Today’s Somewhat Rudimentary Thoughts About The Body’s Ear, Nose & Throat Area
March 30th, 2005
I am fascinated with medicine.
Hell, I watch ER and I used to watch Chicago Hope and I am endlessly intrigued by the complexity of the body and how everything seems to all work together in perfect harmony. The human body is a complicated machine and I don’t believe we’ve even scratched the surface of everything it can do. But just like the awesome technology of a remote control car door or a lightswitch, the human body has one very cool feature that I am endlessly stoked with.
The breathing/swallowing factor.
To illustrate my point, I’d like you all to get a glass of water. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Seriously, I’ll wait. Ugh, you people and your lack of involvement in these interactive posts are just driving me batty. Alright, pretend you have a glass of water, can you do that?
Now, bring said glass of water up to your mouth and go to swallow — but at the very time you’re swallowing, I want you to breathe through your nose. Go ahead, try it. I will wait for those who are playing along at home.
…
You can’t do it, can you?
The human body has this awesome feature that disallows us to swallow food or drink while we’re breathing! Now, this very green medical student (ME) knows the reason behind such organic technology. Simply put, if you were able to breathe and drink at the same time, liquid would find its way into your lungs and, well, that would just be silly.
I believe that the above organic feature of the human body sits alongside a variety of other impressive safe-guards, like the inability to touch ones’ tongue to ones’ nose (due to sanitary reasons), the inability to kick yourself in the back of your head (to protect the most valuable part of your body - the brain), and the inability to talk and watch TV at the same time — obviously put into effect by the advertisers and networks, who want you to concentrate.
Yes, the human body is amazing, and I’m glad we had this time today to talk about it. Please know, that if this post has brought up any questions in your mind about the human body, I am available to give you the answers to those questions ASAP. Just add them to the comment section, and I will do my best to answer them fully.
Long live breathing and not drinking at the same time! Really, it’s awesome!
why can’t we lick our elbows?
Comment by sarah — March 30, 2005 @ 9:41 am
I’m glad you asked, Sarah.
We can’t lick our elbows because all our saliva will do is make our elbows even more rough! It’s a built-in protection because if your elbows are rough, you can’t bend them as well, and then when you need to defend yourself in the wild, the lack of flexibility of your joints may cause you to die.
Just use lotion, and you’ll be fine.
Comment by Pauly D — March 30, 2005 @ 9:44 am
You had me at “I used to watch Chicago Hope”…I thought I was the only one. Jeffrey Geiger was my hero.
Thank you for causing me to cough and sputter water all over my keyboard…you really can NOT drink water and breathe through your nose; though I can lick my elbow…really long tongue!
Comment by Molly — March 30, 2005 @ 9:59 am
Here’s how geeky I am. ER is my favorite show ever. My work is in the medical field. I watch ER with the close captioning on just so I can see if the close captioner is getting all the medical words, etc., right. Most of the time they are right on. Two of my favorite things in the world are words and medicine. What a geek.
Comment by Rachel — January 7, 2006 @ 11:19 am