The pressure in the esophagus (the tube connecting the mouth and stomach) can become abnormally very high. Because of this high pressure an analogy was drawn between the esophageal pressure and the pressure generated by a nutcracker giving the term – nutcracker esophagus: R Fass, R Dickman. Nutcracker Esophagus-A Nut Hard to Swallow. Journal of […]
Tag: Food
Your eyes look like sunflowers (or: careful with copper)
Chromium, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium and zinc sound like the components of a sophisticated machine – indeed there are, when you consider that the human body is a machine. Below is an account of how one of these components can make parts of a person resemble a sunflower: Copper in small quantities is essential […]
Celery and viruses
Animated and pictured here for illustrative purposes (courtesy of my improbable colleague) is the rubella virus. This virus is ‘closely related’ to the vegetable celery by virtue of the clinical picture it produces. On X-ray images of the long bones (e.g. thigh bone and shin bone) – in virus affected individuals – the bone has […]
When babies smell like food
Babies can smell like maple syrup, ripe cheese or even fish, rancid butter and several other things: Fleisher GR, Ludwig S (eds). Textbook of Pediatric Emergency Medicine. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 6th edition, page 405, 2010 These babies and others that smell like food may have a serious inborn error of metabolism. BONUS: For the hardcore