# Has anyone ever died pushing out a turd? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2004, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386 "2004-03-15T05:38:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/21 "2004-03-15T21:55:29Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > I heard is as “valsalva’d out” in my EMT days. Isn’t that a Richie Valens song? “Va-va-va-va-va-valsalva!” ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/22 "2004-03-15T22:08:24Z")
Isn’t valsalva a heavenly place for Vikings? ---
**Author:** ![kezami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eb8c5e/32.png) [@kezami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kezami)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/23 "2004-03-15T22:13:55Z")
No, I think it’s the New England pronounciation for that Sgt. Bilko guy. ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/24 "2004-03-15T22:54:17Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > I know someone who works in a nursing home who says a surprisingly large number of people expire while on the pot. Usually they tell the family that their loved one died peacefully in their sleep when this happens. You mean my Gran may not have died in her sleep?! Poor Granny. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/25 "2004-03-15T23:44:34Z")
I remember that episode of the X-Files too (War of the Coprophages IIRC, whatever the latin is for the Cockroach family 🙂 ) I suggested that many people must die that way, going to the loo for a number two as it were. My Mum suggested that many people about to suffer a stroke or heart attack may loose blood pressure before and feel the need to go and die whilst on the loo relieving themselves. Any truth to this? Cheers Pushkin ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/26 "2004-03-16T01:18:02Z")
Fiber, people, FIBER! …and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. ---
**Author:** ![flusyndrome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@flusyndrome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flusyndrome)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/27 "2004-03-16T03:09:38Z")
Death while passing a turd occurs from direct stimulation of the vagal nerve plexus in the rectum, which slows the heart rate and can cause death on a predisposed person such as one with coronary artery disease or sick sinus syndrome. As a matter of fact, I remember from my early days, studying medicine, which I later gave up, that we were NOT allowed to do rectal examinations on any patient in the hospital that had a suspected or diagnosed heart attack, because of the above reason. That is not the same change in heart rate that occurs during bearing down or “valsalva maneuver”, matter of fact there is a known change in heart rate in respiration in many many people, and it is not pathological (“bad”), it is actually a sign of a healthy heart and occurs mostly in athletic people, it is referred to as “sinus arrhythmia”, I should know, I happen to have that and I can change my heart rate from like 70 to 50 or even less by changes in respiration. I have had holter monitors on and a strss test in which I went on the treadmill for a whole 18 minutes without any problems. (that was testing a new stress testing machine on my old job, most stress tests don’t go over 10-12 minutes). ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/28 "2004-03-16T03:25:06Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Since we’ve established that people do, indeed, die while sitting on the can, may I hijack a bit? > > Concerning Elvis: > > Who was it that said “That’s how I want to go - fat, old, stoned and sitting on the pot.”. I think it was one of the early punk rockers. Yeah, “[Going to Graceland](http://www.geocities.com/dmtabs/tabs/GoingToGraceland.txt)” by the Dead Milkmen. > [@](#): > > When my time comes, > that’s how I wanna go. > Stoned and fat and wealthy > And sittin’ on the bowl. RIP Dave Blood ---
**Author:** ![schplebordnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@schplebordnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schplebordnik)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/29 "2004-03-16T04:29:57Z")
> [@AngelicGemma](#): > > You mean my Gran may not have died in her sleep?! Poor Granny. Now I know what they mean when they said Gramps died while laying cable. Until now, we just couldn’t figure out why he’d want to set up his own broadband access. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/30 "2004-03-16T04:35:42Z")
> [@schplebordnik](#): > > Now I know what they mean when they said Gramps died while laying cable. Until now, we just couldn’t figure out why he’d want to set up his own broadband access. Betty Crable? ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/31 "2004-03-16T17:34:34Z")
So if you’ve got a big monster turd up in there and you’re turning red from pushing at it, when is it time to give up and take a laxative? When you start to feel lightheaded? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/32 "2004-03-16T21:03:01Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > No more shitting for me, from now on I’m having them taken out by Cesarean. Unless you need them out intact and unharmed, why not go with a coat hangar :eek: or better yet, surreptitiously use the spoon of your most hated enemy, take a Polaroid, then show it to them as they chow down on their morning cornflakes? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/33 "2004-03-16T21:38:04Z")
> [@nitroglycerine](#): > > Hey, thanks for putting THAT idea [rectal prolapse] in my head. After doing a google image search, i don’t think I’m ever going to take a shit again. \ Then you don’t want to rent any adult films starring a peroxide blonde Russian lass named “Mila,” either. Let’s just say her rectum has taken too many “laps” around the “pro” circuit… Ahem. Yeah. That, and I had a neighbor who died on his toilet. However, this was a case of .45-induced cerebral prolapse. (He could possibly have been straining too hard at the time, but I didn’t ask the ME what he thought.) ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/34 "2004-03-16T21:39:16Z")
Dying while you’re pinching a loaf must have beeen a real bummer for man in prehistoric times, what with all the predators running around back then. Many of them choose to attack a carcass first from the rear, disembowling the carrion and here you’re dead on the ground with your pants around your ankles, your piehole hanging out to dry about as safe as a donut at a policeman’s picnic. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/35 "2004-03-16T23:05:24Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > No more shitting for me, from now on I’m having them taken out by Cesarean. Had one today that felt like it came out sideways, and I almost passed out. Thought I was gonna’ go like The King, literally and figuratively. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/36 "2004-03-16T23:57:08Z")
> [@spiralscratch](#): > > Anyone else reminded of the X-Files episode with the mechanical, possibly alien cockroaches? I actually thought of that exact episode as soon as I saw the title this morning, and didn’t post it. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2004, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386/37 "2004-03-17T02:06:31Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > No more shitting for me, from now on I’m having them taken out by Cesarean. Even if they’re twins? :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-died-pushing-out-a-turd/234386.md?page=1)