Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Short Stuff: Adam's Apples and Throat Lumps

Transcript

Short Stuff: Adam's Apples and Throat Lumps · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, and we've got two
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Adams apples between us, and that makes this short stuff,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: that's right. Uh. This was another one where I just,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I saw a guy with a
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: very prominent Adams apple, and I don't I don't have
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a very prominent Adams apple, do you know. I just
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: don't think I've got a pretty wand Adam's apple. Yeah,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: so we're both just a couple of low voice squeaker
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: squeaker fellas. I've got like Adams coume quat. Now that
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I really think about it, I might have like a grape.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I can barely feel that thing. But we're talking about
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Adams apples here. Uh that if you if you don't know,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: I don't want to be the podcaster that assumes everyone
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: knows what that is. Uh. It can it can be
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: that prominent bump in the sort of center throat of
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: usually as we'll see a man. Uh, and let's talk
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: about it. What is that? Well, according to the Bible
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: and Bible types, Adam, the original Adam was taking a
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: bite of that forbidden apple and some of it got
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: stuck in his throat, which cursed all remaining men to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: come to be born with a symbol of that forbidden
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: fruit sticking in his his throat. And I love this
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: article from I think from how Stuff Works said that's folklore,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: but in reality, the Adam's apple is a result of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: a boy's voice box larynx growing. That's right, uh and
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: big thanks to how Stuff Works with this in Jennifer Sellers,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: the author and the Healthy dot Com And I love
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: this one. Harley Street e n T nice. If you
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: want to learn about the throat, go to an ear
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: nose and throat place. Sure, for sure, that's their motto. Yep,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: it's a little self serving, but it is their that's right.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: And here's the deal. It is um. It is cartilage,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: and it starts out usually during puberty, and it is
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: your your larynx. It is your voice box getting bigger
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and bigger, and your voice will get deeper. And so
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I was like, hey, does that mean if you have
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: really prominent adams apple, you're more likely to have a deeper,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: more booming voice. And that's that's true. Oh, that makes
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: total sense. Yeah. The reason it's associated with men typically
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: is it's activated. Um that growth of it is activated
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: by testosterone, an increase in testosterone during puberty. But that's
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: not to say that girls larynx and larynx is yeah,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: don't grow as well. They just don't typically grow as
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: prominent as boys do. And partially as a result of that,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: women have higher voices, usually because their larynx is smaller,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: uh than a man's larynx. Right, so you're less likely
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: to grow up looking like I feel like Adrian Brody
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: has a prominent adoms apple. Totally. Yes, that's a great
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: example of that. I'll just watch that movie you told
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: me to watch, which one, the sort of murder mystery
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: in the theater? See how they run? Yeah, very very enjoyable.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: I thoroughly enjoyed it. I started watching a horror series
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: that he's in from the set in the eighteen sixties
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: or whatever. UM called Chapel Weight, and apparently it's like
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: a prequel the Salem's Lot. Maybe I'm not sure. I
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: haven't figured that out, but interesting, It's okay, I'm I'm on.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: I just finished episode one and I'm deciding whether or
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: not to start to You've become quite the horror aficionado. Here,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: it's true in your middle age officiate time. All right,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: So that's the difference of the size of the Adams apple. Again,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: that's not to say that, uh, a woman could have
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: an atom's apple that you see and notice and can
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: be prominent. Uh. There could be several reasons for this.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: It could be a genetic thing, it could be because
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: of a horror monal imbalance that happened during puberty. It
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: could just be an anomaly. Um. But that's like it
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: can be, Um, it can be problematic. I think that
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: sometimes that's such a trait that you might associate with, uh,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: with with men that I think if a woman has
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: one that's a little more prominent, that they might be
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: embarrassed by that. Uh. You can get surgery for that
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: kind of thing. It's called the feminizing condo lorange of
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: plastic tracheal shave. Tracheal shave. Yeah, I'd rather be called
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the feminizing condo Lorarangeoplastic tracheal shave sounds very painful, but
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: it's apparently not. It's apparently a pretty safe procedure. And
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: women with Adam's apples, who by the way, Meg Ryan,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Sandra Bullock, Miley Cyrus all known to happen. Ohm, I
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: at least got that that deep voice. Yes, she does
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: for sure. Um uh. But if a woman is self
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: conscious about that, she might have that procedure or for
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: trans women, that's often a part of it's often a
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: procedure that they undergo. But although the growth of the
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: larynx leads to higher lower voice, depending on how big
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: it is, um, if you do a tracheal shave, that
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: doesn't affect the voice. Um. Yeah, you have to undergo
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: voice feminizing surgery where they actually go in and alter
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the length of the vocal cords. Wow. Very interesting. I'm
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: glad you looked that up. All right, Well, let's take
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: a break here, bruminate on that, and we will come
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: back and talk about sort of adjacent idea, which is
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: when you get the sadds and you get a lump
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: in your throat. Chuck. I am so psyched about this.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: This was the thing that I didn't know I wanted
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: to know about. And it's great because it's fully explicable.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I love those. Yeah, the idea that you are and
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: it's usually a situation where I feel like it's usually
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: situation where you may not be able to just burst
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: out in tears. Maybe you're trying to hold some emotion
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: back and you go to swallow, it feels like you've
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: got a chunk of Havardy cheese in your throat and
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: it's very uncomfortable feeling. I think we've all had it,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: and that's you know that. You call that a lump
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: in your throat. Yeah, it's also known as the globus
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: sensation or globbus because it's a great band name. Yeah,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: I think so. Um it's it all centers around the glottis,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: which is the opening between your vocal cords that you
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: can breathe through. And um, well let's explain this. Okay,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: when you feel lump in your throat and you're stre
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: u stout, the point to your body is that you're
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: stressed out, and so the automic autonomic nervous system kicks
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: in fight or flight. Remember old old friends, fight or
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: flight We've talked about all the time. Well, to your
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: autonomic nervous system if you're if you're in a stressful situation,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: it makes no differentiation between whether a bear is coming
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: at you or the entire stadium at the World Series
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: is booing you, does not matter. It treats it the
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: same way. And what it does is it prepares you
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: to fight or flight in one way that you do
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: that is by breathing in better So it opens your
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: glattis big time and lets the oxygen into that you
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: can start getting that blood pumping and those muscles moving.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: All right, So that's a good first part of the response. Um,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: so what's happening, literally is your your glottis opens wide
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: open because your body basically is saying you need to
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: run in the other direction and get the heck out
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: of here. In in in order to do that, and most efficiently,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: you need to breathe in more oxygen. So we're going
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: on engines. Uh, we're going balls out, literally, is what
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: we're doing. And we're gonna open that glottis as wide
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: as possible. But if you're laying on the couch watching
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: uh uh Brian's song, what's another sad movie? That's a
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: boat old reference? Um, ordinary people? Okay, sure, I watched
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: that on a plane recently. Very dull. Really yeah, I
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: never saw it. It's just it's early eighties to me. No,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: that's really good. Or terms of endearment, let's say, or
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: steel magnolias, when which Shelby does old yeller, I'm sorry
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to spoil steel magnolias. Oh yeah, geez that man. So,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: if you're laying on your couch and your body is
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: saying get up and run down the street away from
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: whatever this is stressing you out, and you're lying there
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: trying to swallow, you're just having a hard time swallowing
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: because in order to swallow, your glottis is supposed to close, right,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: but your glattis is wide open because of your autonomic
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: nervous system, and they're in is that lump in the throat.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: And the reason why you feel like swallowing, and the
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: reason you get a lump in your throat is because
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: you're actively trying to fight back tears. And one way
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: to fight back tears is to hold your breath, which
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: you need to close your glatties for, or you swallow
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: what you need to close your glads for. And so
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: those two opposing forces, trying to close your glasses and
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: keep your gladss open is what gives you that lump
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: in the throat sensation. Boy, the hunk of I've already
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: was tastier, but this is this is pretty tasty to totally.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: You got anything else? I've got nothing else. This is uh,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: this is a good perfect shorty. I think I agree.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Perfection has been achieved, which means short stuff is out.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I heart
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: favorite shows.