Can You Breathe Through Your Butt? Experts Says Possibly and It Might Save Life

A recent study shows that animals, including humans, may also be able to breathe through their butts.

Mice, rats, pigs, and even turtles might benefit from an oxygen enema to prevent the fatal effects of oxygen deprivation. But, as a patient waits for a ventilator, might this new technology supply temporary oxygen?

Animals Can Breathe Through Butts; Can Humans Do It, Too?

A group of experts conducted a series of studies on pigs and mice based on the sluggish metabolism of turtles, according to a new study obtained by The Daily Star.

The process entailed cleaning the animals' intestines to thin down the mucosal lining, lowering the blood-brain barrier. They were then put in an oxygen-depleted chamber.

Control mice that were deprived of breathing and got no intestinal ventilation perished after roughly 11 minutes, according to the article, which does not specify where the team of scientists came from.

Animals that received intestinal ventilation but not intestinal washing lived nearly twice as long, around 18 minutes, showing that some oxygen was taken in.

Meanwhile, 75% of the animals who were cleansed and given compressed oxygen into the rectum survived for an hour, which was the duration of the experiment.

It seems to show that, given the right circumstances, mice and pigs are capable of intestinal respiration.

Based on their studies, they now think that other mammals, such as humans, might likewise survive by breathing through the butt.

Other Studies Supporting Claim

The same yet separate study was carried out by researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU). They discovered that oxygen could be transferred into the bloodstreams of mice, rats, and pigs via their anuses.

Enteral ventilation (EVA) may sound strange at first. Still, it might one day be used to boost the oxygen supply of human patients with severe respiratory problems, according to the researchers.

According to study first author Ryo Okabe, the rectum possesses a web of small blood veins just beneath its lining. The medications supplied through the anus are quickly absorbed into the circulation. The researchers wondered if oxygen might be similarly given into the bloodstream.

"We used experimental models of respiratory failure in mice, pigs and rats to try out two methods: delivering oxygen into the rectum in gas form and infusing an oxygen-rich liquid via the same route," Okabe said in BBC's Science Focus report.

The animals were depleted of oxygen before receiving oxygen enemas, either in gas form or via perfluorocarbons (PFCs).

PFCs are liquids that can absorb enormous amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide and are commonly employed as a blood replacement or to help premature newborns breathe.

The oxygen levels in the animals' blood rose in both situations, allowing them to live for extended lengths of time. Despite minor quantities of PFC being taken along with the oxygen, the researchers discovered enhanced levels of oxygenation in the animals' cells and no evidence of adverse consequences.

Bonus Fact: Here's Why Turtles Breathe Through Their Butts

As ponds in North America vary dramatically from summer to winter, painted turtles do as well.

These reptiles reduce body temperatures and slow their metabolism by 95 percent when their preferred drinking holes are coated in ice. They do, however, require some oxygen.

Jacqueline Litzgus, an ecologist at Laurentian University in Ontario, told National Geographic: "These are animals that breathe with lungs, and they cannot get [to the surface] for a breath of air for half their lives."

Instead, hibernating turtles obtain the scant oxygen they require by cloacal respiration, which involves breathing through their bottoms. The blood arteries around the cloaca-a multipurpose opening present in many reptiles-can directly absorb oxygen from the water.

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