How Does Aspirin Find a Headache? (13 page)
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Authors: David Feldman
Why
Do Many Elderly People, Especially Those Missing Teeth, Constantly Display a Chewing Motion?
Dr. John Rutkauskas, of the American Society for Geriatric Dentistry, consulted with two of his geriatric dentistry colleagues, Dr. Saul Kamen and Dr. Barry Ceridan, and told
Imponderables
that this chewing motion is found almost exclusively in people who have lost teeth. On rare occasions, certain tranquilizers or antidepressants (in the phenothiazine family) may cause a side effect called tardive dyskinesia, an inability to control what are ordinarily voluntary movements. These movements are as likely to involve the nose as the mouth or jaws, though.
In most cases, Rutkauskas believes that the chewing motion is a neuromuscular response to the lack of teeth: an attempt by the oral cavity to achieve some form of equilibrium. In particular, these sufferers can’t position their upper and lower jaws properly. With a full set of ivories, the teeth act as a stop to keep the jaws in place.
Of course, most people who lose teeth attempt to remedy the problem by wearing dentures. And most people adapt well. But Ike House, a Louisiana dentist and
Imponderables
reader (we’re sure he is prouder of the first qualification), told us that a significant number of elderly people have lost the ability to wear dentures at all because of an excessive loss of bone:
They can close their mouth much fuller than they would with teeth present, resulting in the “nose touching skin” appearance of many elderly folks. Since the normal “rest position” of about 2-3 mm between the upper and lower natural or artificial teeth is not able to be referenced, they may be constantly searching for this position.
Many elderly people who wear dentures feel that the prostheses just don’t feel normal. And restlessness leads to “chewing in the air,” as House amplifies:
If you had two objects in your hands, such as two pecans or two coins, you would probably manipulate them in some way. When not using a pen or pencil, for example, but holding it passively, we usually move it in our hand. It may be that folks wearing dentures constantly manipulate them in some way just because objects being held but not used are often moved by unconscious habit.
I have a great-uncle who lets his upper teeth fall down between words and pushes them back up against his palate. This is a most disconcerting habit to his family! I know some elderly patients cannot tolerate dentures in their mouths unless they are eating because they can’t leave them alone.
Barnet B. Orenstein, an associate clinical professor of dentistry at New York University’s College of Dentistry, told
Imponderables
that the tongue is often the culprit in creating the chewing motion:
Elderly people often display a constant chewing motion because, having lost their lower teeth, their tongue is no longer confined to the space within the dental arch. The tongue spreads out and actually increases in size. What appears to be a chewing motion is actually a subconscious effort to find a place for the tongue.
The last time we were at the
Imponderables
staff’s official dentist, Phil Klein, of Brooklyn Heights, we asked him to wrestle with this mystery while he mauled our molars (and we pondered whether we could deduct the office visit from our income tax as a research as well as medical expense). Much to our relief, Dr. Klein concurred with the theories stated above but raised the possibility of a few others, including rare neurological conditions and grinding of teeth to the point where the lower and upper jaws can’t mesh comfortably.
Klein also mentioned that problems with salivation, and particularly dryness, is a constant problem for numerous elderly people, and many with this problem move their mouth and jaw in response to this dryness.
And then he told us we had no cavities.
Submitted by Dennis Kingsley of Goodrich, Michigan
.
Note to IRS: We deducted our trip to Dr. Klein as a medical expense
.
All of the entomologists we contacted were sure about this Imponderable. Butterflies and other insects don’t sneeze or cough. It’s particularly difficult for them to sneeze, as they don’t possess true noses.
So then how do insects breathe? Leslie Saul, Insect Zoo director at the San Francisco Zoo, explains:
Butterflies and other insects breathe through holes in the sides of their bodies called spiracles. Spiracles are provided with valvelike devices that keep out dust and water. Some insects, such as some flies, june beetles, lubber grasshoppers, and notably the Madagascar hissing cockroaches, make sounds for communication purposes by forcing air out through the spiracles. Hence they hiss.
Karen Yoder, certification manager of the Entomological Society of America, concurs with Saul and adds that it isn’t possible to hear insects breathing with the naked ear, either:
In my days of insect appreciation, I have never heard the expiration of air from an insect…. Certainly, it could be possible to hear the transpiration in insects with the aid of an amplifier, but not with the naked ear.
But one needn’t be wearing a stethoscope to hear the aforementioned hissing cockroach, better known to entomologists as
Gromphadorhina portentosa
. Our trusted informant, Randy Morgan, head keeper at Cincinnati’s Insectarium, wrote an article for
Backyard Bugwatching
, a favorite magazine of our family’s to pass around at barbecues, in which he chronicles the decibel-producing potential of these two-to three-inch cockroaches.
The Madagascar hissing cockroaches produce the hiss by contracting their abdomens and pushing the air out of constricted spiracles: The noise can be heard from several feet away. Whereas most cockroaches deter predators by running away, flying away, or producing unpleasant secretions, not so the
Gromphadorhina portentosa
: “Their secretive nature and ability to hiss seem to be their primary defense against enemies.” Morgan cites an example of a lemur, eager to dine on our poor cockroach. But the hiss convinces the lemur it might have a rattlesnake or other dangerous critter on its hands: “In the leaves, a hissing cockroach continued feeding, unaware it had just narrowly escaped being eaten.” Even if the cockroach wasn’t aware of its near demise, the lemur’s flight wasn’t a coincidence. The hiss is a voluntary reflex, generally used only when a cockroach is in danger from predators or competing for mates.
Submitted by Marti Miller of Flagstaff, Arizona. Thanks also to Russell Shaw of Marietta, Georgia
.
That liquidy stuff is whey, the very stuff that Little Miss Muffet ate on a tuffet. When the bacteria that forms yogurt grows sufficiently, the milk coagulates. The proteins squeeze together and form curds, pushing out the watery whey.
Whey may be watery, but it isn’t water. Whey contains sugar, minerals, some protein, and lactose. Don’t waste it. Mix it back in with the rest of the yogurt. You’ll be a better person (nutritionally, anyway) for it.
Submitted by Emanuel Kelmenson of Jericho, New York
.
Why
Do Most Yogurts Come with the Fruit on the Bottom? Why Not on the Top? Or Prestirred?
We had no idea that this topic so consumed yogurt lovers. But our dairy consultants indicated that yogurt lovers have strong feelings about where to put the fruit in their yogurt containers. Dairy expert Bruce Snow told us that there is no difference in the contents of fruit-on-the-bottom yogurts versus prestirred varieties, but added:
Many people like the idea of stirring the cup and doing their own mixing. Some claim that they like to see just how much fruit is really in the cup! Other people couldn’t be bothered and much prefer to have the premixed product.
But if you notice, almost everyone stirs even the premixed yogurt to some extent. As the French say, “
Chacun à son goût!
”
Kent Sorrells, director of research and development at California dairy giant Altadena, marvels at the variety of preferences of yogurt eaters. Some prefer the prestirred varieties because they tend to have a slightly softer consistency. Others feel cheated if they can’t stir the yogurt themselves. And some yogurtphiles, Sorrell notices, like to keep the fruit on the bottom, dipping in when desired. They alternate spoonfuls of pure yogurt with doses of fruit and yogurt, not unlike those of us who pick apart Oreos like biology students dissecting butterflies or who eat all the cake before devouring the frosting.
But not everyone eats yogurt straight out of the cup, Sorrell reminds us. Many folks like to eat yogurt out of a bowl. They tip the container upside-down into a bowl, and end up with what looks like a fruit sundae, with the topping where Nature intended it to be—on top.
Why don’t yogurt makers try putting fruit on the top? The heavy fruit would sink anyway, and unevenly at that.
Submitted by Darcy Gordon of Los Altos, California
.
Robert Schmidt, of the North American Native Fishes Association, answers the first part of this Imponderable succinctly:
You have to provide oxygen to any tank that has more fish (thus higher oxygen demand) than the plants and algae in that atmosphere can supply.
Most natural bodies of water are replete with oxygen-producing plants—by comparison, the plant life in a home tank is like a sprig of parsley next to a piece of halibut in a restaurant.
Oceans tend to have a richer and more abundant plant life than freshwater environments, but the absence of sufficient flora is not the only reason why saltwater aquaria require oxygen tanks, as Dr. Robert Rofen, of the Aquatic Research Institute, explains:
Salt water tanks need more aeration than fresh water aquaria to keep their inhabitants alive because the oxygen level is lower in salt water. With the added salt molecules present, there is less room around the H
2
O molecules for oxygen O
2
molecules to be present. Salt water absorbs less O
2
than does fresh water.
Submitted by Rudy, a caller on the Lee Fowler radio show, West Palm Beach, Florida
.
What
Happens to Criminals’ Firearms Confiscated by Police During Arrests?
Somehow, we doubted that the police give criminals a claim check for their unlicensed Saturday night specials. The image of a hardened convict, just released from a federal penitentiary after ten years of hard time for armed robbery, being issued a new suit, twenty dollars, and his old, trusty semiautomatic didn’t ring true.
So we conducted a survey of about ten police departments all over the United States to find out how the authorities contend with newfound criminal firearms. We discovered quickly that policies about confiscated guns are up to each jurisdiction and that their strategies vary wildly.
The first priority of all police departments is to hold firearms in case they will be needed as evidence in a trial. Corporal Joseph McQue, of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Public Affairs Office, told
Imponderables
that guns are first taken to the ballistics unit, where they are checked for fireability. In order to prosecute someone under the Uniform Firearm Act, the weapon must be fireable. (Toting a nonfireable weapon may also be a lesser offense.)