Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: The Moon

Episode Date: October 19, 2017

The moon is more than just a big hunk of cheese. Actually, it's not even really cheese. Did you think it was cheese? Wow, you know less about the moon that we thought. Dr. Sydnee and Justin's history ...of all the things we blame the moon for is going to be extra super educational for you, huh? Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Saubones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books. One, two, one, not a sense, the escalant macaque for the mouth. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, got the fully in there. Oh, okay. Trying to set a spooky mood for this very spooky episode. I don't know that it's, I don't know that it's very spooky.
Starting point is 00:01:30 The Spooky, the moon is the Sun's spooky brother. Is that, is that your theory? Yeah. Yeah. And it's big rock, but also it's the Sun's spooky brother. I don't know if the moon is inherently spooky, but I think we can all agree that for some reason, we connect the full moon with strange happenings.
Starting point is 00:01:57 Like a thrope. Yes. That, that, of course, were wolves, but also just maybe Dracula's no well sure. Yes, of course, but also just kind of unusual things happening or Higher like no like a higher likelihood of Jason a higher likelihood of Jason of Jason, the higher likelihood of Jason of the his old tricks. I mean that we tend to believe that the full moon could indicate that there's going to be some unusual human behavior exaggerated behavior.
Starting point is 00:02:37 Frankenstein. Something wild might happen. Right. Yes. And that's what you want to talk about this week on solbones. Well, that's the reason that I'm connecting that to solbones is that this myth, this, this theory, is rampant in the medical world. Really? Yes. Right now? Yes. Oh. Yes. To this day. There's a commonly held belief in medicine that if, if you're having a night in the emergency
Starting point is 00:03:07 room where it just seems like there's maybe way more patients than on average or the cases that are coming in are just a lot more unusual or unexpected or kind of a bizarrely large number of accidents or traumas or anything like that, that you'll look out the window and see that full moon, because it's the full moon that's to blame. And that belief is, like I said, it's, you would be surprised how many scientific-minded people still caught that? Still absolutely believe that. And I thought we should talk about why, why, why, where does that come from?
Starting point is 00:03:47 Tell me, Sydney, I'm on the edge of my comfy chair. Well, thank you to Alma, who recommended this topic. And why do we believe this? A lot of, a lot of what we think about the moon and behavior in general, whether you're talking about medical related topics or just what affect the moon has on us. A lot of it comes down to tides. Depends on tides.
Starting point is 00:04:11 No, like the actual ocean tides. Ah, okay. Because the moon's kind of in charge of those. Yeah, the moon. The moon is the sun spooky brother and also is in charge of tides. The boss of tides. The boss of tides. The boss of tides. So connecting to that because human beings are largely water,
Starting point is 00:04:33 there is a belief that the moon has an effect on us because it is pulling or pushing on our internal ocean. On our body water and making us do things, act ways, think things, et cetera. As any of that, is that ring true for me, but I'm assuming maybe it is true. No, no, I mean, the idea, it's not true, because the idea is that we're talking about the gravitational
Starting point is 00:04:58 force that the moon is exerting on a human body, being strong enough to create, I guess, internal tides. It's very poetic. Your internal tides are shifting. Yeah, it's a lovely thought. But they're not. But they're not. There's several problems with this theory.
Starting point is 00:05:19 First of all, if we're going to say that the full moon is responsible for strange human behavior because of tides, you would also have to say that the new moon is responsible because it also exerts force and creates tides. Just less because you can't see. Oh, okay. All right. It's going to be all those tricky episodes. The same.
Starting point is 00:05:43 We're laying a few traps. But nobody talks about the new moon and all of the things that happen on the new moon. Also, to give you kind of a point of reference, a mother holding a baby exerts 12 million times the force on that baby that the moon does. Wow. Yes. So if you want to talk about like gravitational pull and forces, the idea that the moon could have a strong impact on your individual human brain doesn't make much sense. A mosquito on your
Starting point is 00:06:12 arm is exerting more force on you than the moon. Okay. Well, I'm starting to feel less scared than the moon by the moment. And then finally, the moon only affects open bodies of water. So like an ocean or like like I could go on. I know lots of bodies water keep thinking about bodies of water. I'll tell you this. The body of water that is your body, which is a body of water. Yeah, that's true. That's technically true. The closed system. The water is like in you. So the moon doesn't, it couldn't. So not, okay, so the theory doesn't
Starting point is 00:07:07 make sense, but that's where all of this comes from. That's the kind of the central idea, and our belief that the moon can then using tides or, or of course throughout history various maybe magical thinking as well. But whatever your belief is scientific or otherwise, this is dates back to ancient times. There was a long held belief that one of the most common effects the moon could have on your behavior was that it could cause mental illness or exacerbate underlying psychiatric disease.
Starting point is 00:07:43 So if somebody had already been diagnosed with something or maybe this would be the first time you would notice it, that you would see evidence of that illness because the full moon would trigger it in some way. All right. And this is why if you look at the word, if you look at the word for moon, Luna, if you're like a lunar,
Starting point is 00:08:04 if you're talking about the root of that word, you'll notice that it is closely related to the word lunatic or lunacy. Not words that we use anymore, but that's where that comes from. The idea that the moon is influencing people's behavior. Yeah, but that's all it is that there's I mean it that we're talking about a time where we didn't understand that psychiatric illness really existed so for all we knew it was the moon influencing people. Why not is it good to guess anything yeah. Hippocrates wrote about this really for people that it be like well that one is actually the moon there's actually this one we can't help. We're gonna go and check that just up to the moon as opposed to all the things we're so good at doing other things
Starting point is 00:08:46 But for this one is just like that one's the moon so that was the moon But that other thing you have going on. What is it? I don't know. It's a humor thing Here's the point take this it's gonna make you poop a lot and when you're done come back I'll cut you up and we'll bleed you a bit Feel how you're stuff lucky. it's not moon centric. But the moon thing we have no, maybe that's the safest thing really because at least they're not going to try to treat you. Yeah, they're not going to be worse.
Starting point is 00:09:14 Hypocrite's wrote about it that the one who is seized with terror fright and madness during the night is being visited by the goddess of the moon. So I guess nightmares, insomnia. Yeah, more poetry, poetic way. Exactly, but same idea that somehow the moon is influencing your ability to function at night. Of course, plenty of the elder had to weigh in. And you know, you could take a step back and be impressed by the fact that plenty following in the footsteps of Aristotle understood the idea of tides and the moons influence. That's impressive. It's very sciencey.
Starting point is 00:09:52 Yeah, it is. It's very solid. Although what he also, the way he connected this to human behavior is that the brain in his opinion was the moistest, the moistest. You got the truth. Of the moistest of our organs. Right, the organs in order of moistest. I will never do that. Okay, you really hit that word on you. I heard where it really bothers you. Yes.
Starting point is 00:10:17 You got really upset when I said it yesterday and then the other show was happening. I think it's an upsetting word for a lot of people. It is. It's a definite, if it's a divided trigger for some of them. Definitely. We should add that to it. I am sorry.
Starting point is 00:10:29 I will say that word in the show. Just in the show. Yeah. You should mention that front. But because he thought that the brain was that it would be the most susceptible to the moon's influence on tides because you got the most, I guess, the most water in your brain. So I mean, there's there's CSF fluid up there and there's ventricles filled with it.
Starting point is 00:10:49 Sorry, bro, spinal fluid, you mean sitting here? Very good. Yeah. Very good. But again, we've already, we've already completely debunked that. So it doesn't make sense. But that was that, that was the basis for that theory. In the middle ages, this began to be known as, and actually you'll still find this term today, the Transylvania effect. No. No. No, I'm not familiar.
Starting point is 00:11:10 Okay, well, believe me. I thought you were just refusing to believe me. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, effect, meaning basically that the full moon is going to have some sort of spooky effect on you. And that's where you get like the tie into a lot of vampire mythology and werewolf mythology and that kind of thing. And you know, if you already have this sort of belief that the full moon is going to make humans behave less like humans or like a different human, then it would be easy to extend that into a werewolf type. Why not? Myth. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can see.
Starting point is 00:11:50 Everybody lets cross over. Well, you can see the roots of that. Yeah. The origins of those stories. In 18th century England, if you, let's say that you killed somebody. Okay. And they never proved anything. Well, but no, you've, you already said you did somebody. Okay. Is there a preview of anything? Well, but no, you already said you did it.
Starting point is 00:12:09 Oh, okay. But if you've been caught and you could prove that you did it on the night of a full moon, you could kind of request a lighter sentence. Because the moon. Because it was the moon's fault, not really yours. I love that. Yeah. And you could actually, it was your grounds were at the time, what they would call lunacy. The moon had an effect on me.
Starting point is 00:12:32 It was not my fault. I had no control over my behavior. You can't blame me. It was the moon. Blame it on the moon. Blame it on the moon. Yeah. Is that like a, no, that's the moon. Yeah. Is that like a no that's the boss an over.
Starting point is 00:12:47 Layman on the boss and over. That's what you're thinking of. That's not it. Blame it on the rain. That's what it was. You can blame it on the moon, but that's not a song as far as I know. It might be. It could be there's actually lots of songs. Is there a blame blend on the moon by Bob Seeker now that shame on the moon. Oh, I'm in the moon by Katie Malua So there you go. There are there are songs were there They are imploring you please blame it on the moon
Starting point is 00:13:20 And London's Bethlehem Hospital they actually would take it a step further because there was this fear that patients who were there for psychiatric reasons would be influenced by the moon, by the full moon, to do things that they typically wouldn't do to have more extreme behaviors. They would be shackled on certain nights to try to prevent that behavior. It's so wild to me that we were able to understand that the moon affected tides and yet we thought that inside of building the moon could still get you and do things. Well, I mean, we, I don't know, honey, we just didn't
Starting point is 00:14:06 understand much. Yeah, no, I mean, that's, I'm not asking for you to mount a defense. I've been here for a while too. Human behavior is difficult. It's difficult to this day to categorize and to diagnose. And at a time when we didn't have, I mean, you wouldn't have had the language to understand sure, any of this. But we worked out that the moon, a giant rock at a time when we didn't have, I mean, you wouldn't have had the language to understand. Sure. Any of this. But we worked out that the moon,
Starting point is 00:14:28 a giant rock in space, all turned the tides, which is a pretty big jump. I mean, all these considered. And then we're like, what else? I mean, they got greedy as well, it was. They made one discovery in their life I guess it does a lot of things with liquids. Let's come on like brain liquid brain liquid. Yeah
Starting point is 00:14:53 epilepsy has been blamed on the moon in the past We've talked we've done a whole episode on epilepsy that because seizures and epilepsy for a long time were so poorly understood and could be very unsettling to observe that there were lots of theories about. But there's a lot of that epilepsy and psychiatric illness getting lumped together throughout history, right? Yes. And then like the tie-in with magic and witchcraft or possession, exactly those kinds of
Starting point is 00:15:24 things just because it was hard for people to understand and a patient who has a seizure is not able to explain to you afterwards. Well, let me tell you exactly what just happened. You know, they're not conscious story. Right. But, you know, so it was, they were very poorly understood. So it was easy to leap from there to assumptions that the moon could trigger seizures. And you know, you see somebody have a seizure and you happen to look up in its full moon and then
Starting point is 00:15:51 you just assume. Yeah. Well, there you go. Well, that's the thing, right? Like, your acne glows up and you look at it's a full moon. It's like, oh, cool. The meat, the moon here's at me. Neat. It's as silly as that sounds. How many times is that really what an episode boils down to. Yeah, absolutely. I'm not the hit the hips are my favorite. Whatever happened the moment before your hiccups naturally stopped is what cured your hiccups. I think it's magical thinking many many patients even began to believe this and fear the effect of the full moon really? Because they didn't like I said, you, it's not like you would understand your seizures yourself
Starting point is 00:16:27 back then. So it could be the full moon. It's something's doing it. Many people claim insomnia on full moon nights that you're, especially if you're some of you suffer from insomnia periodically, that it's worse on the night of a full moon. I wonder, you know what? I wonder in the days back before we had a lot of electric lights, if there might be something to that,
Starting point is 00:16:50 like it's a whole thing on that. Really? Oh, cool. I don't want to get in there. Sorry. But I will say this, evidence has never really backed up. The idea that there is a higher incidence of insomnia on nights of a full moon. There have been some small studies that found maybe like an overall decrease in sleep time
Starting point is 00:17:13 of five minutes on a night of a full moon is compared to the average night, but they were very small studies and the results were not particularly significant and they've not been reproducible. And so as much as even people like I said who suffer from insomnia will say it gets worse on the night of a full moon, we haven't really been able to scientifically prove that. There was also a study from 1980 of 312 people who have periods that found that 40% of them started their menstrual cycle within two weeks of a full moon. This is not, even when I say that, that doesn't sound impressive, right?
Starting point is 00:17:55 40% of people in this study started their period within two weeks of a full moon. Yeah, if you're on the numbers, that just about tracks. Right, even that statistic, I read it, and I thought I don don't know what I don't know if this is a positive or negative. I don't know what you've proven. Right. And it's never been reproduced since again, 312 people in 1980. However, this is used to to this day as evidence that somehow the moon can affect. Okay. Now I hate to quibble about this, but isn't. Okay. Are you going to try to make a case that it does?
Starting point is 00:18:32 No, I'm going to say isn't within two weeks of the full moon cover the entirety of the lunar cycle. Uh, no. No, I guess it's just the month, the half month before the half month after, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, what you're, what you start running into are like the overlap of the lunar cycle and the menstrual cycle and how many days on average they both tend to run. I'm saying that if you're talking about it's two weeks away from full moon, right?
Starting point is 00:19:06 It's always either two weeks before or two weeks after the full moon, right? I guess, yeah. So within two weeks of a full moon would be four weeks, right? This, I know. It seems, yeah. I'm sure they didn't mean it like that. It's confusing to do this thing. There's also, well, I mean, it doesn't mean anything.
Starting point is 00:19:23 I don't think. It doesn't mean anything. I don't, I think it's why I'm not trying to read into it. I think that's the problem, but somehow it's been used as like a, it's confusing, it's just like, there's also, well, I mean, it doesn't mean anything, I don't think. It doesn't mean anything. I don't think it's, why am I kind of read into it? I think that's the problem, but somehow it's been used as like a, well, don't you remember that one study, that one study about moons and periods? You'll remember.
Starting point is 00:19:34 It's very important, I bet that you've been at two weeks leading up to a full moon, I bet. But this, perhaps, I said two weeks with that. But this, this is just the beginning of the connection that people try to draw between the moon and menstrual cycles and fertility and pregnancy in general. Well, tell me more. I'm going to tell you about it, but first come with me to the billing department. Let's go.
Starting point is 00:19:58 The medicines, the medicines that ask you let myques for the mouth. So you're going to tell me a more more moon, more moon heat. So as I said, this idea that somehow the moon is connected to menstrual cycles and ovulation and fertility and all that kind of thing is more than just moons and periods. In the 1950s, there was a check doctor, Eugene Jonas, who... You want to check, look like something else? I know a guy who would, uh, could sneak a zero or two in there. He's a check doctor.
Starting point is 00:20:38 Fix that up. Make a little real nice big check. That's where you're going there? Check doctor. Yeah, a real clean work. Anyway, Dr. Jonas, the story goes that he was motivated in this search and what he would uncover. He was motivated by his religious beliefs in response to recent check law
Starting point is 00:21:01 that had been passed allowing for abortions and that he was a very religious person and he was morally opposed and so he kind of as a way to channel his energy he began looking for a way to medically ensure fertility and healthy births and to kind of help promote birth. Like that was his goal. Not necessarily to change the law, but just on the other end of things. Well, I'm just going to make more people have babies. And so in his search for this, he stumbled across
Starting point is 00:21:41 an ancient Assyrian astrological text that cited certain mathematical formulas you could use and by calculating angles of the moon and working out like your nativity on the days that you were born in order to figure out when you are most fertile and most likely to conceive. So based on his readings, he discovered this kind of secret second cycle that people who have menstrual cycles are able to undergo, and it's all based on the moon, and it's totally separate. Okay. It's not your period.
Starting point is 00:22:27 It's a secret thing that the moon is doing to you, to your uterus and your ovaries, but it's a secret, but he discovered it. So now the secret can be yours. It has to do the angle between the sun and the moon at the exact time of your birth. And so if you can figure out the time of your birth and like the time of day and what that angle was and you can figure out when that's going to occur at a given day when you are already determined your most fertile, that is the time of day during which you should have in our course in order to conceive.
Starting point is 00:23:02 Oh, cool. And you have... Why isn't everybody talking about the information? The day that you need to do this, so you calculate the time. The day you need to do it is two days prior to the day that the moon is in the same position as it was when you were born, because that's the day you're going to ovulate regardless of where you are in your menstrual cycle. So you may be right in the middle of your period, but if it's two days before the moon is in the same position as it was on the day you were born,
Starting point is 00:23:29 you are going to ovulate. And if you go to the exact time that the angle of the sun in the moon is the way that it was when you were born, if you have sex at that moment, then you'll definitely, definitely conceive. This seems so powerful. Why am I just not hearing about it? It's all over the internet. If you look up the Jonas method, you will find endless, like modern sites describing to you how to do this. This is not, this is not gone. Now I can see why his brothers don't talk about it more.
Starting point is 00:23:59 The rest of the Jonas brothers, I mean, I need to go there. I took the long way around to make you think that I wasn't. And then what's that behind the bush and ask? It's a comedy-ass-p waiting to strike. Then we're coming back. So he called this science? Cindy, no, dear, no, sweetie, no. Salman's got near brain, no.
Starting point is 00:24:23 No, maybe it's a near brain now. It's drama chief. No, maybe it's drama chief. I can great. Whatever you want to say this is, he called it Cosmo Biology. That is so good. Oh, it's my favorite, right? Actually, beppers out. I like it too because in my head,
Starting point is 00:24:38 when I hear Cosmo Biology, I think of a biology textbook brought to you by Cosmo. Sure. To break, it's like biology, but then like, lipstick by Cosmo. Sure. To Frank. It's like biology, but then like, lipstick tips or something. I don't know. Anyway, and he based in it.
Starting point is 00:24:50 See how to make your, see how to make your Colgibotties really pop for your special man. That was good. Colgibotties, you pulled that out of nowhere. Thanks. And he based an entire family planning method on this hypothesis, as I said, the Jonas method,
Starting point is 00:25:07 which you can still read about, which I think if you want in like at a lot of places, if you try to get explained in depth, you have to pay, and they'll do the math for you. I think it'll sketch you. Yeah, they'll calculate all this stuff for you. The fact that there's not just a website where I get this type of in, it seems.
Starting point is 00:25:23 There are those, but if you really want like the full deal with like the big chart with like the moon phases in different days and telling you what time and day you should have sex and all that kind of stuff I think I think there are places you can pay to get that done he also and this wasn't enough though like all this sounds like a well-meaning guy who's trying to help people who, I mean, I'm assuming people who are coming to him and saying, I would like to conceive, I would like to have help having a child to misguided, for sure, but way to try to help them figure that out. He took it a step further. He believed that you could use these methods to control the gender of your child as well. So if you could figure out the position,
Starting point is 00:26:05 your parents did it. No. Please don't ever figure that out. The position of the moon at the time of conception will consider your gender. And this is pretty straightforward. So you know, there's like your astrological sign, it's like your son's sign, like your Scorpio. Sure, yeah. That kind of thing. Yeah. Okay. Like there's some, you have a moon sign too Sure, yeah. That kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. Okay. You have a moon sign too? Oh great. Moon is great. They're the same signs. It's just different.
Starting point is 00:26:30 Can't believe just not finding out about this. Yeah. So you have a moon sign. So the position of the moon on the day that you can see is based on what astrological sign that corresponds with will decide what gender your child is. So if the moon is in Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sedgittarius, Aquarius, you get a boy, Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces,
Starting point is 00:26:50 you get a girl. Okay. Pretty straightforward. So once you've done all that math, you can pay for your charts, you get all that. You very technically scientifically start doing it. And then you get a baby. That's science folks. That's, let me tell you get a baby. That's science folks.
Starting point is 00:27:05 That's let me tell you about the birds and the moon and the sun. And the Jonas method. So there's the Jonas method. I don't believe there's any evidence that any of that works. Whoa, slow down. It all sounded very plausible. So, with all this in mind, all these different theories, so people think that the moon can affect psychiatric behavior, it can affect fertility.
Starting point is 00:27:36 It'll affect ER visits, it'll affect birth rates in general. Your brain meat, your stomach. Yeah, exactly. And with your periods and with all of this, the question is, is it true? So as I've already alluded to, people who work in medicine think it is. A 2011 study from the World Journal of Surgery found that 40% of medical staff believe
Starting point is 00:28:01 that on nights of a full moon, there is an increase incidence of one or several of these different things. Right. So how the moon is effective. Did you ever notice it? Like, did you ever feel this? I have. I have never, myself noticed it.
Starting point is 00:28:16 Who's going outside to look at the moon? That's question one for me. Well, and I think that's part of it for me. I don't know if maybe if you talked to ER staff, it would be a different view. I only worked overnight as a resident and in residency, you don't really go outside. Right. Ever.
Starting point is 00:28:33 Forever. Until you stumble out of the hospital after 30 hours into the blinding sun and have no idea where or when or what's happened. I certainly didn't know what phase the moon was in at any time. No, man. So I don't think there's any way for me to do that. But if you live, you know, if your career, if your life is shift work, where you work at night, you get used to it,
Starting point is 00:28:52 you may be more likely to notice these things. Sure. Uh, there was a study from Iran in 2004 that, that tried to check this out, see is this true. So we know that medical staff believe it is true. They analyzed three emergency departments over the course of 13 months, and they found absolutely no variation in ER visits based on the lunar cycle. So it didn't matter where the moon was, what phase the moon was in, you average about the same number. So what, but like why it seems like such an easy thing
Starting point is 00:29:22 to prove? Why is it still kicking around? It's very easy to prove. There's another study in 92 from Canada that showed no relation between full moons and calls to trauma or poison centers. And yet another 1992 study that showed no relationship between full moons and suicide. So all of these kinds of myths have been studied. I always wonder who funded these.
Starting point is 00:29:41 Yeah. It seems like whether it's it's so sort of like, probably not. Yeah. It seems weird. Is there a earth check? I guess just chart reviews, but still, who might find it?
Starting point is 00:29:52 Probably universities, right? University, yeah. Got you something. So anyway, despite all this, why do we believe it? Well, first of all, for a very basic reason, that humans don't like things that are unpredictable. Right. We don't like when things are out of our control. Well, if they're rocks of the moon.
Starting point is 00:30:10 If you're Charlie, you want to punch it. You want to punch it. You want to punch the moon. Because the moon comes out in the day sometimes. What's he doing up there? Yeah, you can't control the moon. But then now, all of a sudden, we have this concept that maybe the moon controls us and we don't
Starting point is 00:30:25 like that. We don't like that. So we try to find patterns that we can apply to the world to make sense of it. Even though you can't control the way the moon might influence your behavior, you can prepare for the fact that the moon definitely does and stay home on nights of the moon. I guess change yourself up. Like a buffy. like check your check your work shifts ahead of time and make sure you're not working on a night of a full moon. I
Starting point is 00:30:50 guess. I don't know. We like the idea that we can predict and plan out the world and therefore we make sense of it and we have more control. And it's also just confirmation bias. So let's say that you are working in an ER and you have a particularly busy night where a lot of unusual kinds of things happen. As you're leaving, you see it's a full moon and you think, well, there you go. And you always remember that night. You'll forget all the nights where you had a really busy, unusual night and it wasn't a full moon.
Starting point is 00:31:19 You'll forget all the nights that it was a full moon and it was a pretty mundane shift. You just remember the evidence that supports your assumption and you forget everything that refutes it, which is not just true of medical staff and ERs, of course, it's true of all of us as humans all the time. We like to do that. Some have argued exactly what you said, Justin, that maybe the origins of this are in a time before a lot of electric lighting indoor lighting. So you, so the moon is out, everybody can stay out and drink later. They just go full debauch. Well, in general, the idea that if you don't have any artificial sources of light, your night and day schedules are a lot more clearly dictated by the moon and the sun.
Starting point is 00:32:10 You're sure Katie and Ratham's. And so you would be maybe more prone to be more active, be out later, and maybe do stunts. Cool sort of dangerous stunts. Cool dangerous stunts because you've got more light by the full moon to do. I still ramp your bike over a pedal cab.
Starting point is 00:32:29 That's exactly what people were doing in ancient times prior to any sort of lighting. Yeah. But so there is that theory that maybe that's why we used to believe that. Maybe that did lead to insomnia. Well, it's bad outside, right? I really mean brighter.
Starting point is 00:32:46 And so it's talking about, man, it's just bright. And certainly, if you want to continue to extrapolate that, we know that if you do have underlying psychiatric illness, a stretch of day, a night where you don't get a good night's sleep or you do have insomnia, that can exacerbate that. Yeah. But now we have lamps, so none of that really makes sense. So yeah, we're all fine.
Starting point is 00:33:10 Yeah. One interesting little note, this, all of this stuff I've said may not apply to animals. In studying 11,940 cases, so significant number of cases at the Colorado State University Veterinary Medical Center, researchers found that the risk of emergency room visits for pets is 23% higher for cats and 28% higher for dogs on day surrounding hormones. I got nothing for that. I got nothing. All I'm saying is everything else I've just said apparently only applies to humans.
Starting point is 00:33:45 Check back with us on Sub-Ons too, where we answer all these lingering questions. No, I will never be able to answer questions about any other animals in the human animal. I don't know anything about them. Sorry, sorry. Folks, that is gonna do it for us. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast
Starting point is 00:34:01 of being Georgia's help. Sorry, Miss you last week. I was doing a thing and I couldn't be here to a part. And Charlie got sick and... Charlie got sick and then... This life just happened. It must have been a full moon. And...
Starting point is 00:34:14 That's not true. The last full moon was October 5th. You just keep that on hand, sort of in your mind's eye. No, I look it up. Tomorrow's a new moon. Oh, we're looking forward to it. Happy new moon.
Starting point is 00:34:25 Do the day you hear this, Brad. Which one will, what color will be this time? Who knows? No, wait. That, uh, thanks Max for Network for having us on. Um, if you're looking for a new Max Fun Show that kind of has, I think Subbins listeners would dig Adam Ruins everything is not just a very fun TV show. It is also a podcast on a network and the same guy.
Starting point is 00:34:48 I enjoy it, so I think you would. Yeah, so check it out. Adam Ruins Everything on iTunes or MaxwellFund.org. And folks, that's gonna do it for us for this week. Oh, thanks, the taxpayers for letting us use your song medicines as the intro and outro. No one says outro. Can you ever remember that?
Starting point is 00:35:05 I know. You just intro is introduction. Yeah. Intro is introduction, but out-show is not out-production. No. It's something to think about. A few people sit, stuff to our post office box. Megan, since we've got books, thank you Sarah. I sent a beautiful junk journal that
Starting point is 00:35:26 she made. I know it doesn't sound beautiful because I called it junk, but that was her name. She called it that, not us. It was a lovely object. Thank you, Derray. Thank you all. You did that. And that's going to do it for us folks. So this week. So until next week, my name is Justin McRoy. I'm Sydney McRoy. And as always, don't drill a hole in your head. Alright! Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artistone
Starting point is 00:36:07 Listener supported. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Why not listen to another podcast too? It's called the Flop House and on our podcast We have recently watched a movie often a bad movie and we review it on our podcast But mainly talk about other stuff and I don't know hang out It's all about hang out feeling like you're being with your best friends who are your best friends us three Dan McCoy and me award winning writer for the Daily Show, Stuart Wellington, owner of the best bar in Brooklyn, Hintrolands, and Elliott Kalen. Former Emmy winning head writer for the Daily Show with John Stuart, former head writer of Mystery Science, Theatre 3000, the Return, uh, so many things. Author of the upcoming Children's Book Store.
Starting point is 00:36:58 All right, that's enough. The Elliot's credits just go on and on. Yeah, but if you like the idea of listening to three funny guys talk about bad movies, then why not come over and listen to the flop house. It's available at MaximumFund.org or wherever Fine Podcasts are found. So get out of here!

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