# Can you puke your guts out? \[changed title\]
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 16, 2005, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608 "2005-04-16T06:01:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MsCrystal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsCrystal)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/1 "2005-04-16T06:01:22Z")
While searching the internet for an answer, I came upon this site. After not finding the answer I was looking for, I decided this would be a great place to ask. So here it is: Can you actually “Puke your guts Out”?
---
### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/2 "2005-04-16T07:04:22Z")
Only if you eat them first. Even then, it’s pretty hard to pull off.
The short answer is “no.”
A slightly longer answer is that vomiting only ejects the contents of the stomach.
A still longer (and somewhat more disgusting) answer be that, while the _heaving_ part of vomiting only empties the stomach, part of the process leading up to the ejection is ‘reverse peristalsis’, which means that the direction stuff moves through your intestines changes and the goods end up back in your stomach, all the better to be rapidly ejected.
There have been no known instances of anyone’s digestive tract actually turning inside-out, detaching, and ending up splashing into the toilet bowl, although people who’ve consumed an inadvisable amount of root-beer schnapps while eating pizza, nachos, and buffalo wings all night have expressed genuine concern about such an eventuality.
---
### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/3 "2005-04-16T07:09:10Z")
**would** \<— Whoops, that apparently slipped out of that awkward fourth paragraph, somewhere.
---
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/4 "2005-04-16T09:40:19Z")
You can apparantly vomit your _eyes_ out, as per the [recent column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050415.html).
---
### Author:  [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/5 "2005-04-16T11:13:52Z")
Some sharks will regurgitate their stomachs when stressed.
---
### Author:  [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/6 "2005-04-16T12:57:36Z")
It helps to have descriptive titles. I’ve changed the title for you.
**DrMatrix** - GQ Moderator
---
### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/7 "2005-04-16T16:12:37Z")
Some sea creature eats that way normally - yurks its stomach up, which eats whatever, and then sucks it back down again. Starfish, maybe?
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/8 "2005-04-16T16:34:41Z")
The medical term for puking one’s guts out is esophagoptosis, but it’s incredibly rare, and generally due to either severe trauma, or anatomic anomalies or both.
---
### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/9 "2005-04-16T16:42:32Z")
You can definitely—at least if you’re not yet fully grown—_whirlpool_ your guts out. [Cite.](http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2004/7/16/15584/3798) ( **Warning:** while not graphic, cite is gross and possibly traumatic.)
---
### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/10 "2005-04-16T20:01:15Z")
**Qadgop** – Esophagal prolapse? Ewwww. I didn’t think there anything nastier than a rectal prolapse.
But, uh, isn’t “guts” generally understood to refer to your stomach and bowel? Is your esophagus included in the category of “guts?” (My grasp of this technical jargon is limited.) 😉
---
### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/11 "2005-04-16T21:19:50Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#):
>
> There have been no known instances of anyone’s digestive tract actually turning inside-out, detaching, and ending up splashing into the toilet bowl, although people who’ve consumed an inadvisable amount of root-beer schnapps while eating pizza, nachos, and buffalo wings all night have expressed genuine concern about such an eventuality.
Been there sadly. While not exactly the mix you mentioned was what I had the idea is the same. I had the dry heaves so bad I actually got seriously concerned I would literally puke my guts out. Scary and painful. Thanksfully I only managed to do that once and learned my lesson (albeit the hard way).
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/12 "2005-04-16T21:29:31Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#):
>
> **Qadgop** – Esophagal prolapse? Ewwww. I didn’t think there anything nastier than a rectal prolapse.
>
> But, uh, isn’t “guts” generally understood to refer to your stomach and bowel? Is your esophagus included in the category of “guts?” (My grasp of this technical jargon is limited.) 😉
Guts to me mean the tube that is the digestive system, so I’d put the esophagus down as a part of the gut. But that’s just me.
---
### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/13 "2005-04-16T22:12:44Z")
Huh! [It’s _not_ just you](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=guts).
> [@](#):
>
> The alimentary canal or a portion thereof, especially the intestine or stomach.
Down in my guts, though, something about the more inclusive definition seems wrong.
---
### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/14 "2005-04-16T23:03:37Z")
[Puking your guts out after world war III](http://www.schouwer-online.de/technik/zivilschutz_atomicattack.htm):
> [@](#):
>
> Should you be caught upstairs or in the open at the time of a bombing, you might soak up a serious dose of explosive radioactivity. Even so, the first indication that you had been pierced by the rays probably wouldn’t show up for a couple of hours. Then you most likely would get sick at your stomach and begin to vomit.
[How big a dose would it take?](http://www.arkinstitute.com/newpage2.htm):
> [@](#):
>
> Medium Doses of Radiation: At 400-600 Rads, victims would contract gastrointestinal radiation symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea soon after exposure,lasting several days, and then apparent improvement. After a few days to a week, bloody vomit and diarrhea would occur as victim’s stomachs and intestines shed their radiation-damaged linings. Even if these victims had intensive medical treatment, most would die.
---
### Author:  [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/15 "2005-04-17T00:10:17Z")
Well, I once got seasick while sailing on Lake Michigan, after eating a half box of Ritz crackers without liquid in the preceeding 15 minutes. I was throwing up these big solid chunks of Ritz, tapered at both ends just like turds. Essentially shitting backwards. The nausea was bad but the pain was much, much worse.
Also- not exactly puking your guts out, but I did have the pleasure of treating a woman who had shit her guts out. Mind you, this was not some simple rectal prolapse (although the ER doc thought that it was). She had altually perforated a large rectal ulcer and multiple loops of small bowel had slipped through the perforation, into the rectum, and thence out of her anus. And she was sitting, bolt upright on the gurney, right on top of them! Jesus, it still gives me a chill years later…
---
### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/16 "2005-04-17T02:39:30Z")
According to the non-fiction book, **The Hot Zone** , when suffering the end symptoms of Marburgh Virus and Ebola, one can literally vomit up one’s stomach lining and defecate out one’s lower intestines. Then again, one’s body is liquifying from within so pretty much everything goes.
Last week’s very serious [Marburg Outbreak](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/04/0405_050405_marburgangola.html). :eek:
Cartooniverse
---
### Author:  [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2005, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/17 "2005-04-17T03:27:05Z")
> [@brossa](#):
>
> Also- not exactly puking your guts out, but I did have the pleasure of treating a woman who had shit her guts out. Mind you, this was not some simple rectal prolapse (although the ER doc thought that it was). She had altually perforated a large rectal ulcer and multiple loops of small bowel had slipped through the perforation, into the rectum, and thence out of her anus. And she was sitting, bolt upright on the gurney, right on top of them! Jesus, it still gives me a chill years later…
Oh am I ever glad I didn’t study medicine…
Um, according to a guy I know who is a vet student, cows who have just given birth can cause themselves to have a uterine prolapse, that is they keep pushing after the calf is born, and they push their uterus inside out and out of their vagina. :eek: :eek:
---
### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2005, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/18 "2005-04-17T06:12:12Z")
Last year, I managed to give myself a minor umbilical hernia by attempting to vomit. Thanks to a fundoplication, my stomach’s a one-way ride. The force of the muscle contractions had to go somewhere, and they found a weak spot. Fortunately, it was very minor and manifested as no more than a sore spot. So yes, in a way, I cam close to puking my guts out.
---
### Author:  [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2005, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-puke-your-guts-out-changed-title/299608/19 "2005-04-17T16:32:50Z")
> [@Sarah Woodruff](#):
>
> Oh am I ever glad I didn’t study medicine…
> Um, according to a guy I know who is a vet student, cows who have just given birth can cause themselves to have a uterine prolapse, that is they keep pushing after the calf is born, and they push their uterus inside out and out of their vagina. :eek: :eek:
Humans can have vaginal and anal prolapses too.