Pica

You may have never heard of Pica before, but it is a psychological eating disorder that is on the rise. Acording to The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, from 1999 to 2009, hospitalizations for patients with an eating disorder called pica jumped a whopping 93 percent. 

What is Pica you ask? 

The DSM-IV-TR defines Pica as "An eating disorder typically defined as the persistent ingestion of nonnutritive substances for a period of at least 1 month at an age for which this behavior is developmentally inappropriate (eg, > 18-24 months.)

What do people with Pica eat?

The most common cases of Pica are diagnosed in children, with the food of choice being paint, hair, and cloth. Some common things ingested by young adults and adolescents with Pica are cigarette butts, animal feces, clay, leaves, and sand. In some cases a mineral inefficiency is diagnosed alongside Pica, but no causal cases have been confirmed.  

Here's where it gets weird.

As you may have already realized, humans cannot digest many of the things on that list. Check out these extreme cases of Pica in adults:

This photo shows the contents of a person who underwent surgery to remove the contents of their stomach due to Pica. 

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

That's right- you're looking at nails, pebbles, metal bits and pieces, and keys. All emptied from someone's stomach.

You may have seen the TLC show "My Strange Addiction" There are numerous cases of people with Pica on this show. Pica is often accompanied by a condition called Trichotillomania (hair pulling.) You can see a video of an extreme case below from "My Strange Addiction."

Video Credit: YouTube

 "People with trich often have other repetitive bodily focused behavior," he said. "In addition to pulling their hair, they also chew on their nails or the inside of their cheek." Said Dr. Darin Dougherty, a psychiatrist and co-director of the Trichotillomania Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Adele Edwards, also featured on "My Strange Addiction," eats couch cushions and throw pillows on a daily basis. "I unzip the cushions and snack on the foam inside," Edwards. 31, told Britain's Daily Mail newspaper. "And once I start I just can't stop. But now doctors have told me that if I carry on, my addiction will kill me."

This photo is of a man who ingested around 350 coins, needles, and necklaces.

Photo Credit: http://tovet.blogspot.com/

The weight of all this metal was 12 pounds- that's as big as some bowling balls! He was admitted in 2002 for gastrointestinal problems, and died 12 days after surgery to remove the metal due to complications. 

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Although Pica is rare, it is a serious mental condition which can lead to hospitalization and in extreme cases, death. If you suspect that you or anyone you know has Pica, please get help immediately. 

Infant Instincts

Compared to any other animal, humans have it pretty bad when it comes to surviving as an infant. While most other mammals are able to run from predators and hunt for food shortly after birth, we humans have to wait at least 8 months to be able to take our first step, and even as adults some of us can't feed ourselves. Even though we seem pretty helpless, all infants have plenty of survival instincts that might surprise you. 

1. Sucking

The very action of sucking is a survival instinct. We are geared to breastfeed from the get-go, and quite often babies are given pacifiers to suck on as a comforting device because the urge to suckle is so strong that the baby will do the action even after they have been fed. Babies will also suck on their fingers and just about anything else to pacify the this need, and sometimes this habit continues after the child has been introduced to solid foods. 

2. Grasp

 

If you put your finger in a baby's palm, they will grasp your finger tightly. Some researchers say that this is a leftover instinct from our ape days of holding on to our mother's hair while maneuvering through trees. Often, a babies grasp is strong enough to briefly hold their own weight.

3. Floating in water

Yup, if a baby falls in water they will instinctively flip on their back and float. PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. Obviously, children can still drown even with these reflexes. According babycenter.com, it is a combination of two reflexes that keep infants from drowning. The "Dive Reflex" is what makes the child hold their breath and open their eyes when submerged, and the "Swimming Reflex" causes the baby to make swimming motions and flip on their back to float. Obviously, you should never try this at home. However, if you are interested in learning more, please visit this website. 

4. Stepping

If held upright, a newborn will make stepping motions when their foot touches a surface. You can see it in a video here. Of course the baby's head is too large for it to be able to walk upright, not to mention the lack of motor skills and muscle power, but its cute to watch them try!  The reflex disappears around four months of age and does not help the baby to learn to walk.

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Weird things I can tell about you just by looking at your body

I'm about to give you some new criteria for your next date. Thank me later. 

1) Checking out his ring finger could be your next cheesy pick up line

Thanks to what's called "The Casanova Pattern." If his ring finger is longer than his index finger, then he was exposed to more testosterone in the womb. Double brownie points if he's a stock trader- in a study done by Cambridge University, male stock traders with longer ring fingers made up to 11 times more than their colleagues. Cha-ching!


2) Ears are for more than just nibblin' on

A Swedish study on more than 520 autopsies found that having a crease on your earlobe had a "positive predictive value" of 68% for coronary disease. If he doesn't have a crease, it doesn't mean that he won't get the disease, but if he does, there's a pretty darn good chance he will.


3) "The Toe"

Shallow Hal may have been wrong. Although having a longer second toe has absolutely no proven implications upon a person's personality, the trait (called Morton's Toe) has long been thought to indicate leadership qualities. It was even idealized by the Greeks, and featured in many of their statues. You may have a problem showing your Morton, but Lady Liberty's got no qualms wearing a thong. (The shoe type)


4) Not just another "Purty Mouth"

Ever realized that you're just staring at someones lips? The philtrum is the divot above your upper lip which creates your "Cupid's Bow." It is a pointless (pun intended) trait that we share with other animals (go check out your dog or cat's nose.) However, according to a study from the University of the West of Scotland, women with a pronounced Bow are 12 times more likely to orgasm during intercourse. I know you were already thinking about that while you were staring.


Now go out and find our biologically perfect soul mate!

Laughing

Why do we laugh?

Why are humans compelled to yell out spastically when we hear a punch line or see someone fall? You've all seen countess hours of laughing baby footage and undoubtedly have laughed along with those chubby wubby cheeks. 

Looks like evolution is to blame for one of our most odd and definitely human characteristics. The area of the brain that controls laughter is our Subcortex, one of the most ancient regions of our brain. This region is also in charge of making you breathe involuntarily throughout the day and has little ability to control those actions, which may explain why my little brother used to pass out when we held him down and tickled him.

But that still doesn't answer why we laugh. Even deaf people who have never heard another person laugh makes the same noises. Turns out that laughing is actually a form of communication. Just look at how contagious laughter is. You can say almost anything with a laugh, you can show someone you like them, you can laugh at them and humiliate them, you can even use it to punctuate a conversation. I use it to show someone that I'm listening to what they're saying, when I'm really just thinking about what I would really do if I saw Ryan Gosling in public.

Laugh a fundamental part of being human, we laugh because someone makes us, we laugh to be accepted socially, and we laugh because it is ingrained deep in our ancestral instincts.