"This is going to require a serpentectomy."
November 7, 2008 3:27 PM Subscribe
Is the x-ray the doctors are looking at in this advertisement fake? It looks like someone with a snake lodged in their pelvis. I can't imagine what it could be if it was real.
Best answer: Well, here's a pretty similar picture of an x-ray with a barium contrast agent, from the American Society of Radiologic Technologists.
posted by CKmtl at 3:37 PM on November 7, 2008
posted by CKmtl at 3:37 PM on November 7, 2008
Best answer: Looks like real innards to me. They just filled the guy with baruim sulfate to emphasize his large intestine.
posted by Ookseer at 3:40 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by Ookseer at 3:40 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]
Best answer: My guess is that it was infused as an enema.
posted by Class Goat at 3:49 PM on November 7, 2008
posted by Class Goat at 3:49 PM on November 7, 2008
Its definitely intestines (it even says so in the text next to it), that doesn't mean the x-ray is real but its at least somewhat medically accurate
posted by missmagenta at 3:50 PM on November 7, 2008
posted by missmagenta at 3:50 PM on November 7, 2008
Yes, the intestines.
Quick aside - wow, did people really do this? Eating fresh yeast (three cakes of it, to boot!) seems like a terrible idea - I don't know the actual science, but it seems like at the least it would eat up sugars and nutrients.
posted by peachfuzz at 3:53 PM on November 7, 2008
Quick aside - wow, did people really do this? Eating fresh yeast (three cakes of it, to boot!) seems like a terrible idea - I don't know the actual science, but it seems like at the least it would eat up sugars and nutrients.
posted by peachfuzz at 3:53 PM on November 7, 2008
Response by poster: Oh, okay. I didn't realize that barium could make such a dramatic difference; thanks, I learned something today.
Yeah, I noticed that. Seems like it might have the effect of a pigeon eating an alka-seltzer, right? Though it occurred to me, nowadays people take acidophilus culture capsules as a health supplement, but certainly not in such large quantities.
posted by XMLicious at 4:18 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]
Quick aside - wow, did people really do this? Eating fresh yeast (three cakes of it, to boot!) seems like a terrible idea - I don't know the actual science, but it seems like at the least it would eat up sugars and nutrients.
Yeah, I noticed that. Seems like it might have the effect of a pigeon eating an alka-seltzer, right? Though it occurred to me, nowadays people take acidophilus culture capsules as a health supplement, but certainly not in such large quantities.
posted by XMLicious at 4:18 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]
Yep that looks like a colon
Uncle Bungle, now deceased,
ate a cake of Baker's yeast,
then with an odd gleam in his eye
consumed a large shoe-polish pie.
His dinner done, it's sad to say,
that Uncle Bungle passed away.
Uncle Bungle, now deceased,
still shines and rises in the east.
Jack Prelutsky
posted by Megafly at 5:28 PM on November 7, 2008 [4 favorites]
Uncle Bungle, now deceased,
ate a cake of Baker's yeast,
then with an odd gleam in his eye
consumed a large shoe-polish pie.
His dinner done, it's sad to say,
that Uncle Bungle passed away.
Uncle Bungle, now deceased,
still shines and rises in the east.
Jack Prelutsky
posted by Megafly at 5:28 PM on November 7, 2008 [4 favorites]
Well, here's a pretty similar picture of an x-ray with a barium contrast agent, from the American Society of Radiologic Technologists.
When I was in the hospital they did a video xray with barium and it looked a lot like that. There's nothing like seeing your innards in real time on television. It really does look like that.
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:48 PM on November 7, 2008
When I was in the hospital they did a video xray with barium and it looked a lot like that. There's nothing like seeing your innards in real time on television. It really does look like that.
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:48 PM on November 7, 2008
Is there a big market for intestine modeling? Seems like quite a career.
posted by Gungho at 7:35 PM on November 7, 2008
posted by Gungho at 7:35 PM on November 7, 2008
Eating fresh yeast (three cakes of it, to boot!) seems like a terrible idea - I don't know the actual science, but it seems like at the least it would eat up sugars and nutrients.
It probably would if it wasn't busy being digested.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 8:32 PM on November 7, 2008
It probably would if it wasn't busy being digested.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 8:32 PM on November 7, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by muddgirl at 3:33 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]