stimulation.

Read more about the causes and treatment of constipation here.

What causes constipation?

To understand constipation, you have to understand how the large intestine creates feces (stool). Food flows through the small intestine as a liquid mixture of digestive juices and the food you eat. By the time it reaches the large intestine, all the nutrients have been absorbed. The large intestine has one main function: to absorb water from the waste liquid, and turn it into a waste solid (stool).

Sometimes too much water is absorbed by the large intestine, leaving a very hard and dry stool that can't be passed without straining. That's constipation. Constipation itself is unpleasant enough, but when compounded by hemorrhoids created from straining, it can be miserable.

"Keeping Fit" was a 48-poster series produced by the U.S. Public Health Service and the YMCA in 1919. It was designed to educate teenage boys and young men about the dangers of sexual promiscuity and urged them to embrace moral and physical fitness. Image source

Listed below are some common causes of constipation.

--Not drinking enough fluids. Your colon will absorb more water to prevent dehydration, resulting in dry, hard stools.
--Not having a bowel movement when you have the urge. This keeps stool in the colon longer, where more water is absorbed and stools get harder.

Anything slowing movement of food through your colon increases your risk for constipation. --Again, the longer it stays in, the harder it gets. Common factors slowing down the colon:
--Being inactive
--Not eating enough fiber
--Not eating regularly enough to stimulate the intestines to move food along
--Certain high-protein foods
--Many drugs

Source

Luther's lavatory thrills experts BBC report October 22, 2004

Archaeologists in Germany say they may have found a lavatory where Martin Luther launched the Reformation of the Christian church in the 16th Century.
The stone room is in a newly-unearthed annex to Luther's house in Wittenberg.

Luther is quoted as saying he was "in cloaca", or in the sewer, when he was inspired to argue that salvation is granted because of faith, not deeds.

The scholar suffered from constipation and spent many hours in contemplation on the toilet seat.

The lavatory was built in the period 1516-17, according to Dr Martin Treu, a theologian and Luther expert based in Wittenberg.

"What we have found here is something very rare," he told BBC News Online, describing how most buildings preserved from that era tend to have served a grander function.
The toilet is in a niche set inside a room measuring nine by nine metres, which was discovered during the excavation of a garden in the grounds of Luther's house.

Dr Treu said there can be little doubt the toilet was used by Luther, the radical theologian who argued for a more "earthy Christianity", which regarded the entire human body - and not just the soul - as God's creation.

The Reformation, which resulted in Europe's Protestant churches, is usually reckoned to have begun when Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg's Castle Church on 31 October 1517.

The theses attacked papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by church officials, among other things. Read the full BBC report here.

Constipation sufferer Martin Luther did much of his work sitting on the toilet. Source

More about Luther's toilet here.

This is a great find," said Stefan Rhein, the director of the Luther Memorial Foundation.

"This is where the birth of the Reformation took place."

He said that until now little attention had been paid to anything "three-dimensional and human" in the writing of the theses.

"Luther said himself that he made his reformatory discovery in cloaca [Latin for "in the sewer"]. We just had no idea where this sewer was. Now it's clear what the reformer meant."

What makes the find even more fitting is that at the time faecal language was often used to denigrate the devil, such as "I shit on the devil" or "I break wind on the devil". Professor Rhein said: "It was not a very polite time. And in keeping with this, neither was Luther very polite."

The 450-year-old toilet, which was very advanced for its time, is made out of stone blocks and, unusually, has a 30-square-centimetre seat with a hole. Underneath is a cesspit attached to a primitive drain.

Other interesting parts of the house remains include a vaulted ceiling, late Gothic sandstone door frames and what is left of a floor-heating system, which presumably gave Luther an added bit of comfort during the hours he spent in contemplation.

Read the full report here.

Martin Luther Foundation & Museums

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

In gastroenterology, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or spastic colon is a functional bowel disorder characterized by abdominal pain and changes in bowel habits which are not associated with any abnormalities seen on routine clinical testing. It is fairly common and makes up 20-50% of visits to gastroenterologists. Lower abdominal pain, and bloating associated with alteration of bowel habits and abdominal discomfort relieved with defecation are the most frequent symptoms.

The range of Symptoms relating to IBS is relatively broad, but the main symptom is usually abdominal pain or discomfort associated with changes in bowel habits in the absence of any apparent structural abnormality. The pain is commonly relieved by defecating or modulated by other triggers of gut motility. Generally there is no pain when patients are asleep. Symptoms usually start in young adulthood.

There appears to be an overlap of IBS with stress, chronic pelvic pain, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, the American folk medicine use of term hypoglycaemia, and various mental disorders (in a small minority). While no single explanation for this phenomenon exists, it does strengthen the view that there is a neurological and psychological component to IBS.