Mammals Can Breathe Through Their Intestines, Unsettling Experiment Finds
Gizmodo ^ | Isaac Shultz
Posted on 5/14/2021, 11:09:13 AM by BenLurkin
When pressed for oxygen, some fish and sea cucumbers will use their lower intestines to get a little extra out of their environment. Now, a team of Japanese researchers say that mammals are also capable of respirating through their rectal cavity, at least in a lab setting.
The team’s research is published today in the journal Med and describes the capacity for mice, rats, and pigs to survive longer and have more strength in low-oxygen circumstances when given oxygen gas or an oxygen-rich liquid through their rectums, in a process similar to an enema.
While fish like loaches and catfish use a similar method to gain additional oxygen in the natural world, this doesn’t appear to be an evolutionary adaptation for mammals. In other words, mammalian bodies can’t naturally do this, but with a little push from modern science, it becomes possible. Previous research has seen oxygen injected directly into mammalian bloodstreams, prolonging the lives of rabbits, but the rectal approach to the low-oxygen problem is novel.
The experiment, while disturbing, was designed to find new ways to save the lives of people whose lungs are failing.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
There would need to be Industrial Strength Mouthwash made available {without delay!} to each patient while undergoing this breathing therapy. How flammable is methane anyway?
Some may need to approach their cigarette smoking with new caution.
Just in case my lungs begin to fail, please tell the doctors I do not want to die with a hose stuck in my tookus.