What would happen to a person if they were to eat 100 (give or take a dozen - I don’t really want to count them) rubber bands of varying width and diameter? According to the package they are in, the rubber bands have a net weight of 1.5 oz.
Would the rubber bands pass through the digestive system intact, or would the digestive process turn them into a clump of rubber that would cause a blockage? Would they make it difficult to pass solid waste, or not even be noticed as they passed?
If they were all tangled into a big ball, they could hang up almost anywhere in the digestive tract and plug things up. This could require surgery.
If they were tangled in a long strand, they could impede passage of other material, and plug things up that way. Or the far end could come out before the near end was completely swallowed, forming a sort of “Gastro-intestinal floss” (for god’s sake, don’t try this at home). The Cantor tube was designed for this purpose.
Some bits could end up making a home in the stomach, where they would probably undergo slow degradation by recurrent exposures to stomach acid over time.
My summary: It’s stupid to eat rubber bands. Don’t do it.
A coworker in desperate need of cigarette money, my unwillingness to give money away for nothing, and a bag of rubber bands…all together in the same room…I am sure you can figure out how that conversation went.
Luckily for my coworker, he had the good sense not to eat a bag full of rubber bands for $5. That whole exchange got me thinking about what exactly would happen if one were to eat that many rubber bands.
The only time I saw it used was to specifically localize bleeding in the small bowel. The patient swallowed the mercury bag with the tube attached, and then as the bag and tube progressed thru the system, contents were withdrawn from the bowel via the tube every 5 cm to check for blood.
In this particular patient, no bleeding was found. The mercury bag came out the far end, the resident removed the bag and tucked the tube back in the nether orifice, and told the patient to sit tight and see what we’d do next.
But the patient was impatient, and got tired of the tube, and pulled it back out from above, not the usual removal direction. The experience left a bad taste in his mouth. But he did get a total body flossing from it.
I have cats that simply love to eat rubber bands, and whenever we’re careless in storing them, we get cats walking around with rubber bands hanging out of their nether regions. Seems that they have a tough time getting rubber bands past the ringpiece. I imagine it would be similar in a human.
Rubber is not affected by body fluids so expect them to move through the small intestine. If the passage doesn’t tie the rubber bands into knots, it may make you think that the intestines are tying you in knots.
Ah but … This too shall pass … In sufficient time.
I note that you are usually careful to keep the rubber bands away from your cats. My friend who’s a vet specializing in cats is always after me to keep my home free of rubber bands and bits of string because they are likely to cause intestinal blockage.
That said, it can require a lot of care to keep the rubber bands out or reach. I’ve had cats that loved to hunt rubber bands because they are so jiggly when attacked.
