If you've eaten something poisonous,
throwing up can be a lifesaver. And we humans eject the contents
of our stomachs pretty frequently, but most of us haven't inadvertently
poisoned ourselves; instead, we have the flu, or we’re pregnant, or carsick, or stricken
with stage fright. Why do we vomit so much? Welcome to MinuteEar… – whoa! – ok never mind.
Moving on. In the back of humans’ brains, we have what’s basically a vomit control center whose
sole job it is to try to figure out whether we’ve ingested something that we should, well, uningest.
That vomit control center uses a few different streams of information to make its decision –
but none of those sources are perfectly reliable. The first source of vomit-decision info comes
from the blood; the idea is that if you’ve eaten or drunk something toxic, nasty stuff will quickly
diffuse from your stomach into your bloodstream. So specialized cells in the vomit center are
constantly sampling nearby capillaries; if they detect high levels of toxins or pathogens in your
blood, the vomit center will initiate an effort to rid you of the poison.
But there are lots of ways
into your bloodstream, so things like chemotherapy medicine and certain viruses can end up in your
blood without ever going into your stomach; in those cases, you might end up vomiting even though
that doesn’t do anything to eliminate the problem. Your vomit control center also monitors your
nausea level. When you’re in a situation that might be dangerous – like if you’re eating
something that doesn’t smell quite right, or munching on magic mushrooms – your nervous
system sends out waves of nausea. Usually, that’s uncomfortable enough to make you stop doing
the risky thing, though if your nausea level gets high enough, your vomit control center will
purge your stomach contents to undo any damage. But there are all sorts of non-food-related
situations that your body senses as maybe risky, like driving on a windy mountain road,
or getting ready to give a presentation, which can also induce nausea – and
therefore a vomiting spell as well. The final source of info your vomit control center
uses is the state of your stomach. A nerve that directly connects your gut to your brain sends
information about how full your stomach is; if you've eaten way too much or have some
weird blockage, your stomach sends an alarm signal and your vomit control center tries to
relieve that pressure by vomiting and to save your digestive system from permanent damage.
But
the hormones produced by newly-pregnant people can sometimes hijack that nerve, causing it to
send out messages that the stomach is too full, no matter how much is actually in the stomach.
The vomit control center smashes that puke button anyway – and because the pregnancy
hormones aren't from food and so are still there after vomiting – it often does it
over and over and over and over again.
Perhaps we should be glad our vomit control
centers have a safety-first attitude – after all, it probably helped save our ancestors from
extinction. But in the modern world we’re confronting our bodies and brains with all
sorts of new experiences that they're not all that well-prepared for. As a result,
our vomit centers are going to be seeing more action than ever. Welcome to the
future. Bring your barf ba-aaugross. This video was sponsored by Fabulous, the
self-care app that helps you achieve your goals. Just thinking about making life changes can be
enough to make you nauseous; every year 80% of New Year’s resolutions get abandoned in just the first
2 months.
But the Fabulous app uses proven methods from behavioral science research to teach you how
to make long-lasting changes to your daily routine – and provides coaching to guide you along the
way. I use Fabulous to improve my sleep schedule, which got pretty shaky over the last year or so.
In addition to little steps to get started – no social media before bed for 3 nights this week –
it also shows me the roadmap I’m going to follow all the way to my goal – and even gives me short
challenges to keep me going along the way. If you want to develop better habits, you can download
the app using the link in the description box. The first 100 people who click on the link will get
25% OFF a Fabulous subscription. Thanks, Fabulous..
