SPEAKER_00 0:21

Welcome to Two Brains, One Bot.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

What's up?

SPEAKER_00 0:24

How are you?

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I'm good. How are you?

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Doing great. Still have a little bit of a cold. Listen. Because it's the same day.

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It's the same day.

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That we recorded the last episode.

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I want to address some rumors.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Oh no, what's that?

SPEAKER_01 0:39

I did not get lip filler.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Oh, okay. It's actually I wondered.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

It's actually just a zit. Oh. That I picked at and made everybody else's problem.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Those zits that just go right at the perimeter of your lip. Oh my gosh, it hurts like sometimes yours is well placed because it's right in the center. Yeah, it looks like a your bottom lip. But I call yeah, I call that my natural lip filler because I get those I get them on occasion.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

My lip is juicy all.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

But oh man, hurts.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

It really hurts. Nothing seems to help. Anyways, just wanted to make sure everybody who's watching on YouTube knows this is all natural.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

All natural. It'll be better in two to four business months.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Probably.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Okay, well let's let's get into it. Alright. Ashley, I want to tell you about a man so hungry that the French military turned him into a spy.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Hell yeah, brother.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Kit. Is he my ancestor?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

You tell me at the end.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

His name is Tarar. Terrar. He was born in the 1700s in France. And he was known for his insane appetite. A hunger that could not be satisfied.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Hold on, I have a question. Okay, go for it. Did he did he establish Hungary?

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Uh no. No. No.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

What about Turkey?

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Also, not Turkey. Oh my god. Keep going.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Uh I don't know. Those are the only food ones I know.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Okay. No, he did not. He did not do anything. I think he actually had a pretty short life, unfortunately. So as a teenager, he was eating so much that his parents kicked him out because they couldn't keep up with like the food bill.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Dude.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

So I'm wondering if that's where the saying to eat out of house and home comes from.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Probably.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yeah. And I looked it up. I don't think it I don't think it's attributed to him, but babies. So yeah. So imagine your teen eating so much that you're just like, gosh, you gotta. I'm sorry, you gotta go.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Baby, you've gotta go.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

You gotta go.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

So find a new family that can feed you.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Yeah. So he ended up on the streets and uh just you know running around the country with a jolly band of prostitutes and thieves. Yes, one does. Before becoming an opening act for a traveling charlatan. Okay. Um, and then he became a street performer on his own with and his niche was swallowing anything. So he commonly swallowed corks and stones and live animals and live animals? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

No, he hungry. But like okay, but like lions.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah, like it said like mice and he apparently really liked snake meat.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

He wasn't in his good era. He could have been a dog food tester.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yeah. Well, I I read that he like would get in fights with like scrappy dogs over, you know, just dead stuff in the streets.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

And then he would just eat the dog?

SPEAKER_00 3:28

No.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Well, I don't know, maybe I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

But he also would he could like swallow a whole basket of apples. So that's what he did like on the streets, is like, come watch this man that just can literally like Wow. Good for him. And so, you know, surely, that's gotta be the weirdest thing about Tarar. Right? Surely it was not. Oh god. He later joined the French military, oftentimes doing other shoulder other soldiers' work so that he could get their food rations to try and like fill up.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Hold on, I have a question. Which didn't work. Sorry, pause. Did they ever find out what like did they ever do studies to figure out why he had such a No.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

I mean, I mean, like this was a long time ago. Yeah, but like sense. No, there's theories of what, but no, there's no like concrete, whatever. Okay. Um so yeah, so he used to do his his fellow soldiers' work so that he could get their their food stipends, rations, whatever. Wow. And that didn't satiate his hunger. Um the but the military saw an opportunity with Terrar. They made him a courier. Uh super spy courier.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Super spy.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

They would have him swallow documents, then pass through enemy lines, and then he would expel the documents from go ahead and guess.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

His gut.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

His poo-poo. And then he'd like, here you go. I cleaned it.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

What are they like write it on corn? Hey, no, they like corn paper.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

I read that they packaged it, so he would pass it and then probably open the package and then be like, here's your fresh clean poo-poo docs.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

I don't understand.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Here's your fresh poodocks.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Poodocks. That was the that was the format of the doc. Can I get this in a poodoc format?

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Um was this the very first shit poster?

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Yeah, he was a total shit poster. Um he did get caught though and was beaten up, but he did return, but they did return him to his side eventually because I think the opposing side was like, we don't we don't want anything to do with your tomfoolery. Like, what do you mean you're swallowing documents?

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Or they just couldn't feed him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Also, we were they were like, You're eating us out of house and home, friend. Get out of here. So after this, he was like, Okay, okay, I'm scared. I got caught by the the enemy forces. Just do what you can do to fix me docs. And alas, there was no treatment for him. So um during said treatments, they tried all sorts of things. Like they um, like they tried to they tried to uh strictly uh monitor his diet or like put him on a strict diet to see if they could like tone it down. That didn't work. They at one point gave him food that was meant for 15 people, he ate it all no problem, and they were like, Whoa, you're crazy. But even during these treatments, he would sneak out and scavenge the streets for anything to eat. So he was eating anything he could find, gutter, whatever, whatever he could find anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

So wait, what was his body composition? Was he a fairly large man or like I'll tell you?

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Okay, yep. It was also reported that he was caught multiple times drinking blood from other patients at the hospital, so while like during his treatments, um, and it was patients going through bloodletting, that was a common practice back then, and he even attempted to steal a dead corpse and eat it. So which reminds me, have you seen that It's Always Sunny episode where um Frank tricks Charlie and Dee into believing that they've eaten human meat and then they think they like could go into like a psychosis where they think that they want human meat, and so they are like actively trying to find it, and they it ends up with them going to a morgue trying to buy a dead body, and then Frank tells them that the human meat was actually just raccoon, and that Charlie and Sweet D probably just have the parasite. Oh my god that's making them so hungry because they just got so hungry and they were like, We need more human meat. Have you ever seen that one? No, I that's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

I mean, I don't remember, it was it was probably one of the earlier ones, it was season four. Yeah, so I probably have seen it, but I don't remember it.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

And at the same time, um Dennis and Mac were hunting, and then they ended up trying to hunt Rickety Cricket.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Oh, I do remember that.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Yeah, Rickety Cricket, that's his name, yeah. Yeah, anyways, classic. But that was so funny when they think that they are literally like cannibals, but they just probably have a parasite. Okay, so Shirley, hearing all that, that's the weirdest thing you've ever heard about Tarar, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I hope so.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

It was not.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Oh, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

So he ends up getting kicked out of the hospital because during his time where they were trying to like figure out what's going on with him, trying to treat him, a child went missing and they suspected it was him. So they've they kicked him to the curb. Um and then through all of this though, homie was underweight. He was underweight, he was underweight, he was always underweight, but he also didn't show any signs of like a mental illness or anything. So he was just this underweight man that was swallowing objects and documents and whatever he could get his hands on, animals.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Whoa. But like So he truly was hungry.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Yeah, bro was just hungry all the damn time.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

So he was just probably like had some malabsorption issues or something.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Yeah, and that's yeah, that's kind of what they suspect. So when he but when he didn't eat, because it was hard to keep him fed, and it was, you know, times are tough back then for a pimp. Yeah, um arguably, his skin would sag, but his skin was super elastiky-y. So like he could stretch it all over, which makes sense that you can eat a ton because it said like when he would eat, his stomach would just like bulge out huge. So um and then it would deflate. Yeah, he just had like so he when he was hungry, he was just loose skin and old balls.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Do you recognize that?

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Did he also work at the recognize that reference?

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Did you also work at Hooters?

SPEAKER_01 9:36

So that's the weirdest thing about him.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Hey Big Daddy, speaking of daddies, happy Father's Day to our dads.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Go watch Big Daddy if you haven't seen it. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

I've seen it recently. We watched it with our kids, it was funny.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

I need to watch it. I just said, All right, the other day to my kids.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Wait, I told you like we we went through a phase of watching a lot of the Adam Sandler videos or movies with our kids, and I was like, Yeah, I just quote this constantly. That and Simpsons.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

My entire personality is basically just movie quotes and things.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Oh, that's all this podcast is.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Yeah, pretty much.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Okay, so um going along with his physical attributes, he was also reported to have an unusually large mouth and saggy cheeks. And allegedly he could hold 12 eggs. It said 12 eggs or apples in his mouth at one time, which I'm like, I feel like I'm gonna call BS on that.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

So did he just like unlock his jaw?

SPEAKER_00 10:34

I don't know. He just had like a very abnormally large mouth and then the the stretchy skin. So I don't know, maybe how many eggs do you think you could fit in your mouth? I think I could fit two at least. Like one on each side at least two eggs? Two eggs. You know, and not an apple. Eggs and apples are very different sizes. I don't know why it said 12 eggs were apples.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Maybe they're like the small, the apples you get like that aren't they weren't super hormonized.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Um, okay, hold on. How did you just literally ask me how many eggs I could fit in my mouth?

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yeah, so when you're eating deviled eggs, how many do you toss back?

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Oh, deviled eggs are different. Some shits go down like one train of a time. Hey, do you want to eat 12 eggs? No. Do you want to eat 12 deviled eggs? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Um, I would say probably at least two.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yeah, just like one on each side. Do you want me to stop asking that? Okay, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Let's not test it, okay?

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Oh, I'm not going to. I thought I would, I don't know, they get stuck or something. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

How did she die? She tried to see how many eggs she could fit in her mouth and choked.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

She didn't even get one. He also, as you might have guessed, stunk. Probably reeked. People just like said he smelled horrific, just wretched. And so and also the smell became worse after he ate. So I don't know, maybe it was like a little bit gassy. Um, and he also had chronic diarrhea, which like duh.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Of course, that's all that's passing through. You're super if you're super thin, that means nothing's being absorbed. Yeah. It's just all passing through. So chronic diarrhea is smell terrible. This this man had a hard life.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

My science brain just wants to like dive in and see, like, okay, well, he's got this symptom and this symptom, so he's probably not absorbing you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah. They were talking about like maybe like a thyroid issue and thyroid, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Anyways.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Something's going on with his gruelin for sure.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

His what?

SPEAKER_01 12:42

The the gruelin hormone that makes you that's what like curbs your appetite.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Or like didn't exist for him, yeah. Anyways, his life ended how most did in those times. TB. He got tuberculosis and died, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

So he was even more like and I think it was in his 20s. How ironic dying of consumption. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Got it. Follow me for more. It's works. It's reported that his corpse rotted very quickly, and the surgeons at the hospital refused to dissect him, probably because he stunk, and they were like, there's something's wrong with that. That's bad, that's bad karma, that's bad juju. We're not doing it. So, but one of the doctors was curious about like what it looked like on the inside, so he did cut him open and found that his esophagus was just huge, so that helped with like the swallowing of all the objects. It there's just a wide open challenge or channel from his mouth to his stomach. And that he also had an enlarged liver and gallbladder.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

He was the OG deep throat.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Oh no, stomp it.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

So sorry. You're nasty.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Just you know, like deep throat, like okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Yeah. Anyways, and his body was also just full of pus. So yeah, that would also explain the smell.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Inflammation and yucky.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

He doesn't feel good. Um his stomach was also huge and just covered in ulcers. Oh, so didn't so yeah, didn't absorb anything. Overall, I would say his health was not good. No, no, no. So to date, but to date, nobody really knows exactly what he suffered from. Just like a probably there's guesses of like a thyroid and pika and you know, all that stuff. So surely that's the weirdest thing you've ever heard about Ferrar.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Apparently not.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Yeah, that's uh that's it. That's surely what that is. We got done. Yeah, but that all just led to my fascination with like old timey medical stuff. Okay, and um, like the old time methods of testing and treating patients.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

So let's dive in. I'm I'm ready. Um because I also want to know if there was any of like if he had any siblings, if they experienced anything like that, if this was a genetic condition.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

I didn't say anything about his family, he got kicked out and they were they never wanted to see him again. That's interesting. I don't know, I guess I could have looked, but I didn't. Um so early timey stuff, you know, one of the key things was just like urine diagnosis. So obviously they didn't have the test strips back then or anything. So just tasted that shit. We smelled it, we looked at the color, we looked at the cloudy, and then sometimes we would even taste it to see you got the if see if you got the sweet, that sweet pea. Mm-hmm. The diabetes. Um, they would also be looking at stool, so your feces, your poo. And I learned that there was a position um in the 1500s in the like the royal families called groom of the stool.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

And it was an honored position where someone literally monitored the royal bow movements. Oh. So they kind of like followed them around, looked at the color, the consistency, the smell. I'm sure they documented it. But just imagine you're like climbing the career ladder in 1590 and finally getting promoted to the PAG. Poop inspector general.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

I love it. Or the Is that what the voyage manuscript is?

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Room of the stool, yeah. It's like a document of all their freaking bowel movements. But you know, that's what they had to look at. They had to look at the urine how it looked, had they had to look at the stool. It was essentially anything coming out of the body, was how they assessed wellness. Right. Um, another another Wait a minute.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

This is where that song from Scrubs would just come in perfectly.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Have you No, I don't want no Scrubs. No, no, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Not TLC. Okay, go. Scrubs had a musical episode back in the day. Oh. And there's a song that's called Everything Comes Down to Pooh. Oh, I encourage our listeners to look it up. Right. Everything comes down to Pooh.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Yeah. Okay. Um, the next thing, this was more of a treatment, was bloodletting. Okay. Which I found very fascinating. So I'll be honest, I had as as I always do, I always head down, like when I'm writing these podcast episodes, I always head down like one path, and then there will be like something within that that like sends me off on the complete tangent, and it was bloodletting. Okay. I thought that was very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

I don't know enough about it to to be very good in this conversation. So tell me.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

So it's based on an agent's system of medicine in which blood and other bodily fluids were regarded as the humors, and that it remain and that to remain in proper balance and health, all your humors had to be like symbiotic. So there were four humors. Um, they basically just took every bodily fluid very, very serious. Like that's what they thought everything revolved around. Okay. Um and then so the four humors, early philosophers theorized that mental and physical health was health was solely dependent on the four humors. So it was blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. And with each of those, and at like as the as the time went on, the philosophers and physicians and stuff kind of were building upon like, you know, the previous person's work. So the original person kind of thought like um everything was, you know, kind of built off the the natural elements of the earth. So it was earth, water, fire, and air. And then from there they added on the four humors to the blood, the black and yellow bile, and phlegm. And then again, it people add on so they added with each of those a personality temperament, health impact, and even a season. So the certain seasons came with certain conditions. Yeah, basically. Okay. So, but essentially, the main tenet of the humors is if there's a problem, if the problem is too much fluid, get rid of the fluid. And that's what it was. It was just maintaining the balance of all the fluids.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

So back to bloodletting, which is the practice of deliberately withdrawing blood from the body. Right. Um, it was a very common practice for almost 2,000 years.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

To the point where it they had like DIY guides about it. You could do it yourself.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

There was like YouTube videos about it.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Uh I don't know if they had Starlink at that time, so I don't know. But nowadays, like bloodletting, it bloodletting still occurs, but only in like very rare occasions or very rare conditions or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Yeah, it's a controlled environment. Um It's called therapeutic phlebotomy.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Therapeutic phlebotomy, exactly. So I read that uh bleeding uh patient to health was modeled after menstruation.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Which I thought was interesting. Because you know, women menstruate to purge out all of our bad humors. Yeah. So I thought that was kind of funny.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Clearly, I'm not menstruating enough because I got that bad humor.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Yeah, some bad humor. But during the 1600s and 1700s, bloodletting was the treatment literally for everything. It was literally everything, even a broken heart. People were just like bloodletting. Oh, like sore throat, let's bleed you.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Everything pneumonia, inflammation, infection, whatever. Um, so it's like, and again, like I said, even a broken heart, like psychological things. It was so it's like, oh girl, you sad? Can't be sad when you're about to faint from all the blood we about to take.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Can't be sad if you're unconscious.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

And you done. Um, a Greek philosopher came up with a flow chart of how much blood should re should be removed based on the patient's age, constitution, the season, the weather, and the location. Wow. So imagine you go to the doctor with a headache, and your doctor's like, well, you're like 34 years old. It's a Thursday, the humidity is 72%. He literally just goes Mercury up. Mercury is in retrograde, in the microwave. And you kind of got like a little bit like of a spleeny vibe going on. So today we're gonna we're gonna prescribe three pints.

unknown 20:37

Holy shit.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

They were taking out a lot of blood. That is a lot. A lot. Because the human body has what five? Uh the human body five pints of blood is uh nine to twelve pints, but four four point five to six liters. Liters, I think liters, okay. Okay. Um, but yeah, just funny. Like, oh yeah, you're it's Thursday. That's that's three pints. Woof. According according to my flow chart. Um and this philosopher also linked, I think the philosopher was Galen, but I could be wrong. Um, he also linked different blood vessels to specific organs. So for example, if um if you're having issues with your liver, they would let the blood from your right hand. If you're having issues with your spleen, it would come from your left hand.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Um, and then the more serious come the more serious the condition, the more blood that they would let out. Because again, it just goes all back to those four humors. Yeah. Um and I was also surprised to read about the tools that they used, just because it was a very, very long time ago, but they created these lancets that were cast in bronze and they were spring-loaded. So just like you know how we have the little finger pokers now that are spring-loaded, that's exactly what they were, but they were like kind of in a like a small box, maybe. I don't know. I saw the picture online, so I guess I don't know the actual scale, maybe like two inches by two inches, but it had like multiple blades and they were all spring loaded, and so they would just like put it on the skin and then it would just go like so.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Is it girl inches or boy inches?

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Um, girl inches. Gotcha. Okay. Thanks for clarifying that.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

So you're telling me that the reason I'm so emotional about getting my finger poked versus getting my blood drawn is because that's literally a medieval torture device.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

I mean, not torture, but might as well be. Right?

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Yeah, exactly. Um, and then another method for bloodletting leeches, which I find interesting, and I I will say that particularly caught my like eye when I was like looking into this because I just barely re-watched Wuthering Heights. Have you seen that? Oh, it's a good movie. It's a very, very good movie. But there's like a scene where the actress um she has a big infection, and so they're she's just covered in leeches. Whoa. Spoiler. I won't spoil it actually. Never mind.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

I mean, spoiler usually comes she died. Like spoiler, death.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Spoiler. She turned into a leech.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Yeah, that was wrong. Yeah, you know what the spoiler is now. Oopsie. It was a very good movie though.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

I liked it.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Listen, usually infection back then meant dead.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Yeah. Usually. Yeah. I mean, they tried all the things, the leeches.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

I'm just so insanely impressed at medical professionals and like witches from back then. Of like even being, I mean, the conditions had to be insane. I can't even believe that people treated, knew how to treat. Like.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

But going along with like the four humors, it talked about how depending on again to the weather, the day, the week, and your climate and all that stuff. And what holiday it was. And what holiday it was. Was it was it National Dance Like a Chicken Day? Um, no, it would like or or depending on which fluid they thought was in an imbalance, that would depend on what would happen. So if they thought your blood was the cause, they would um that would be the bloodletting. But if it was like one of the biles, one of them was, I can't remember exactly, one of them was um giving plants to induce vomiting or diarrhea. Right. And then what was the other one? I can't remember. I don't know. I can't remember. But yeah, so just doing things to expel just the trash of your body. You got an infection? Let's make you puke a bunch.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

You either get to puke, um, have diarrhea, get bloodletted, or do cocaine about it.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Do cocaine about it, got it. But yeah, but I but bloodletting I think was like the most common. So, anyways, leeches became very popular in the early 19th century and through the the early decades of the century, hundreds of millions of leeches were used to by physicians throughout Europe. Wow. So and why? Do you know anything about leeches? Just that they suck your blood. Well, they were a convenient blood removal tool, they attach painlessly because they release like um an anesthesic. That's cool. Um they naturally secrete an anticoagulant so it keeps your blood flowing. Cool. And so it's not only just to remove blood, but they also use it as like jump starting circulation. So it would also draw blood to that area and like I said, jump start circulation. And they're just basically tiny little biological syringes.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

So that's cool. I didn't know that about them.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Um, I read how they catch them. So I read that women would go into ponds with their skirts pulled up so just their bare legs were exposed, and they would attach to their legs and then they'd like walk out and be like, look how many I cut.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Women are always saving the day.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

No matter what.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

And I also heard that they would put would send or they would put like old horses in the water too to do it. And I was like, wait, so we're either using women or old, like diseased horses, those are the equivalents. Okay. Got it. Thanks. Um, and then I wondered how you get them off. And I found this funniest infographic, and it's like six steps of how to do it. And the funniest one was the third step, and it says, if you can stomach it, wait for the leech to finish its mill and detach naturally. And it shows a picture of a guy sitting in like a lawn chair and he's like reading a Kindle and he's like got his like leg like propped up. We'll have to post it, but his leg propped up and it's like the leech is doing its thing.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Was he reading Worthering Heights?

SPEAKER_00 26:41

Yeah, probably, but um bloodletting remained popular even as medical discoveries advanced, simply because the cure to so many diseases still remained unknown. So they as they like figured out anatomy and all that kind of stuff, and are figuring out what's causing these disease processes, they really didn't have a a solution for it per se. And so it was like, well, we've been bloodletting for a while, let's just do it again.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Let's give it a shot.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Um, and bloodletting was just popular and like a common remedy, and it said that like maybe it was just almost like a placebo effect, like right now where I'm always like, Oh, you're sick? Have you drink any water? Yeah, it's a placebo effect. Um, and you know, just like all the cool kids were doing it. Yeah, why not? Plus, it was just widely available everywhere, kind of like I said, there was like DIY, yeah. Um, whatever that would be the equivalent of now. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

I think it's still DIY, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Do it yourself. Do it yourself. Um, but it was just it was available, it wasn't something that was only available to rich people, it was available to everybody regardless of your socio and economic status. Right. So it was kind of like an open moment of like you get a lancet and you get a leech and you get a leech.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

So everybody gets a leab.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Um but bloodletting did kind of come to a a c a pause. I mean, it it slowed down a little bit, um but it's never really gone away. So it has decreased quite a bit, but it's never really gone away. And the worst part is I wanted these stories to end with thank goodness we evolved beyond that, but modern doctors were like, actually, we're gonna keep them leeches.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Yeah, keep them leeches.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

So leeches are used today in some smaller surgeries um because again, they use like a natural anesthetic, so it's pain-free attachment, um, and it releases that coagulant that not only pulls the blood into the area but also prevents clotting. As far as I can tell, it's mostly used in like plastic surgery or reattachment surgeries. So again, because it can like jumpstart circulation in that area.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

So they put it on the detached limb?

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Yeah, it was talking about like if your finger gets detached, um, and it's just such a small area, so they'll reattach and then they can just like put those leeches around in that small area and oh my gosh, that is so cool. Um, but it does sound like a good method for reducing complications for clotting because again, that's can be a big problem with you know those smaller like little surgeries. But the pro the biggest problem is just the ick factor. Like if your doctor was like, Hey, post-surgery, I'm sending you home with these cute little guys, throw them on. They're your little buddy, you'll be a now to get a little bit squirmy because I also saw this. I also read that maggots are still in use in some situations as well. So the process is called debreedment to clean necrotic or dying tissues. The maggots only eat the dead tissue, so if you dump a bunch of maggots on, you know, maybe you got like a game-green situation going on, they will just kind of take care of it for you and do it. So it's kind of like you know, those fish that eat your dead skin on your feet. Yeah, those are like the maggots of water.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

I um actually knew this because when I was in high school, I took a like a CSI class. Yeah. And we talked a lot about like decompetition, decomposition and like all of you know, because we it was a CSI class, you kind of have to learn about how bodies die. Yeah. Um, and we made this is this is gonna really gross you out. We made Christmas cards with maggots. So we took the little maggot and we dipped it in like toll paint and then we put it on the card, and they would like squiggle across the card. And my cute little grandma, I gave her one. I was like, Grandma made this at school. And she's like, That's really nice. Like, but it like you know, that just has like lines on it, like a little kid drew it. Uh-huh. And she was like, What, like, what is it? And I was like, Oh, those were maggots, and she was like, Oh, neat.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

Neat. I am gonna put this somewhere special. But you know what?

SPEAKER_01 30:43

She still displays it. Oh, she does. Oh, you have to get a picture. I want to see it. She has a little Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Oh, okay. That's just the only thing she puts up, and right next to it's the little maggot card that I made for her.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Gross.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Cool, huh?

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Yeah, that is fun though.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

We'd have like little maggot races.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

Maggots are just the like eggs of flies, right? Yeah. Okay. Ew, gross.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

That's sorry. That's what's so interesting too about people who study bugs and they like specifically from like the forensic side of things, is like they can determine sometimes like how long a body's been out there because of like the stage that the maggots in or the flies that are in the area. I think it's called an entomologist.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

That sounds right.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Yeah. So it's pretty fascinating. Listen, I'm a true crime girly at heart. I don't know. I there's too many true crime podcasts out there.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

I know it's good though. One day, it's pretty cool. Um, but it said online that using maggots is like far less traumatic than like surgically cutting all that crap out. So yeah. But great news. Great news. You ready? I'm ready. Maggots and leeches used in medical purpose for medical purposes are FDA approved. There is a way to do it. So that's good. At least you're getting some like standardization there, you know. Sure. Nothing says confidence like hearing your doctor say, Don't worry. These are FDA approved maggots. Shakesajar at you. Or a bag, I don't know what they come in. Um so I guess my only question for you is how would you feel about using medical leeches or even maggots after surgery? Would you do it? Sure.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

I mean Yeah. Why not? Listen, everybody's addicted to opioids, so Would you use both? Yeah, why not?

SPEAKER_00 32:31

I think I would draw the line at the maggots. Nah. Like I I think the leeches I don't know. The leeches seem like less terrible. I just can't imagine like a bunch of like creepy, crawly little wormies on me. Yeah. And also, what led me to the point where I needed maggots?

SPEAKER_01 32:51

Yeah, let's let's start there. I hope we never be in a situation like that, but I've heard some pretty yucky horror stories of people like in burn units and stuff having to get like that kind of stuff cleaned off, and it sounds like literal hell on earth. So if I can just have a couple creepy hollies on that skin, go for it.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

I think I'd have to be put out. I don't want to see it or feel it or know what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

No, I yeah, I would have to be like, I would have to be like on Jupiter.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Like, give me all of the And maybe if it's to that point you already are on Jupiter. I would hope so. You're already on Jupiter.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Yeah, the burn units are oh man, I bet it's awful. I can't even imagine experiencing something like that.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Anyways.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

But yeah, Maggot seems like the le the lesser of the evils.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

Yeah.

unknown 33:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Anyways, that's my episode. I don't really have an an end segment because I will sometimes have Chat Bestie help me like come up with a funny ending. And I asked for a funny ending, and it had a good idea of like medieval treatment or middle medieval torture, but um the examples it gave me were literally all of the things I already talked about. So it was like ask your co-host to decide whether um leeches were used in medical treatments in the medieval times. And I was like, bitch, I already told her they were.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01 34:11

Before this, though, you asked me about any weirdy diseases.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

Yeah, okay, that can be the final segment then. Yeah. What so did you come up with anything? I asked Ashley before we started recording. I was like, is there any weird medieval diseases or protocols or treatments or something that stick out in your brain?

SPEAKER_01 34:29

So I didn't I think we briefly talked about this. So so there's two different things. Um, one of them is something that I have. Okay. I thought you meant like actual diseases. So I have something that we can talk about that I personally have. Okay. Maggots, got it? Yeah. Just can. Um, I have maggots. Um I have them named. No. There's a lot. No, but um shit, where was I going with that? Oh, before when we were talking about barbers and barbers be barber surgeons. Surgeons, yeah, at some point. And like that's what, you know, like the cute little like things out front of their shops were. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

Is to indicate like what do they call those like candy poles? Barber poles. Yeah. Barber poles. Barber pole.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

But those, like a lot of those guys were actually just dentists that were like, Yeah, I'll take that out for you. Or, you know, barbers that would just like remove a tooth for you. Or yeah. Yeah. So we we talked about that briefly. I think that's really fascinating. It's gruesome. Some of I and like I said, I can't believe that we as a species have survived what we have.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

Cause like now, going to the doctor, the thing that horrifies me the most is the bill. Tell me you live in America without telling me. Yeah. No, but um, when you brought this up to me, I thought you were talking about like weird genetic things. Oh no, what is it? So you're not gonna believe me when I tell you this. But I have a condition called a chew.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

I don't I don't even care to know what this is.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

I really truly do have it. You're not gonna be like, No, it's called a chew.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Uh bless you. Shove that bitch back in. What?

SPEAKER_01 36:12

No, it I wrote I wrote some notes down.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Okay, tell me. So I don't believe you this is real, but go.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

It is real. It's it's called a chew syndrome.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

How do you spell that?

SPEAKER_01 36:21

A-C-H-O-O. Okay. Like literally Achu. Achu.

SPEAKER_00 36:25

Okay, go.

SPEAKER_01 36:25

It stands for autosomal dominant compelling helioophthalmic outburst syndrome. And it means that when I go out into the sun, and it's a gen it's a genetic condition. When I go out into the sun, I always sneeze.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Oh, you have told me that before.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

So that's funny. It's an involuntary inherited trait that causes people to sneeze when suddenly exposed to bright light. It affects roughly 18% to 35% of the population and is completely harmless. Oh. Though it can occasionally be startling or disruptive. So it is genetic. So my dad has it, and my grandfather had it, my late grandfather. Um and uh if you if and my and both of my children have it as well, which is crazy. Okay. So um it's been documented for centuries with the earliest theories recorded by Aristotle in 350 BC. Crazy, huh?

SPEAKER_00 37:26

So do you ever like you know how sometimes you'll be in a situation where you're like, if I could just sneeze right now, it'd feel really, really good. And so you'll just go outside.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

I usually look at the light.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Oh, and it just does it.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

And it it helps bring it. Okay. Yep. That's so weird.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

It's weird. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

It's really weird. Um, but yeah, my my my grandpa has it, or my grand my late grandfather, and then my dad, and then and now my my children have it as well. So um the common triggers are stepping outdoors into bright sunlight from a dimly lit room, driving out of a dark tunnel into the bright daylight, and having a sudden camera flash go off, or turning on like bright indoor lighting. So it has to be like a change of like dimmer lighting to brighter lighting, or like something like that that triggers it. Like if I'm in like a bright area and I go out, like it doesn't always happen.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Yeah, but like bright to bright.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

But I thought it was really funny that it's literally called a Chew syndrome.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

You know, it I actually really like that because I I mean that helps you remember what it is versus I have a genetic order 45 BC 70. Yeah, cool. I have no idea what that means.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

Do you have any weird genetic thingies? Problems?

SPEAKER_00 38:37

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Oh, gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

Well Okay, well, that's it. Okay. That was two brains, one bot. Go ahead and start it.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Remember to stay human, stay curious, and don't let the robots win.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

And don't let the robots chase you around.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

But mostly don't let them win.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

Bye. Bye.