0:04

Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh

0:06

and there's Chuck and it's just us.

0:08

But we're going to do it no problem. Everybody

0:11

just calmed down.

0:12

Just the short stuff, that's

0:14

right. I thought about getting

0:17

one together about this topic because

0:20

my daughter Ruby got the wind knocked

0:22

out of her for the first time, oh no, a

0:24

couple of weeks ago and told me about

0:26

it. I wasn't there when it happened. It happened at school, and she

0:29

said it was scary, and I was like, hey, listen, kiddo, that

0:31

happened to me. I think she got

0:33

hit in the chest or something. But I, when

0:36

I was young, fell out of a tree about

0:39

probably about I mean, it wasn't super high, but it was probably

0:41

like seven or eight feet like directly on my back

0:44

and got the wind knocked out of me really bad.

0:47

I think maybe the only time that's happened. And

0:50

if you've never had it happen, it's a very panicky,

0:52

scary situation because

0:54

you literally cannot get

0:57

a breath. You're just like, I

0:59

wish people could see me now because I'm sort of silently

1:01

freaking out. But you

1:03

cannot inhale or exhale for

1:06

a very short period, for a period of a few

1:08

seconds until you go and

1:10

get your breath again finally. But I was like, what's

1:13

going on there? And we found out.

1:16

Yeah. Also, that's funny that that

1:18

coincided with somebody wrote it in an email

1:20

in the last week or so asking for us

1:23

to explain getting the really Yeah, so's

1:25

it's in the air right now? Apparently.

1:27

Well I wish we could name that person, but I

1:29

didn't realize that, So thank you too, whoever that was.

1:32

So there's another another

1:34

name for this. It's called frenospasm.

1:37

The reason why it involves your frontic nerve, which

1:39

controls your diaphragm, which

1:42

is essentially at the center of this whole

1:44

thing. And to understand

1:46

I guess how all this works, you kind of have to

1:48

understand how we breathe, right, yeah,

1:53

oh okay, I'll tell everybody how you breathe. So

1:55

that diaphragm is a huge mass of like

1:58

muscle and tendon. It's kind of like dome

2:00

shaped. It almost looks like the insignia

2:03

for the Star Trek Federation

2:05

right right underneath your lungs.

2:07

I'm trying to bring some of our nerdier fans back

2:10

okay. And when

2:13

it expands like

2:16

we exhale, because it forces

2:18

our lungs, it forces air out of our lungs.

2:21

When we inhale again, the diaphragm

2:23

contracts and gets smaller so our lungs

2:25

can fill with air. Eventually they reach

2:27

a point where they're low enough in pressure.

2:30

The air inside of our lungs is low

2:32

enough in pressure compared to the outside

2:34

air pressure that the outside air is like

2:36

I can't stand it anymore, and rushes

2:38

in to fill our lungs up, which

2:41

allows us to breathe again.

2:43

Exactly. And if we're

2:45

just hanging out, if we're relaxed, or even if

2:47

we're doing something athletic, the

2:50

diaphragm is working as it should. Breathing

2:52

is involuntary. It's an automatic function of

2:55

our nervous system. Our body's just doing

2:57

it, and there's really no problems that are

2:59

happening. The problem with getting

3:01

winded happens

3:04

when you get a either

3:06

like a sock to the chest. If

3:09

you ever look up, like

3:12

like martial arts, like you know, where should I hit

3:14

somebody to take them down,

3:17

they'll list a bunch of things like the side of

3:19

the neck or you know, all these different places

3:21

where you where you can punch someone to

3:24

kind of not paralyze them necessarily,

3:26

but at least stop them. And they always

3:28

say, like, aim for that solar plexus which

3:31

is very near the diaphragm, and it sort

3:34

of acts like a bull's eye if you're trying

3:36

to say, like, punch there. And

3:39

so if you get socked right there,

3:41

either by a fist or if

3:44

you fall out of that tree and land on your back

3:46

or something, it can potentially,

3:49

you know, paralyze at least temporarily

3:51

paralyze that diaphragm because it's spasming

3:54

to the point where you're just nothing is working

3:56

as it should and it's it is super

3:58

super scary.

4:00

Yeah, So your diaphragm is either like you said,

4:02

paralyzed or else it's spasming. And when

4:04

that happens, not only can you not breathe in

4:07

The reason you start panicking immediately

4:10

is part of getting the wind knocked out of you. And the

4:12

reason that name is so perfect is the

4:14

first part of it is all of the air in your lungs

4:16

is expelled suddenly, so

4:18

you've got no air in reserve

4:20

and you can't breathe. That's why it sucks

4:22

so terribly terribly bad.

4:25

You're like dying for a few

4:27

seconds.

4:28

Yeah, pretty much,

4:30

I mean you are. The thing is is from everything

4:32

I've seen, it's not a life threatening thing. Your

4:35

diaphragm stops spasming like

4:40

clockwork in just a few seconds, and you

4:42

start breathing again. It takes a little while

4:44

for the panic to subside because your lizard

4:46

brain is on like overdrive, but

4:49

you will start breathing again. And

4:53

talking about the solar plexus for a second, may I

4:55

send my soapbox for a second. Yeah, So,

4:58

if you read around the internet

5:00

what causes the

5:03

wind to get knocked out of you or what happens, people

5:06

will add the solar plexus in and

5:09

at base. The reason that it gets

5:11

added as exactly as you described it, that's

5:14

where your diaphragm is, right, Yeah, But

5:16

the solar plexus specifically is

5:18

a bundle of nerves that controls

5:21

like your

5:23

guts and your stomach and your spleen and

5:25

your liver and all that stuff. And

5:27

it's actually the thing that slows down digestion

5:30

when you're in fight or flight mode. It's that solar

5:32

plexus bundle of nerves that's like, oh, Okay,

5:34

we'll just sit here for a little while while we

5:36

run the

5:39

problem that I found, and this is why

5:41

I'm on my soapbox is plenty

5:44

of people who have written articles on this kind of

5:46

thing go a step further

5:48

and say, well, your solar plexus

5:51

is temporarily disabled, and

5:53

so your diaphragm doesn't work. Your solar

5:55

plexus has nothing to do with

5:58

sending nerve signals to your diet. And

6:01

it just drove me nuts to see it

6:03

over and over and over again because they wouldn't they

6:05

wouldn't explain it. Yeah, they wouldn't go

6:07

any further. They just tossed that out. And

6:09

for anybody who doesn't know or doesn't

6:12

care to look further, like that's

6:14

that's some somebody who knows

6:16

what they're talking about wrote this fact

6:18

based, researched article and

6:20

it's just wrong. And that drives me

6:23

so crazy. Man. It's everywhere.

6:25

It's just so lazy, and it's it's just

6:27

a form of spreading this information through laziness.

6:30

Yeah, and I think, well, first

6:32

of all, I don't think it's very big deal, so.

6:33

It's it's not collectively cumulatively

6:36

it is.

6:37

Yeah, but it's uh, I think it's just

6:39

sort of a more specific bullseye

6:42

and a shorthand. For like, instead of saying, punch

6:44

someone in the diaphragm or punch someone in the stomach,

6:47

it's it's a little bit higher than that. The

6:49

solar plexus is sort of midway

6:51

between your navel and I

6:54

guess what is it, Yeah,

6:56

the bottom of your pecks. So I think it's

6:58

just sort of shorthand. But it's such such

7:01

a thing, such a shorthand, that getting

7:03

the wind knocked out of you, like a doctor

7:06

might even call it a solar plexus attack.

7:08

You go see a different

7:10

doctor. The doctor I

7:13

want to shout out a guy named Kevin Tokoff

7:15

t O k O p h at Catalyst University.

7:20

Yeah, he did a great video on all this

7:22

and went to the trouble explaining all that that the solar

7:24

plexus really doesn't have anything to do with it. It just

7:26

happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

7:28

Basically, he didn't get it worked up like you though.

7:31

Huh No, No.

7:33

He was a cool pretty cool all

7:35

right. Go check out the video because it explains this in

7:37

a pretty cool way with visuals. But we'll be

7:40

back to talk about what you might do if

7:42

you have found that you have had a

7:44

solar plexus attack right after this man,

8:10

All right, what can you do buddy if you get if you get

8:12

socked in land on your back or something.

8:14

Well, the stuff that we found is basically

8:17

talking to the coach of

8:20

the little league team. Basically,

8:23

what you want to do is you have your your the person

8:25

who had the wind knocked out of them, take a knee

8:28

right, so when he's on the ground, when knees forward, have

8:30

them raise their hands above their head and arch

8:33

their back and stick their chest out. You want

8:35

to hold their hands up and kind of pull it back a

8:37

little bit and tell them to breathe deeply,

8:39

long inhalations, short

8:42

inhalations, long exhalations, and

8:44

very quickly you will start breathing

8:46

normally or the kid

8:48

will.

8:49

Yeah, if you're by yourself, try

8:52

to get into that you know position and raise

8:55

your arms yourself. But if you're too freaked out, maybe

8:57

just sit up and in like a crowd's position. Try

9:01

and again breathe through your mouth.

9:04

Breathe in through your mouth, that is, push

9:06

your stomach out, then suck your stomach

9:08

back like try and be real, just intentional with

9:10

your breathing and try and relax, try

9:12

and stay calm. That's like the biggest thing is

9:15

like, all right, I know what's happened to me, and

9:17

that I will breathe again, So try

9:19

and kind of dim the panic a little

9:22

bit. I've also seen where

9:24

if you're near a pillow, if you follow

9:26

a tree, you're kind of out of look, I guess, But if

9:28

there is a pillow, you can put a pillow under your knees

9:32

and head and that will,

9:34

I guess, get you in a better position. But

9:37

again, if you're with someone, try

9:39

try to get them to help you or hopefully they'll

9:41

know to help you with the over the head stuff.

9:44

Right. I guess you could be a kid

9:46

who knew they were going to fall over a tree by they

9:48

were jumping out of a tree, so they strapped

9:50

a pillow to their front and back and

9:53

then found it didn't work. But then you have the pillow sandy,

9:55

when you're trying to get to the breath back in here.

9:57

Yeah yeah, but just know that you'll start breathe.

10:01

You'll get that big inhale in a matter

10:03

of seconds and then you'll

10:05

be just sort of breathing normally in a few

10:07

minutes. Usually I saw like ten to fifteen,

10:10

but I haven't seen that. It really even

10:12

takes that long.

10:13

Really long.

10:14

Yeah.

10:14

I don't remember when I or what the circumstances

10:17

were for me getting the wind knocked on me, but I definitely

10:20

have. It feels like a rite of passage.

10:22

I think so, and hopefully it does

10:24

not happen to you. But if it does, stay

10:26

calm.

10:27

One other thing though, If the breathing does not

10:29

return to normal within several

10:31

minutes or ten to fifteen minutes, go to the hospital

10:34

because you have like a frated, fractured rib

10:36

or a collapse long totally something worse

10:38

could have happened, but that's how you tell.

10:40

Yeah. Absolutely, I have a

10:42

tailbone bruise from the spring

10:44

break, like two and a half weeks ago that just

10:47

will not go away.

10:48

Man, those hurt.

10:49

Yeah, It's just every time I'm sitting

10:51

for a while and I get up and walk, I

10:53

just feels like someone's stabbing me in my right

10:56

butt cheek.

10:57

Oh, you need one of those inflatable donuts.

11:01

I guess that would help. It's just I think that a deep tailbone

11:04

brush just takes a long long time.

11:05

Yeah, to gaway. You're gonna tell us

11:07

how you got that. Was it through rope trauma?

11:10

No golf cart injury, one

11:13

of those deals. You know, golf carts when you're sitting there,

11:15

they have the little handrail that's very hard on

11:17

the side right by your hip. If

11:20

your going to sit down and your golf cart buddy

11:23

hits the gas and it

11:25

just it just drove right into my butt bone.

11:27

Oh my god. Yeah,

11:30

I'm all right though.

11:31

That's a great way to end this one, all right. Short

11:33

stuffed out.

11:37

Stuff you should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.

11:40

For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit

11:42

the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

11:44

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.