Today I sawed a human head in half with a handsaw. So there's that...
TIL: The Eustachian tube (aka the pharyngotympanic tube or auditory tube) connects the middle ear to the pharynx (top of the throat). This canal is what allows you to pop your ears after a change in air pressure that you might experience at the bottom of a pool or flying in an airplane.
There is a muscle in the ear called the tensor tympani that is like a dampening pedal for your eardrum. It tenses when you hear an extremely loud noise, restricting the movement of the tympanic membrane (eardrum) and dulling the sound.
If you plug your ears in a quiet room, you can actually hear your own internal carotid artery which runs through the skull very near the structures of the internal ear.
Tilting your head back when you have a bloody nose does nothing (besides make you swallow blood). Pinching the nose, however, may be helpful depending on the location of the bleed.
If a kid (or really clumsy adult) trips while drinking out of a straw, they can puncture the back of their throat. This is not primarily dangerous and should heal just fine. The problem is that the retropharyngeal space that was punctured by the straw is continuous all the way to the posterior mediastinum (space immediately behind the heart). If an infection develops, it will quickly progress from a simple deep throat infection to pericarditis (an infection of the sac surrounding the heart), which can be deadly.
No comments:
Post a Comment