Can Men Lactate?

We were at working a cafe and some asks one of the lads if he has any milk. Meaning in his jug on his side of the counter, but then another lad pipes up that men can actually produce milk if they rub their nipples long enough.  (Yes, I know the boy’s a weirdo and we teased him appropriately!)

 

So I investigated, at http://www.babycenter.com/404_can-men-breastfeed_8824.bc they say, “Yes, in theory, men can breastfeed. Male breasts have milk ducts, and some mammary tissue. They also have oxytocin and prolactin, the hormones responsible for milk production. There have been reports of men who were able to produce milk through extensive breast and nipple stimulation, but no one knows whether the milk was of the same composition or quality as the kind women produce.”

 

But, generally all the others say that yes they can produce milk as the equipment is there but it requires a hormonal stimulus too produce the prolactin. For example one treatment for prostate cancer is too give men female hormones, which can cause lactation.

 

 

At http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-males-can-lactate they have the example of “In the 1896 compendium Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, George Gould and Walter Pyle catalogue several instances of male nursing being observed. Among them was a South American man, observed by Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who subbed as wet nurse after his wife fell ill” which would suggest that these hormonal changes can happen in a natural setting.

 

In nature there is only one example of a male mammal that produces milk as a normal thing and the animal is the Dayak fruit bat native to south East Asia.

So, men can lactate. But, most scientists say it is caused by hormonal changes rather than physical stimulation. Unfortunately, being a lady I can’t conduct a personal experiment but if you decide to try can you let me know the result?

 

 

 

 

How To Make The Perfect Cup Of Tea

This is a central issue affecting the world today and it appears that everybody has their own opinion on the matter. My Boss and father agree it should be made in a pot and allowed to stew, (whoops I meant brew) until a really dark colour. While this is happening, you should put your milk and sugar in the cup ready. Where they differ is that my father goes for half tea and half milk and my boss goes for an 80% tea ratio.  

Personally, after student life, I’m a teabag in the mug type of girl. Sugar and teabag first, add boiling water while stirring then add the milk. Which is backed up by George Orwell “add milk to the tea, not vice versa” in his 11 rules for perfect tea (these can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3016342.stm).

The internet is littered with websites on the matter including http://www.tea.co.uk/index.php?pgId=11 the website of the UK tea council, who say that four cups of tea are required for a balanced diet. I agree, that sounds like a marvellous plan!

http://www.englishteastore.com/howtomaketea.html claim that the best way to make tea “is to use an electric kettle to boil the water… An electric kettle is found in almost every home in Europe for this reason.” I’ll leave that statement to stand for itself, I think.

Another key issue in brew making is who’s going to do it, so Cravendale have created a handy brew randomiser to pick who the poor sap is, http://www.makethetea.com/ .

Generally, all the sites conclude that tea is best made in a pot with fresh boiling water, so you get the most oxygen into your tea. I however, can’t help feeling this is all a bit too far and will continue to brew in the mug. Perhaps that makes me a heathen, but at least I’m full of anti-intoxicants!

What can you catch from public toilets?

“A cold shiver runs up your spine and a small knot tugs in the depth of your belly!
Your eyes scan the dirty messy toilet seat! Your imagination runs rife, knowing what is lurking there. The acrid odour fills your nostrils. You know this unsavory smell means germs and bacteria….. Lots of them!.”  This is a direct quote from http://www.sanicone.com/index.html, a company that sell disposable cones for women to urinate through, so they don’t have to sit on public toilets.

Let me start at the beginning, my friend and me were out shopping. She was whinging that her sock had fallen down before we went into the toilet, when she came out she was still whinging. I asked her why she hadn’t sorted it while on the toilet, to which she replied “eww you sit on public toilets?”  She then went on to tell me you can get all sorts from toilet seats, including crabs. I don’t believe her.

I’ll tell you why. When I sit on a toilet, the only points of contact are my arse cheeks, which don’t feature much in the preparation of food or anything (honest). The point being no orifice ever touches the seat, therefore no fluid based disease can get there. Also taking into account wiping and hand washing it all sounds a bit far fetched. But, I need proof.

The delightful http://www.sanicone.com/index.html states that from toilet seat you can catch:

·        Sars

·        Enteroviruses (responsible for gastroenteritis)

·        Herpes

·        Parasites

·        Veneric Diseases

·        Skin infections

·        Colds and flus

·        Intestinal illnesses

·        Salmonella bacteria

·        E. Coli

·        Hepatiti

 

Which is all a bit bloody scary, so I turned to the NHS. Who, I (perhaps naively) believe to know the truth about such things. On crabs they say “You can get pubic lice by having close body contact with an infested person. They crawl from one hair to another; they cannot jump, fly or swim”. http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=2306&sectionId=5 This is backed up by a woman who claims to be a specialist in microbiology, and infectious disease consultant on Yahoo answers http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080624150831AAmCaiD. Another contributor on the yahoo answers page about toilet seats and general toilet disease came up with “it depends if you lick it”.

The only one that I could possibly believe in was genital warts, because warts are passed by skin contact but this website http://kidshealth.org/teen/sexual_health/stds/std_warts.html tells me you can’t.

I know this is probably a biased perspective but on looking on the Internet, a lot of people seem to be telling me you can but not backing it up, so I’m sticking with logic and the NHS.

 I would just like to add the following disclaimer, I don’t sit on all public toilets, if there’s wee on the seat, i’ll hover with the best of them. To give your opinion on the matter go to http://www.quizilla.com/polls/7923577/do-you-sit-or-hover-on-public-toilets-taking-into-account-obvious-sanitary-requirements and take the poll.

Which came first the chicken or the egg?

The age old question of which came first: the chicken or the egg? Well I think I’ve cracked it (If you’ll excuse the pun). Using my A level understanding of evolution, I can reveal that it is…. The chicken.

 

The theory goes that at some point in the evolutionary chain there was a bird and it produced an offspring that was the first bird to be defined as a chicken.

  Which still raises the issue that that chicken had to have come from an egg. However, an egg if defined by the creature that lays it. For example, a robin egg is a small blue egg and a blue tit egg is small whitish egg. So the egg the first chicken sprung from was a pre-chicken egg. The egg can also be regarded as a by-product of birth, like a placenta. The placenta is generally referred to as the mother’s not the baby’s. The next egg produced by the new ‘chicken’, would be the first bona fide chicken egg.

 

In conclusion, the chicken came first, so there.  For a more scientific version you might like http://www.howstuffworks.com/question85.htm or if you were backing the egg try http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/may/26/uknews and if after all that your brain hurts you can’t beat (sorry) http://gamescene.com/Chicken_And_Eggs_game.html for a 5 minute chicken related distraction.

8 sneezes = orgasm?

Whilst at work the other my mate Paul commented on how much he enjoyed having a slash. This lead to a conversation about how it is also rather enjoyable to sneeze. Which to be honest it is, that expulsion of crap from your nasal passages and the noise is just a bonus. Whilst researching this I discovered this website http://sneezeforum.com/, so at least one other person enjoys sneezing too.

 

Then the question of does eight sneezes in a row equal an orgasm. I generally only manage about three in a row, so I went to the lengths of using pepper. Which to be honest just made my nose burn for a while and didn’t produce a large number of sneezes. So I just looked on the Internet and apparently it’s not true. The website http://www.snopes.com/scienceoffers a very good explanation. Basically, a sex therapist named Dr. Ruth Westheimer is generally misquoted as saying “An orgasm is just like a sneeze.” However, what the good doctor actually said was: “An orgasm is just a reflex, like a sneeze,” So it’s a cause/ effect thing, stimulate the right part and the reaction occurs involuntarily.

So if you want an orgasm, stick to the old favourites and not the condement shelf.

Stuff I Wanna Know

Hello, I’m a curious kind of girl and want to find out all about the things which people generally don’t talk about. Perhaps because they really don’t care or just due to a sense of embarrassment.

Recently, I got into a disscusion with my freind about sitting or hovering on public toilets. My freind claims that you can catch crabs and diseases from toilets, which i think is rubbish. We did a quick survey of our freinds, which intrigued me.  To vote on the matter go to http://www.quizilla.com/polls/7923577/do-you-sit-or-hover-on-public-toilets-taking-into-account-obvious-sanitary-requirements

Another one recently brought up, is whether or not a man can lactate if they rub their nipples long enough. Again, I’m dubious but my male friend says its true.

In short I propose to find out the things that don’t really matter and report back. If you have any burning questions please feel free to put them forward.