by Bill McLain
Why don’t Eskimos die from scurvy? (Never call them Eskimos
Scurvy is caused by a vitamin C deficiency. If you don’t get enough vitamin C, you will get scurvy. This disease is characterized by swollen and bleeding gums with loosened teeth, soreness and stiffness of the joints, bleeding under the skin, and anemia. Eskimos kill caribou and other animals for food. Being less finicky than we are, they eat all of the animal: heart, brains, liver, kidneys, and so on. These organs are rich in vitamins A and C. That’s why Eskimos do not get scurvy.
When the correlation between vitamin C and scurvy was discovered hundreds of years ago, British sailors would take lemons or limes on their ships and eat them daily to prevent scurvy. That’s where the slang term “limeys” (for Englishmen) comes from.
In the 1800s, different countries sent military expeditions to the arctic. It was quite common for all of the officers to get scurvy, but enlisted men seldom did. Today, we know why. When an animal was killed, the officers ate the best part (steaks, for example) while enlisted men were given the remains (heart, liver, kidneys, and so on). Thus enlisted men were getting vitamins A and C while the officers were not. It appears that rank does not always have its privileges.
One final point of interest: Eskimos call themselves “Inuits.” “Eskimo” is a Norwegian word that when freely translated means “stupid people who eat raw meat.” If you’re ever wandering around the Arctic Circle and run into a native, you’d better not call him an Eskimo.
FACTOIDS
A favorite Inuit dish is made from choice parts of caribou or seal that are cut up into tiny pieces and put in a bowl. A few drops of melted fat and a few drops of blood are added, along with the intestine from a grouse. It is then stirred until it turns fluffy. Yummy!
Only Alaskan natives (Indians, Aleuts, and Inuits) are allowed to hunt for polar bears. It is illegal for anyone else to participate in the hunt.
Rickets, a vitamin deficiency disease, spread throughout Scandinavia during the nineteenth century before the antirachitic effect of cod liver oil was discovered. Inuits have never had a problem with rickets because fish oils are a staple in their diet.
Although Inuits eat the liver of most animals, they will not eat polar bear liver, as it is toxic.
DID YOU KNOW?
If you’re an Inuit, spelling words is never a problem. (Wouldn’t it be wonderful if English were the same way?)
In the native Inuktitut language, a word with a single meaning may be pronounced many different ways. A “white person” is a gallunaaq or a kabloona. Both words mean the same thing. Differences have evolved over time because Inuktitut is an oral rather than a written language.
If you ever run into an Inuit, here are some words that might be handy:
I am hungry. Kaaktunga (Kak-toon-ga)
I am cold. Qiuliqtunga (K-o-lick-toon-ga)
I am sick. Aaniajunga (Ah-nee-a-yung-ga)
I have to use the rest room. Quisuktunga (Kwee-soot-toon-ga)
Where am I? Namiippunga? (Nah-me-poon-ga?)
Help! Ikajunga! (Ick-a-yung-ga!)
Why do I get a headache when I eat ice cream too fast? (Eat it more slowly.)
Not a lot is known about what causes “ice cream headaches” or “brain freeze” as these headaches are commonly called. Scientists know that this type of headache is triggered by cold food or drink hitting the roof of the mouth, but they still have no idea what causes the pain. One theory suggests that pain is caused because the blood vessels constrict from the cold.
Scientists do know that the pain reaches its peak somewhere between 25 and 60 seconds after eating or drinking something too cold and that the temperature of the forehead falls by almost 2 degrees. The pain typically lasts from a few seconds to a minute or two.
Although this type of headache can occur anytime, it is more common during very hot weather or when a person is overheated. Hot weather and ice cream seem to go together, which is probably the reason why most ice cream headaches occur in the summer.
There are two ways to avoid ice cream headaches. One is to eat the ice cream more slowly. The other is to keep the ice cream in the front of your mouth because the back of the mouth is usually associated with these headaches.
FACTOIDS
The United States is the ice cream capital of the world. Each citizen eats an average of 23 quarts a year.
In 1921, the commissioner of Ellis Island decided to treat all arriving immigrants to a taste of something truly American. He served ice cream with their first meal.
New Englanders consume more ice cream per person than anyone else in the United States. They also eat the most vanilla ice cream.
Vanilla and chocolate ice cream are the most popular flavors, accounting for about 50 percent of all ice cream sold. Other popular flavors are butter pecan, strawberry, Neapolitan, chocolate chip, cookies and cream, and vanilla fudge ripple.
During the Victorian period, drinking soda water was considered improper and many towns banned its sale on Sundays. An enterprising druggist concocted a legal confection made of ice cream and syrup. Because it could be eaten on the Sabbath he called it a “Sunday.” Later, he changed the spelling to “sundae.”
When the first batch of Rocky Road ice cream was made, miniature marshmallows did not exist. The two creators, William Dryer and Joseph Edy, used their wives’ sewing scissors to cut the marshmallows into bite-size pieces. Because it was just after the stock market crash of 1929, they decided to name their creation “Rocky Road,” not only as a comment on the times but also to make people smile.
DID TOD KNOW?
No one really knows who invented ice cream. It probably was created in a number of places around the world at various times in history. Many civilizations had wine- or fruit-flavored ices. Some experts believe these were popular thousands of years ago.
It is known that around 200 B.C. in China a soft mixture of milk and rice was solidified by packing it in snow. The Roman Emperor Nero enjoyed mixtures of fruit crushed with snow and honey, and Alexander the Great sent runners to the mountains to bring back snow so he could have a wine-flavored ice.
When Marco Polo returned to Europe from his travels to the Far East, he brought with him a recipe for a tasty ice and milk dessert. These desserts became popular among the rich, and royal chefs kept working to improve the recipe. These recipes were closely guarded secrets for many years.
After ice cream was introduced in the colonies, many of our country’s founders became ice cream addicts, including Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Dolley Madison, and George Washington.
The first ice cream plant in the United States was opened a century and a half ago. The owner would never have believed that today annual ice cream sales in this country are over $3 billion.
Do people who are born blind ever dream? (To sleep, perchance to dream.)
People who are blind from birth do dream, but they do not have visual images as we do. In fact, it’s difficult for blind persons to describe their dreams because they have a different frame of reference. You can’t ask them, “What did you see in your dream?”
One man who has been blind since birth said, “My dreams are never with shapes or colors. I dream about touching things. Once I dreamed I was being chased by someone with a gun. I heard the horrible blasts from the gun and felt as if the bullets were actually piercing my back.”
So blind people do dream, but rather than “see” shapes, textures, and colors, they “hear” and “feel” the dream. Because of this, their dreams probably are much more real than those of sighted people.
It is also interesting that people who can see and become blind later in life will still see images in their dreams. However, the images tend to fade the longer they remain blind.
FACTOIDS
Even when extremely tired, most people have great difficulty sleeping between 9 and 11 A.M. and between 7 and 9 P.M.
When we’re sleeping, a biochemical switch in the brain prevents the brain from ordering yo
ur muscles to move. If this switch did not work, people would walk, talk, eat, or even commit violent acts while sleeping. This is one of the causes of sleepwalking. In a condition known as “night terrors,” victims physically act out their dreams while in a sleepwalking state.
Around the turn of the century, people averaged 9 hours of sleep per night. The chimpanzee gets about 10 hours of sleep a day. Research has shown that if we are removed from the stress of the modern world, we will sleep an average of 10.3 hours a day, about the same as the chimpanzee.
Sleep deprivation has become a national malady. Most of the people in the United States do not get enough sleep. This adversely affects driving and performance at work.
If you are having a nightmare and cannot move, just blink your eyes or wiggle your tongue to break the paralysis.
Astronauts sleeping in a weightless environment tend to draw up their knees and wrap their arms loosely around their torso. This puts the spine in a restful, natural curve, and might be the best position for the rest of us when we sleep.
DID YOU KNOW?
Dreaming is often called a paradox because the body becomes inactive, almost corpselike, but the mind produces the sensation of unlimited freedom of movement. Aside from hallucinations or insanity, dreaming is the only experience we have of living fully in a world without limitations. We may have a dull, boring, routine life but when we dream we can partake of high adventure.
There are many types of dreams. Some are simply “venting” dreams that allow the mind to purge most of the countless images that bombard us daily. Bizarre dreams that make no sense are often venting dreams.
Another type of dream is the “prophetic” dream, which tells us something about the future, often a warning. Although scientists do not understand how a dream can predict the future, there are countless examples that suggest this occurs. One such example comes to us from history.
Augustus Caesar was ill and resting in his tent. A friend had a troubling dream and persuaded Augustus to leave his tent, which he did. Just a few hours later the area was captured by his enemies and the bed on which Augustus had been sleeping was pierced with their swords.
The Bible also has many examples of dream prophecies, such as the impending famine of Egypt revealed to Joseph in a dream about fat and lean cattle.
Whether we believe in dream prophecy or not, it would not be a bad idea to pay a little closer attention to some of our dreams.
What makes us yawn? (Is boredom really a bad thing?)
Some people think that yawning is caused by boredom, while others theorize that we yawn because we need to stretch our neck muscles. However, most authorities agree that yawning is simply a way for the body to compensate for less oxygen in the bloodstream.
Every cell in our body needs a continual supply of oxygen. When we breathe normally, we take air into our lungs, which pass the oxygen to the blood so that oxygen can be carried throughout our body. When we exhale, we get rid of the waste product, carbon dioxide. However, if we’re tired, bored, or sitting in a stuffy room, we tend to breathe more slowly than normal and our body doesn’t get all the oxygen it needs. Because we also are not getting rid of the carbon dioxide, it builds up in the blood. Our brain senses this and quickly sends a signal to the lungs to take an extradeep breath. This extradeep breath is called a yawn.
When we yawn, we always open our mouths. That’s because you can breathe in much more air through your mouth than through your nose. The air isn’t as clean because it’s not filtered through your nose, but a yawn is designed to take in a lot of air quickly, clean or not.
Although we usually yawn because we are bored or tired, people may also yawn when they’re very excited because they need more oxygen to remain attentive.
We aren’t the only creatures who yawn. Animals also yawn, for the same reason we do. Watch how a dog or cat takes a big yawn before taking a nap.
If you want to avoid yawning, you should take deep breaths whenever you feel a yawn starting. Sitting comfortably so that oxygen can easily flow through your body or chewing gum to stimulate your mouth muscles can also prevent yawning.
Although we know what causes yawning and how to prevent it, there is one question that no one has yet satisfactorily answered: Why is yawning contagious?
FACTOIDS
The importance of oxygen to our well-being is easily shown by the “rule of four,” which states that before permanent damage will occur to our body, we can live four weeks without food, four days without water, and four minutes without air.
Yawning a lot at work is not unusual because so many of today’s offices use recirculating heating and cooling systems and oxygen can be easily depleted over time.
Scientists estimate that in the past 300 years, the United States has lost 11 percent of the available oxygen in the air because we have destroyed so much oxygen-producing vegetation.
What blood type is the rarest? (Blue bloods don’t count.)
There are four basic blood types: A, B, 0, and AB. The most common is type 0. Roughly 40 to 60 percent of the population has this blood type. The rarest is type AB.
Blood type percentages vary among different populations. For instance, although type O is the most common in the United States, type A is the most common in Scandinavians, Australians, and North American Indians.
Here is the breakdown of blood types in the United States:
Type A = 40 percent
Type B = 10 percent
Type O = 46 percent
Type AB = 4 percent
If we add the Rh factor, then the rarest blood types of all are type AB Rh-negative (1 percent), type B Rh-negative (2 percent), and type AB Rh-positive (3 percent).
In an emergency, type O blood is a universal donor because it can be given to anyone, while type AB is a universal receiver because a person with this blood type can receive blood from any donor.
The donated blood is separated into a number of components. Red blood cells are used to treat anemia, platelets control bleeding and are used to treat leukemia, white cells are sometimes used to fight infection, and plasma controls bleeding. Other products from donated blood include albumin, immune globulin, and clotting factor concentrates.
FACTOIDS
If all the blood vessels in the average human body were put end to end, they would be 60,000 miles long.
Less than 5 percent of people in the United States donate blood.
Every year over 23 million pints of blood are used in transfusions.
An adult male has about 12 pints of blood in his body, while an adult female has about 9 pints.
If frozen, red blood cells can last up to 10 years.
Two or three drops of blood contain about 1 billion red blood cells. These cells live only for about four months. The body’s bone marrow continually produces new red blood cells.
White blood cells fight bacteria and viruses. There are twice as many white cells as red cells in the bone marrow, but there is only one white cell for every 600 red cells in the bloodstream.
DID YOU KNOW?
Although we may marvel at modern technology in collecting, storing, and using blood, it’s not all that modern. The first successful blood transfusion occurred in 1665 when Richard Lower, an English physician, kept dogs alive by using blood transfusions.
Subsequently there were many attempts to transfuse animal blood into humans, but these were always fatal and the practice was outlawed, preventing any other significant advances from being made for over 150 years.
Beginning in 1818, doctors once again started advancing the use of blood transfusions. To improve safety, it was suggested that blood be typed and cross-matched between donor and recipient. The first transfusion using blood typing and cross-matching was performed in 1907.
In 1912 physician Roger Lee showed that type 0 blood could be given to any patient, and that blood from any group could be given to patients with type AB blood.
In 1930 a London hospital established the first blood bank. Seven year
s later a blood bank was set up at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital by the director of therapeutics, Bernard Fantus, who coined the term “blood bank.”
In 1939 and 1940 researchers discovered the Rh blood group system. Next to blood typing, it is considered the most important breakthrough in blood transfusion practices.
Beginning with World War II, continued advances made blood transfusions safer, more reliable, and easier to administer. A number of breakthroughs were made, including using Rh-immune globulin to prevent Rh disease in infants of Rh-negative mothers.
It has been well over three centuries since the first successful blood transfusion was used to keep dogs alive. Today approximately 40,000 pints of red blood cells are used to treat accident victims, surgical patients, and people with leukemia, cancer, and other diseases.
Perhaps sharing our blood to heal others or save lives is one of the greatest gifts we can give another human being … the gift of life itself.
More Questions? Try these websites
VIRTUAL MEDICAL CENTER
http://www.mediconsult.com/
If you want to know about a particular disease, this site’s for you. Use the pull-down menu to select a disease or condition, such as “chronic fatigue syndrome,” and you’ll see a great deal of information about that disease. You can also find information about topics such as women’s health, men’s health, senior health, medical news, or drug information.
MEDICAL NEWS
http://www.medscape.com/
This site contains the latest medical news, a medical dictionary, and links to such specialties as AIDS, internal medicine, psychiatry, and women’s health.
