Fatally reckless math professor, heroic surgeons

[Ann]

I've been going "Ohh" and "Aahh" and "tsk,tsk"" and "Oh no" over three brilliantly intelligent and/or amazingly skillful people here in Sweden. The first of these people, the one who made me groan, is - or was! - the math professor, head of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Stockholm and the chairman of the Swedish Mathematicians Society, MIkael Passare. (Would you believe that his last name means "compasses" or "pair of compasses"?)

Mikael...

...Passare?

Anyway. Would you believe that our friend the professor was just recently out climbing a mountain, and he fell down and got himself killed? Why would he take that kind of risk? Hey, professor, there are too many math illiterates like me here in Sweden and far, far too few math geniuses like you! Don't you see we need you?

Fortunately, I've been so happy and pleased to read about two surgeons here in my own city of Malmö who just saved the face of a woman who had had most of her countenance ripped off by her mongrel dog. The surgeons, one man and one woman, spent fifteen hours operating on the woman and made use of no fewer than 358 leeches to get the blood circulation going in her face!

It's hard to believe, but leeches may actually be very good for you!

Read more about the heoric surgeons and their little leeches helpers here.



Ann

[Sam]

Dinosaur Comics

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[Beyond]

Bacon for wounds Well, people are always finding new ways to - pig-out.

[BMAONE23]

Speaking of Bacon cures
I had heard that if you were to transfuse Pig Blood into a newborn human,
the body of that person would learn to accept any pig organ as it's own, thereby greatly extending the possibility of organ transplants and supply of donor tissue when needed.

[Beyond]

Speaking of Bacon cures
I had heard that if you were to transfuse Pig Blood into a newborn human,
the body of that person would learn to accept any pig organ as it's own, thereby greatly extending the possibility of organ transplants and supply of donor tissue when needed.

But 'oink' would you 'oink' really want to 'oink' use pig parts 'oink' in yourself

[owlice]

Pig parts are used in people, and have been for decades. You probably wouldn't mind having a pig part in you at all if the alternative is death. Heart valves are one example of a part for which a pig part works quite well.

The use of leeches in medicine is not new; maggots are also used medicinally.

[Beyond]

The thing about pigs, is that except for a South American variety, they don't have sweat glands, so they are akin to walking garbarge cans. However, transplanted organs are not eaten, but i still wonder about the Trichinosis.

Leeches and maggots are very good at what they do, and safe, also. Although some people have to get by the thought of them. And then there's the use's for Honey bee stings and snake venom and.... Isn't nature wonderful?

[owlice]

Sweat isn't for detoxification; its purpose is temperature control. Pigs (and chickens) need to have ways to cool off, such as wallowing, for pigs, and shade, for chickens.

From Wikipedia:

The incidence of trichinosis in the U.S. has decreased dramatically in the past century. From 1997 to 2001, an annual average of 12 cases per year were reported in the United States. The number of cases has decreased because of legislation prohibiting the feeding of raw meat garbage to hogs, increased commercial and home freezing of pork, and the public awareness of the danger of eating raw or undercooked pork products.

Also this from the same source: "The few cases in the United States are mostly the result of eating undercooked game, bear meat, or home-reared pigs."

[neufer]

The use of leeches in medicine is not new;

Archibald Alexander Leach

<<In medieval and early modern medicine, the medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis and its congeners Hirudo verbana, Hirudo troctina and Hirudo orientalis) was used to remove blood from a patient as part of a process to "balance" the "humors" that, according to Galen, must be kept in balance in order for the human body to function properly. (The four humors of ancient medical philosophy were blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile.) Any sickness that caused the subject's skin to become red (e.g. fever and inflammation), so the theory went, must have arisen from too much blood in the body. Similarly, any person whose behavior was strident and "sanguine" was thought to be suffering from an excess of blood. The first recorded use of leeches in medicine was in 200 BC by the Greek physician Nicander in Colophon. Medical use of leeches was discussed by Avicenna in The Canon of Medicine (1020s), and by Abd-el-latif al-Baghdadi in the 12th century. The use of leeches began to become less widespread towards the end of the 19th century. Medicinal leeches are now making a comeback in microsurgery. They provide an effective means to reduce blood coagulation, to relieve venous pressure from pooling blood (venous insufficiency), and in reconstructive surgery to stimulate circulation in reattachment operations for organs with critical blood flow, such as eyelids, fingers, and ears. The therapeutic effect is not from the blood taken in the meal, but from the continued and steady bleeding from the wound left after the leech has detached.>>

[Beyond]

Sweat isn't for detoxification; its purpose is temperature control. Pigs (and chickens) need to have ways to cool off, such as wallowing, for pigs, and shade, for chickens.

From Wikipedia:

The incidence of trichinosis in the U.S. has decreased dramatically in the past century. From 1997 to 2001, an annual average of 12 cases per year were reported in the United States. The number of cases has decreased because of legislation prohibiting the feeding of raw meat garbage to hogs, increased commercial and home freezing of pork, and the public awareness of the danger of eating raw or undercooked pork products.

Also this from the same source: "The few cases in the United States are mostly the result of eating undercooked game, bear meat, or home-reared pigs."

If that's the case, then pigs aren't like humans, in that regards. Humans not only sweat all over, but also detoxify through the glands i can't think of the name of--in the armpits, and also detoxify through the feet.

[geckzilla]

The thing about pigs, is that except for a South American variety, they don't have sweat glands, so they are akin to walking garbarge cans.

It is not conducive to life to be a "walking garbage can" ... so plants, animals, and bacteria all keep waste out and good stuff in. However, sometimes one organism's waste is another organism's oxygen supply... but as far as mammals go, if one is unable to get rid of waste, that probably means a very quick death, one way or another.

If that's the case, then pigs aren't like humans, in that regards. humans not only sweat all over, but also detoxify through the glands i can't think of the name of--in the armpits, and also detoxify through the feet.

And this is a myth... especially that feet thing.

There's a huge fad of "detoxification" these days and it's all hogwash... every last bit of it.

edit: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detoxifica ... edicine%29
Especially the criticism section. Don't waste your money.

[Ann]

Archibald Alexander Leach

I guess most women wouldn't mind having Archibald Alexander Leach all over their faces - perhaps planting no less than 358 Leach kisses on various parts of their faces?

Ann

[Beyond]

The thing about pigs, is that except for a South American variety, they don't have sweat glands, so they are akin to walking garbarge cans.

It is not conducive to life to be a "walking garbage can" ... so plants, animals, and bacteria all keep waste out and good stuff in. However, sometimes one organism's waste is another organism's oxygen supply... but as far as mammals go, if one is unable to get rid of waste, that probably means a very quick death, one way or another.

If that's the case, then pigs aren't like humans, in that regards. humans not only sweat all over, but also detoxify through the glands i can't think of the name of--in the armpits, and also detoxify through the feet.

And this is a myth... especially that feet thing.

There's a huge fad of "detoxification" these days and it's all hogwash... every last bit of it.

edit: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detoxifica ... edicine%29
Especially the criticism section. Don't waste your money.

I just use soap and water, like a lot of people. As for the sweating and other stuff, it looks 'my' era, was somewhat off the mark about lots of things. Maybe that's why it disappeared decades ago. I'm just gonna have to remember about Googleing. That wasn't in my era either

[geckzilla]

It has nothing to do with your era. I've always reckoned the detox scam is quite lucrative. A lot of people are fooled by it.

[Beyond]

After some Googleing, i did find a place that included toxins being sweated out of the body through sweat glands. Although a lot of places didn't mention the toxins, but then i wasn't about to check through all the listings, by the time i finished, i probably wouldn't be sweating anymore anyway. Here's what this particular listing said--->Eccrine Sweat Glands

Eccrine sweat glands are merocrinous glands in that they produce an aqueous solution of low density that does not appreciably cause disintegration of the epithelial cells. Their principle function is that of thermoregulation: sweating to allow the body to rid itself of excessive heat. These glands begin to function only at temperatures above 18-20DC, when normal mechanisms of thermoregulation become insufficient. The secretory capacity of these glands means that several litres of water can be lost from the body hourly, taking with it toxins and other substances. It is the evaporation of this water that brings about cooling of the body.

I don't know what 18-20DC means.

[Ann]

Beyond wrote:

I don't know what 18-20DC means.

18-20 degrees Celsius.

I once heard a radio documentary about Manichaeism, a religion founded in the third century AD, which was quite popular in Europe för many hundred years. According to the radio documentary, Manichaeism taught that frequent fasting and cleansing was important, because that was the only way you could rid your body of unclean things.

I have thought ever since that I heard that documentary that our modern-day interest in fasting and cleansing ourselves has its roots in Manichaeism, and in commercial actors' desire to make money out of this interest.

Ann

[geckzilla]

After some Googleing, i did find a place that included toxins being sweated out of the body through sweat glands.

Of course, it's the internet so it must be correct?

[orin stepanek]

After some Googleing, i did find a place that included toxins being sweated out of the body through sweat glands.

Of course, it's the Internet so it must be correct?

Any thing you read is somebodies opinion; It may be right or wrong.

[Beyond]

geckzilla, i wouldn't trust the internet(or for that matter-anything) for as far as i could throw it, if i could grab ahold of it in the first place.
What i can trust a little, is that if water is sweated out all over your body, then it makes sense that some toxins and 'other' stuff comes out with it, especially when the body is under stress. Although in the toxin matter, it may not be as much as some are saying.

I notice that Wikipedia is also a part of the internet.

So far, in all my years on this 3-rd rock from the sun, i have found only one thing that may be correct--->Everything Dies.
But i don't know that for sure, as yet.

[geckzilla]

There isn't much arguing about sweat glands. Beyond thought that pigs couldn't excrete toxins because they lacked sweat glands. But a lot of mammals have very few or no sweat glands... and sweat glands in humans are definitely for thermoregulation. Some uric acid and urea comes out, but that's beside the point. If you never sweat, you aren't suddenly unable to get rid of uric acid or urea. It's not even a matter of opinion.

[Beyond]

Geckzilla, i didn't think that pigs couldn't excrete toxins at all, just that a lot stayed inside.
Correct me if I'm wrong Dr. geckzilla, but doesn't too much uric acid in your system cause gout?
I just remembered, a friend of my mother's, years ago, said that she never sweated. Even sun-bathing. She lives in Florida now.