Alright, so this video may not be appropriate for kids, and it is
uh.. It's disturbing, on several different levels.
Especially if you're a man... So you know on
Smarter Every Day I try to keep everything very intelligent and respectful, but this
video is crazy. Like, you need to think about whether or not you want to watch this.
Because now that I know this happens, I have nightmares.
And they're not good.. [laugh] They're not good nightmares ok?
So you just think about whether or not you want to know this information. Do you want to know it?
OK... Introduction.
- Talk to me. Give an introduction right now. (Destin) Hey it's me Destin welcome to Smarter Every Day. I'm in the
Amazon rainforest. [little girl squeal] - [laughter] [clapping] Yes!
- Speaking of the penis tree, what this guy does
he uh.. yeah. It's the.. pretty much the
third most venemous spider in the world.
Phoneutria fera
I'm gonna stay this far away. - They're really agressive.
Should we see how aggressive they are? - Alright, most likely it's
gonna hop down, but let's see if we can get him to rear up.
- Oh.. Oh no he's like.. (Destin) Holy cow, he's fast.
- Who's gonna put it on their face then? - Nooo.
- You go ahead. - Yeah. - Will also cause a condition called a priapism in males.
(Destin) Priapism. Oh yeah, ice water enema to fix that? Yep.
OK this spider is called the Brazillian Wandering Spider, and if you heard what Phil said, he said
it causes this condition in males. I assume that means not in females.
And there's only a couple of things I can think of that can happen to a male but not to a female.
Anyway, we'll come back to that. - If you look underneath that front leg,
you see how it's got banding? Black, white and black.
Can you see that from this angle? See that? - Yes.
- So, when it gets really mad it flips those up in the air and then you can see that
black white black white. That's kind of a warning signal.
(Destin) It's called a wandering spider? - Yeah. - Because he doesn't make webs?
- Correct (Destin) Alright, well I'm done with the third most venemous spider
in the world. - Is she done with you?
- That's the question. (Destin) OK you're on a jungle walk, an entomologist tells you that this spider
can affect the penis. Obviously the first thing you do is you get the books out, find out
priapism is a medical emergency involving the penis,
which is terrifying. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna go to this hospital, we're gonna
go find a urologist. We're gonna ask him what are the causes of priapism, and number two
and more importantly, what are the fixes for priapism. So we're gonna go in here,
I know it's funny, hahaha, Destin's talking about a penis, but think about it. If you're a male
or you know a male, you need to know this information. So, if I have to
take the hit, I'll do it. I'll try not to blush, but if he's a urologist chances are he's either really
funny or really boring, so.. I don't know. Let's go get Smarter Every Day.
Missed the door. Dr Sergey Ananyev? Am I saying that right?
- That's right. - And you are a uh.. let me get this.. urologist?
Which is a... - Glorified pecker checker. [laugh]
- Excellent, OK so show me what we're doing here. What is going on
with the erection? - Well, erection is a
by-product of both nerves and blood vessels working
together once a man gets excited. Our penises consist of
two chambers that have one way valves. Those two chambers are called
cavernosal bodies, and they communicate to each other.
- They communicate with each other like hydraulically? - As in, yeah sideways yeah like
fenestrations. - Is it priapism or preeapism? - It's priapism,
and priapism by definition is a prolonged erection
that is unwanted, that usually lasts four hours or longer.
- OK so what does that have to do with a spider in the rainforest?
That's why I'm hear talking to you. - The spider in the rainforest, once it gets hold
of you, is able to stimulate and effect
a certain pathway which on the molecular level effects
nitric oxide. You'll have this nitric oxide release, which is a molecule. - Right.
- That would in turn stimulate another molecule, that will then
relax the muscles inside the penis.
- So the nitric oxide is what activates whatever this is..
- It's a step in the ladder, yeah. To eventually relax the muscle
of the penis to allow the blood flow in. - OK so it's a valve.
- Uh, well yeah nitric oxide is just the molecule that helps open the door for
a valve but yeah. What you'll actually do is you have.. they're in a way
one way valves where the blood flow goes in once a man is excited
for whatever reason. - Yeah? - Whether a partner or a spider. [laugh]
- OK. - Once the blood flow goes in the one way valves will close and the blood can't come out.
- You just made me think about something really strange. So, I'm an engineer
and when I was at school we had to do this equation in something called
differential equations. And it was inflow and outflow.
And so the rate of inflow vs the rate of outflow determined the internal
fluid inside.. so there is a differential equation, you can express it
like mathematically to determine the rate
of which that will do what it does. OK there's math
on the screen, I'm starting to get a little bit more comfortable now. So, the design of the penis is pretty interesting.
It's like two balloons that are stacked side by side and you have an input and an output into the system.
If you throttle these flow rates you can generate this expanding control
volume and that's the erection. Now Dr Ananyev will install these prosthetic devices
into men who suffer from ED. It happens to men of all ages by the way.
So he decided to demonstrate how this biomechanical system works in the body by just
showing us one of these devices. So this prosthesis that you.. This is what you do right?
You insert these into the human body right? - It's one of the many things we do.
- These are the caverns right? - These are the two cavernosal bodies. When one
gets excited, there's an increase in blood flow to both of those bodies.
And I will demonstrate it by the virtue of this mechanical pump.
- So you've got a hydraulic pump and you're squeezing it. - That's right.
- So you're pumping that there, and that's taking fluid from
there.. - From the reservoir, which would be your blood stream.
To the end organ, which would be the two cavernosal bodies in the penis.
- OK, so that's how.. - And then a one way valve that keeps the
blood from outflowing. - Gotcha. So once that
happens, then.. you know..
sexual activity happens and then.. - You feeling a little uncomfortable Destin? - [laugh] I am a little uncomfortable.
You actually deal with uncomfortable situations all day long every day, don't you.
- That's my defense mechanism yeah. - That's fantastic. So the outflow, is this?..
You have it in the same valve here, so how does it happen in the human body? - In the human body
when a man reaches a climax, certain chemicals
are released that are allowing those valves to open.
In the case of priapism what'll happen Destin is that you will have an increased
blood flow, but instead of climaxing
and allowing those one way valves to open and allow the blood flow
back out, the blood stays in for a prolonged amount of
time as I mentioned about four hours or longer. And when that happens the blood inside
these cavernosal bodies becomes what we call ischemic, which means deprived
of oxygen, and as it becomes deprived of oxygen and clots it
becomes very thick. That in turn makes the problem worse because
it's a lot harder for now the thick blood to get out even if the valves were working.
- So what do you do? - There are a couple of ways to
fix the problem. - Yeah? - You would start off by trying to take a cold shower.
I'll see if I can get some more tape for Mr Skeleton
- Does it cause permanent damage? Like people can.. - If you do not reverse it
within about four hours it can usually lead to
irreversible scarring and permanent loss of erection. - Can you die?
- Usually.. I have not in my limited experience seen
anybody die of priapism but you can definitely suffer. So if the cold shower
and then the medications do not work, the next step of the process is to actually
drain the engorged blood
inside the penis, with a needle.
- With a needle? - That's right.
- So.. You showed me the two caverns, there's a cavern on each side, so you have to
drain them independently? - No you do not. Those caverns communicate, so..
- They have a.. - There is one good thing about this. Yeah usually you'll be able to
drain it from one side while the other
side spontaneously... - Deflates? Is that the term? - Yep.
That would be the term. - How big is that needle?
- It's big enough to hurt. A lot of times you would talk to the patient about numbing
of the area, but by that time you have to stick them twice, and they're fairly uncomfortable
so what you end up having to do is go at approximately mid shaft
and stick the needle all the way inside their cavernosal
body, and then drain what would have the consistency
of tomato paste by that time. - Really? - Or grape jelly.
- Does.. Oh my goodness. - You would have to do this multiple times.
A lot of times if the blood is really clotted you will end up having to actually
remove the clot and then inject sterile salt water in there and then irrigate
it back out. Once you irrigate it out, it can come back within
5-10 minutes, and you would actually repeat the process, and for the poor
folks in who the condition keeps returning you have to go to more drastic measures.
- [nervously] Like?
- Like going up in size, and instead of a needle, using a scalpel. Most of the time
they would require sedation or sometimes a trip to the emergency room. What you would actually have
to drive the scalpel through the head of the penis.. - Are you serious? - And ream it
90 degrees. - Are.. are you being serious right now? - Yeah unfortunately
- Really? - Mm hmm. - And so then that fluid would come out
that open.. [Heavy breath intake] - It would actually create what we call a shunt
by virtue of a big size. That shunt will
allow the blood.. - I'm having trouble breathing right now. [laugh] This is bad! - Yeah
- So, at that point how do you.. - That's why I hate spiders.
- [laugh] Good gracious! Oh man! There's really nothing more
to say is there? - No. - So actually in the head?
- That's right. - Or is it called the glans? It's called the glans right? - Yes that's the proper name, glans penis.
- Glans? So.. Does it.. Obviously there's damage, there's
permanent damage because of that. There can, but there's definitely gonna be permanent damage without it.
- Last thing, how often do you see this problem? Obviously not from spider bites but.. - Well it depends
on the community in which you are in, but we'll probably see it two or three times a year.
- So it's pretty rare. - It's fairly rare and you would usually be able to
identify one by the risk factors whether it's a
predisposing disease like a sickle cell or overdose in medications
that help you get to a happy place to begin with. - Oh I see. Well thank you very much for your time,
I appreciate it. Yep. Take it easy. OK in summary I hope you don't feel
like I was being rude or crude or disrespectful at any point in this. This is a serious issue
and I hope I got the information into your brain in a pretty interesting and fun way. Speaking
of serious I'm still not working on Fridays for pay, I'm furloughed.
So that's a pretty big deal as a dad. So I'm more than happy to tell you about my sponsor.
Audible.com/smarter. Audible.com they have audio
books and you can go to audible.com/smarter and get a free one. They want me to tell
you about a book you can listen to that has something to do with the video, but I don't think we want to hear the
word erection one more time if we can avoid it. So, I'm gonna do you one better. Love.
There's a book by C.S.Lewis and actually read by C.S.Lewis on audible called
The Four Loves. There's one word in english, love. In Greek there's four.
There's eros, there's agape, filia and storge. Eros
is erotic love, think about the video, but these other three are very interesting. Particularly
storge, I didn't know about it. So once I understood the four loves my interaction with
people in my life changed. It was very interesting and I think it's good for you to at least explore that.
Anyway, audible.com/smarter you get a free audio book.
You're smart. You know what's up here. I'm Destin, you're getting Smarter Every Day.
Have a good one. OK so how long does it take.. I mean how long will this last?
Several years in a man? - That depends on the wear and tear. - [snort]
You're awful. - That's not a joke. - I got it. I can't.. I can't
do this. [laugh]
This... is a tree that grows in the rainforest
And it has odd shaped things on it.
The end.
[ Captions by Andrew Jackson ] captionsbyandrew.wordpress.com
Captioning in different languages welcome. Please contact Destin if you can help.