WEIRD STUFF: Nails, coins and glass in man’s stomach

Nails, coins and glass in man's stomach

Doctors in Turkey were left baffled after finding hundreds of coins and batteries in a man's stomach.

Burhan Demir took his younger brother to the hospital when he complained of abdominal pains and the medics were astonished to discover 233 items in his stomach after performing an endoscopy.

The patient, named only as Z, had coins, batteries, magnets, nails, pieces of glass, stones and screws inside his body.

One surgeon -- named as Dr Binici -- said: "During the surgery, we saw that one or two of the nails had passed through the stomach wall.

"We saw that there were two metal pieces and two stones of different sizes in the large intestine.

"We found that there were batteries, magnets, nails, coins, pieces of glass and screws. We cleaned his stomach completely.

"It is not a situation we see in adults, it is mostly in childhood and unconsciously swallowed foreign bodies."

Smoking cannabis can make people nicer -- study

A new study claims that those who had recently used cannabis were found to be more empathetic than non-weed-smokers.

Cannabis users also scored "significantly higher" on measurements of decision-making, based on a sense of fairness and a desire to avoid harm to others.

Dope-smoking men were also found to have more agreeable personalities.

The team at the University of New Mexico studied the personalities of healthy students for the research, and measured their drug intake by examining the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol in their urine.

The study is one of the first to show the healthy effects of smoking cannabis.

Lead investigator Professor Jacob Miguel Vigil said: "(Cannabis is) not only effective for treating symptoms of a range of health conditions, but now we have evidence it may help improve the average person's psychosocial health."

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Sex could ease hay fever

Scientists have claimed that making love is the ideal way to get rid of seasonal allergy after a study in Iran found a link between intercourse and a reduction of symptoms.

The allergy-related illness, which is also called hay fever, causes coldlike signs and symptoms, such as a runny nose, itchy eyes, congestion, sneezing and sinus pressure. It is caused by an allergic response to outdoor or indoor allergens such as pollen, dust mites, or tiny flecks of skin and saliva shed by cats, dogs, and other animals with fur or feathers.

Experts claim that sex tightens the blood vessels in both the nose and eyes, which could alleviate some of the condition's most irritating symptoms.

Neurologist Sina Zarrintan said: "It can be done from time to time to alleviate the congestion, and the patient can adjust the number of intercourses, depending on the symptoms."

However, Dr Gareth Nye, a lecturer at Chester Medical School, has cast doubt on the theory. He suggested that sex sessions could actually make the symptoms worse.

"With the average length of intercourse being around five minutes, you won't get relief from hay fever for very long, if it does in fact work.

"If anything, your symptoms may worsen after sexual intercourse, because, if blood is being drawn away from the nose, there is less immune system presence to control the allergens," Nye argued.

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