MAY WE RECOMMEND--
Unexpected Adventures With the Digestive System

items worth a trip to the library

by Stephen Drew, AIR staff

Eating can have interesting consequences, as documented here.

Wits and Worms

"’Stupidity or Worms’: Do Intestinal Worms Impair Mental Performance?" W.E. Watkins and E. Pollitt, Psychological Bulletin, vol. 121, no. 2, March 1997, pp. 171-91. The paper summarizes itself thusly:

[T]he authors present the historical background to the problem.... They discuss the mechanisms of how worms might affect the mind.

The Cost of Cold

"Popsicle Panniculitis of the Cheeks. A Diagnostic Entity Caused by Sucking on Cold Objects," Rajkumar SV, T.A. Laude, R.M. Russo, and V.J. Gururaj, Clinical Pediatrics, vol. 15, no. 7, July 1976, pp. 619-21.

The Cost of Gold

"Goldschlager Allergy in a Gold Allergic Patient," T. Guenthner, C.M. Stork, and R.M. Cantor, Veterinary and Human Toxicology, vol. 41, no. 4, August 1999, p. 246. (Thanks to Joanne Burger for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, who are at SUNY Syracuse, explain:

We describe the case of gold allergy after ingestion of GOLDSCHLAGER, a gold-containing liquor, in a patient with a previous allergy to gold jewelry. The patient was not aware that genuine gold particles were contained in the schnapps liquor and that ingestion could result in a reaction similar to that experienced by individuals sensitive to gold jewelry. Clinicians should be familiar with the presence of gold particles in GOLDSCHLAGER liquor and the potential for allergic reactions to occur in those so predisposed.

© Copyright 2001 Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

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