Why do people swallow swords?

Many people think swallowing swords is a magic trick. After all, like most magic tricks, swallowing the sword seems like an impossible thing for ordinary people.

If you've ever seen a swallowing show, you may be under the impression that performers are trying to get the audience's trust, just like magicians still do so. He invited the audience to the stage to check the sword, or even help pull the sword out of his mouth.

According to How Stuff Works, some sources of information that support the idea of ​​swallowing the sword are caused by magic . The famous American magician and magician Harry Houdini (1847-1926) wrote about swords in the book: "The Miracle Mongers, An Expose". According to Houdini, some swordsmen in the era had swallowed metal sheaths before the show. Online encyclopedia Encyclopedia Britannica also reiterated this view. This page defines swords as a magic trick and states that most magicians prepare for the show by swallowing a metal tube about 45-50 cm long, about 25mm wide.

Swallowing is an extremely dangerous behavior.

It is true that there is a new trick to swallow the sword, but it is not related to hallucinations or metal pipes swallowed before the performance, according to How Stuff Works. Instead, it involves a lot of physical and psychological preparation. For some magicians, sword swallowing can take many years.

Swallowing is an interaction between two different basic objects: the upper gastrointestinal tract (GI) of a human and a sword. The upper gastrointestinal tract is a series of living organs linked together. It includes: throat or throat, esophagus and stomach.

The upper gastrointestinal tract is quite soft and it has some distinct curvature in the state of relaxation. Meanwhile, the sword is hard and lifeless. Although some swordsmen could swallow a wavy blade and some combined using the curved sword in the performance, most of the swords were swallowed straight. You can imagine that the digestive tract is now a living scabbard and you are looking into the shell.

Although swallowing is usually without sharp edges, but it still has the ability to puncture or curse the upper gastrointestinal tract. In addition, it is easy to search the sword into the "shell" but to do that, you have to practice a lot.

Within the scope of this article, let's explore how one can swallow a sword? and why is swallowing different from swallowing food? Why swallowing is an extremely dangerous behavior.

Swallow sword and digestive tract

The photo depicts the upper gastrointestinal tract of humans and the length of the sword.

Human upper gastrointestinal tract is made up of two types of muscle tissue - smooth muscle and skeletal muscle - and a lubricating layer called mucosa. In general, skeletal muscle movement is deliberate - you can control it. When you speak, knock, blink and move, you use skeletal muscle. Meanwhile, movement of smooth muscle is generally the opposite, unconditional. Smooth muscle is responsible for behaviors such as dilation of blood vessels and movement of food during digestion. Many of our body's activities, including breathing and eating, require the participation of both skeletal muscle and smooth muscle.

Parts of the gastrointestinal tract are made of skeletal muscles including the mouth, pharynx and the upper part of your esophagus (connecting the throat and stomach. These are parts of the upper gastrointestinal tract that you are conscious of checking. When you are sharp, you consciously use your tongue to push the food toward the pharynx, the larynx then move upwards and a muscle ring is called the esophageal sphincter which relaxes. Eating (thoroughly chewed) moves into the throat, a lump of muscle called the larynx lid covers during this process so the food does not move into the lungs.

The actions of the rest of the larynx are unconditional. When food reaches the throat part is "lined up" with smooth muscle, an automatic process called peristalsis from here. The muscular ring on the food is converted into a round bolus pressed together, forcing the pellet to move down the stomach.

This whole process is very close to other organs in your body, including:

1. Windpipe.
2. Heart.
3. Aorta (transporting blood from the heart throughout the body).
4. Vein (transporting blood back to the heart).
5. Diaphragm - (flattened, wide between the chest and abdomen moving up and down allows you to breathe).

Some other important structures such as blood vessels and lymph nodes also surround the throat, esophagus and stomach. These are structures that the sword passes through when swallowed.

Next we will look at the process of gradually swallowing a sword.

How is food swallowing and swallowing different?

The image depicts the sword going through two sphincter muscles and straightening the upper gastrointestinal tract during the process when it is swallowed in the swallows' belly.

The swordsman performer also follows the same path as swallowing food, but the process is fundamentally different. Swallowing food is related to the contraction of some muscles.Swallowing swallows require deliberate dilation of the upper gastrointestinal tract . This is what happens:

1. The performer tilted his head back, stretched his neck all the way to align his mouth with the esophagus and straightened his throat.
2. Move (consciously) tongue away to avoid blocking and relax your throat.
3. Align the sword with your digestive tract and move it through the mouth, throat, upper esophageal sphincter and into the esophagus.Saliva at this time lubricates the sword.Some people use other lubricants such as cooking oil and jelly.
4. On the way deep into the abdomen, the sword straightens the curves of the esophagus.It goes through some internal organs and in some cases it actually "scatters" them out of their way.

Sometimes the sword also passes through the lower esophageal sphincter and enters the stomach, but this does not necessarily happen. The distance from the teeth to the part of the stomach is connected to the esophagus about 40 cm. The International Swordsman Association (SSAI) defines a swordsman who can swallow a 38 cm long sword, not long enough to reach the stomach. SSAI recommends that the maximum length of the sword swallowed is 61cm, which is long enough to put the tip of the sword into the stomach of the person performing it.

These steps may sound easy but swallowing is extremely difficult to master. It is also not something that we should try without the support of an experienced professional. Why is that? And what happens if swallowing has trouble?

Learn to swallow

The sword swallowing process involves more than just aligning the organs of the body and letting gravity do its job.

In order to swallow a successful sword, performers must learn to relax the muscles that are often uncontrollable. They include the upper and lower esophageal sphincter muscles, the muscles of the esophagus associated with intestinal motility.

You also have to make the performance look easy - a challenge that is quite challenging. If you have ever swallowed a mouthful of food, either too much or not chewed well, you will understand how sensitive your esophagus is. Over here, a swordsman had to move the hard sword, cold down all his throat and esophagus without revealing discomfort.

The human body also has a defense mechanism that blocks everything except food that is chewed, swallowed into the throat - called a throat reflex (gag reflex). When you accidentally touch the toothbrush in the throat, you have activated throat reflex. In some people, throat reflexes are very sensitive, even touching only this reflex is activated. While in others, this reflex is more difficult to activate.

In order to swallow a successful sword, performers must learn to relax the muscles that are often uncontrollable.

A successful sword swallow must learn to ignore the throat reflex. This is not an easy process. Reflexes are unconditional - they happen without intention, effort or pre-calculation, for example, you immediately pull your hand away from the handle of the hot lid. Reflections in newborns are very important for the growth and development of babies. All reflections are important to survival, and all of them happen without your conscious participation. Most don't even need the help of your brain - reactions that take place in the spinal cord, bypassing the brain completely.

Reflection involves several physiological components that combine to form a reflex arc. Here is what will happen:

1. Sensors, nerve endings, a threat detection or an event require immediate attention of the body.
2. Nerves, or nerve cells, carry receptor information for the central nervous system (CNS).
3. The integrated center in the CNS determines the body's response.
4. A motor neuron carries the instructions of the integrated centers to the appropriate parts of the body.
5. The stimulus responds to changes that are needed to what is happening in the body.

In the case of throat reflexes, the nerve endings at the base of the throat detect an intrusion object. This creates nerve impulses, which neurons transfer it to the center integrated in your brain stem. The brain stem, using motor neurons, instructs the muscles in the throat - the body to react to stimulation - to contract. The result is nausea to force you to try to push strange things out of your throat and mouth. All of this is unconditional and happens immediately.

The process of learning to ignore an unconditional process takes time to practice. In case of sword swallowing, it is generally associated with continuous throat reflex activation. This process can cause vomiting and very uncomfortable. It also eliminates a purposeful process to protect the body from harm. This is one of the many reasons why sword swallowing is dangerous. What are the other dangers of sword swallowing?

The dangers of sword swallowing

Swallowing involves deliberately controlling the body to do something that its self-defense mechanism forbids. Therefore, it is not surprising to say this is a dangerous act. It is also not extensively studied in medicine, perhaps because there are too few people swallowing swords. The most thorough medical research results were published in the British medical journal published on December 21, 2006. This study involved a volunteer survey of 110 English-speaking swordsmen. Among them, 46 of the 48 performers swallowed feedback and agreed to provide their data for use in research. 33 respondents provided information about their medical history. In general, the harm they experienced through swallowing include:

We recommend that you do not practice swallowing swords or any foreign objects that could be life threatening.

1. Sore throat.
2. Intermittent chest pain, possibly with esophageal or diaphragmatic injuries.
3. Bleeding in.
4. Puncture the esophagus, one person must have surgery every three people.
5. Pneumonia, pneumonia.
6. Pericarditis (heart protection membrane).

Some people described being seriously injured immediately after performing a sword swallow and suffered from unusual pain. A logical conclusion is that swelling and trauma to the tissue involved in minor lesions can lead to more serious injuries. Sinus infection is a potential side effect, because swallowing is the act of bringing an unpasteurized surface through tissues connected to the sinuses.

Because the survey conducted exploration with contemporary swordsmen, it could not include the opinions of those who died from sword swallowing. But medical documents that show swallowing is a cause of death. Another article in the British Medical Journal described a swordsman who died after trying to swallow an umbrella.

Just like other dangerous art performances like breathing out fire, beheading, going through glass, there is no way to actually make swords safer. Therefore, we recommend that you do not practice swallowing swords or any foreign objects that could be life threatening.