Do as the Romans do

Sandals

I was just thinking about, the Roman tradition of vomiting after a large feast, and then setting back into their food again.
Yet in modern times this is considered terrible for your health and a social faux pas, my question, is it really that bad to force yourself to vomit once a month after you eat too much or drink too much alcohol?

Squirrel

Sandals wrote:

I was just thinking about, the Roman tradition of vomiting after a large feast, and then setting back into their food again.
Yet in modern times this is considered terrible for your health and a social faux pas, my question, is it really that bad to force yourself to vomit once a month after you eat too much or drink too much alcohol?

The stomach acid coming up can't be good for your throat, so doubtful

whiskeyman

Sandals wrote:

I was just thinking about, the Roman tradition of vomiting after a large feast, and then setting back into their food again.
Yet in modern times this is considered terrible for your health and a social faux pas, my question, is it really that bad to force yourself to vomit once a month after you eat too much or drink too much alcohol?

Just avoid the need by not eating too much or drinking too much.
Both of those will cause you harm anyway...

Bizarre post tbh... havent lots of your weird polls and threads been locked??

jptk

its really bad for your teeth too. Acid damages enamel or something. out of curiousity, are you into this sort of thing?

nesf

Sandals wrote:

Yet in modern times this is considered terrible for your health and a social faux pas, my question, is it really that bad to force yourself to vomit once a month after you eat too much or drink too much alcohol?

In short yes, yes it is.

Either way, this should be in medicine/biology....

Moved from AH.

John

Vomitting is a strain on the system. Next time you vomit look at your bottom eyelids and see the little red marks that come up from the little blood vessels that burst. Do you really want to be doing this more than you have to?

Capt'n Midnight

Don't forget that the romans consumed large amounts of lead acetate, [ a white crystalline substance with a sweetish taste. Like other lead compounds, it is very poisonous. ] so they were a bit loopy.

Pitseleh

Your stomach acid is fairly strong hydrochloric acid (as strong as 1.0M?) which would destroy your teeth as well as your throat and all that as it's pretty corrosive.

Victor

Hasn't there been some link to stomach acid and throat cancer?

geraghd

I dont know.. has there?
But yes vomiting is not a natural reaction and considering stomach acid has the lowest pH in the body, the effects on your throat and mouth wouldnt be positive.
But Im sure there is a link to cancer anyways. Most things are linked to cancer.
There is just no stopping it... no stopping it at all... :eek:

Panserborn

geraghd wrote:

There is just no stopping it... no stopping it at all... :eek:

Give us time, we're looking into that. The thing about cancer, its not just one disease, its a whole lot of quite different diseases that share one thing - cells growing like apesh1t.

Far as I know, stomach acid is linked to throat cancer but only after years of exposure, like if you have a stomach disorder that keeps coughing the stuff up. On saying that, making yourself blow chunks every now and again is never good - unless you have a habit of eating poison every now and again but if thats the case you have a much bigger problem!

geraghd

Panserborn wrote:

Give us time, we're looking into that. The thing about cancer, its not just one disease, its a whole lot of quite different diseases that share one thing - cells growing like apesh1t.

Far as I know, stomach acid is linked to throat cancer but only after years of exposure, like if you have a stomach disorder that keeps coughing the stuff up. On saying that, making yourself blow chunks every now and again is never good - unless you have a habit of eating poison every now and again but if thats the case you have a much bigger problem!

Who's we? And Id would hypothesise that the link with stomach acid probably has something to do with the acid wearing down the natural defences of the body along the lining of the throat and either lessening the ability of the immune system to kill potentially cancerous cells or lessening the ability to fight microbial infections which could help trigger cancer..

Panserborn

geraghd wrote:

Who's we?

"We" are cancer researchers. Our lab is part of the Genome Stability Research Cluster at NUIG, we research chemotherapies and try to sensitise cells to currently used drugs.

geraghd

Oh really?! Wheres that exactly cause im doing the HDip in Microbiology in NUIG. Could never put up with research im afraid..

Panserborn

Its in the Biochemistry department with collaborations with the NCBES.

A friend of mine done the Micro H.Dip last year, got a good job in Abbott out of it! Good course.

geraghd

Yeah its a great course to do (so far anyways) and apparently 100% employment. But I have serious somewhat unfounded reservations about Abbott!.. And its not the fact that its in Sligo or Longford, which actually can be a considerable benefit..

DrIndy

haven't heard of the link between vomiting and throat cancer, people don't vomit continually though in general and we do our best to prevent that from happening. There is however a link between reflux of acid (heartburn) and oesophageal cancer (foodpipe).

Vomiting is a natural reaction to any noxious stimulant, be it smell, taste or what it does to the inside of your stomach (alcohol) to remove the offending product. Emotion plays a part too and so reassurance can help someone who is feeling sick (to a certain extent).

Victor

DrIndy wrote:

haven't heard of the link between vomiting and throat cancer, people don't vomit continually though in general and we do our best to prevent that from happening. There is however a link between reflux of acid (heartburn) and oesophageal cancer (foodpipe).

I said stomach acid, not vomiting as such. I thinkt he particular piece I saw was to do with people drinking excessive amounts of fizzy drinks and then belching.

DrIndy

Victor wrote:

I said stomach acid, not vomiting as such. I thinkt he particular piece I saw was to do with people drinking excessive amounts of fizzy drinks and then belching.

I find the link tenuous. I need proof as I cannot think of any mechanism for this to occur.

Every now and then there is a statistical anomaly that occurs by chance in research and people jump on it and draw vast conclusions from this.

Capt'n Midnight

Do as the Romans do ?

http://www.beautyriot.com/article.php?id=2102&c_id=9

As fowl as that sounds, it’s nothing compared to how gross the Romans’ toothpaste was. It was made from human urine! First-century Roman doctors believed that urine whitened teeth and also kept them firmly in place. Yuk!

geraghd

DrIndy wrote:

I find the link tenuous. I need proof as I cannot think of any mechanism for this to occur.

Every now and then there is a statistical anomaly that occurs by chance in research and people jump on it and draw vast conclusions from this.

That would be scandalous. But did you know that the rise in the use of telephones directly coincided with a rise in psychiatric patients!! :eek:

John

I've another one. There was a guy called Dr Bruce Ames noticed that the decrease in the birth rate correlated perfectly with the decrease in the stork population.

Capt'n Midnight

John2 wrote:

I've another one. There was a guy called Dr Bruce Ames noticed that the decrease in the birth rate correlated perfectly with the decrease in the stork population.

That's about as likely as the increase in lung cancer that matched the rise in TV aerials back in the 60's.

John

I love correlations!

DriftingRain

As fowl as that sounds, it’s nothing compared to how gross the Romans’ toothpaste was. It was made from human urine! First-century Roman doctors believed that urine whitened teeth and also kept them firmly in place. Yuk!

CHRIST!!!
That takes the cake! NASTY
Leave it to you Capt'n to find that nice bit of info for us!
~DR~