One of the most pressing questions of our time:

Will Surgery Relieve Bo Jackson’s Chronic Hiccups?
MEDPAGETODAY | May 15, 2023 | Rachael Robertson

— After nearly a year of having hiccups, the athlete is seeking treatment

Former baseball and football star Bo Jackson has had the hiccups for nearly a year and is undergoing a medical procedure this week to treat the unexplained phenomenon.

“I’m busy at the hospital having shine lights down my throat and probing me every way they can to find out why I have these hiccups,” the former professional football and baseball player told the hosts of the radio show “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning” on WJOX 94.5 FM.

I don’t know now. Looked like a legitimate news source, but that radio station name . . .

“I have done everything — scare me, drink water upside down, smell the ass of a porcupine — it doesn’t work!”

C’mon, man. Am I being played?

Chronic hiccups are rare, but unfortunately for Jackson, they are largely a medical mystery.

Josh Silverman MD, PhD, an otolaryngologist . . .

Isn’t it “otolaryncologist”? Spellcheck says no, but it always was when I was growing up. I thought.

. . . at Northwell Health in New York, has only seen six to eight cases of the maddening condition in the decade that he’s been practicing medicine.

So Bo is mad, too?

Possible root causes for chronic hiccups could be tumors in the brain, chest, or lungs that press on the diaphragm. “A fair amount of time when someone is having hiccuping episodes for a while, it’s the body telling that person that something is going on either in the chest, lungs, or abdomen,” Silverman said.

“It’s something that’s been with humans for a long time and puzzling doctors forever,” Silverman said. “The fact that Jackson is having a procedure means that this is truly debilitating for him and that essentially all other root causes have been ruled out.”

After someone has had the hiccups for a few days without relief, most people end up going to the emergency department, Silverman said. At this point, people have already tried the common tricks of holding their breath or getting scared, both of which alter the respiratory pattern and hopefully stop the contractions. The ED usually checks labs, looking for electrolyte imbalance, and often does ultrasounds, CT scans, or MRIs to see if any tumors or other conditions could be causing the hiccups.

But if those all turn up negative, the patient is referred to a specialist — often an otolaryngologist like Silverman.

Specialists can treat patients with hiccups using medicines ranging from pills designed to treat gastrointestinal issues to those for anti-anxiety or psychiatric purposes. Silverman said the dopamine receptor antagonist metoclopramide (Reglan) is one possible treatment.

The last resort is surgery. One surgical option involves placing Botox . . .

Heh: Bo tox.

. . . on the top of the esophagus or voice box. Another involves stopping the vagus nerve from overstimulating.

What happens in Vagus stays in Vagus.

The most common surgery, phrenic nerve ablation, comes with a price, Silverman said.

Which probably varies with fame and ability to pay.

“When you ablate that nerve, you hopefully stop the process of hiccuping but you’re also paralyzing half of your diaphragm. That’s a big deal from a breathing perspective,” he said. “Especially since Jackson is an athlete, that’s an extreme scenario.”

About two-thirds of people respond to one of the surgeries, Silverman said.

He noted that chronic hiccups can wreck a patient’s life. One of his own family members had chronic hiccups for months following a brain tumor.

“When I see these patients who have had this for multiple months, they are distraught,” he said. “They’re afraid to go in public, they’re embarrassed, it’s painful because of the muscle contractions, and yet we don’t truly understand what causes it or how to fix it.”

In the radio interview, Jackson expressed similar frustrations at how his hiccups interfered with his ability to live his life as usual, even preventing him from attending events.

Oh, So That’s Who Americans Will Blame for a Debt Default
Townhall | 05/25/2023 | Spencer Brown

In continuing bad news for Biden as he looks toward 2024, Fox News’ poll also found that

44 percent of Americans view the president as “corrupt,”

53 percent say he “doesn’t care” about Americans, and

57 percent say he is not “honest and trustworthy.”

When it comes to his job in general,

59 percent of Americans say Biden lacks the “judgment to serve as president effectively” and

60 percent believe Biden does not have “the mental soundness” to be commander in chief.

Joe Biden Celebrates Memorial Day Weekend with Second-Lowest Approval Rating of His Presidency
Breitbart | 05/27/2023 | Wendell Husebo

President Joe Biden will celebrate Memorial Day weekend with the second-lowest approval rating of his presidency, according to Gallup polling from Friday.

Amid pressure to raise the debt ceiling during budget negotiations, just 39 percent of Americans approve of Biden, only two percentage points higher than his personal low recorded last month and in March of last year, when just 37 percent approved.

Police Recover 1.5 Tonnes of Contraband Eels After International Investigation

The Independent | May 14, 2023

Police have seized 1.5 tonnes of contraband eels in an almost two-year long international investigation into fraudulent exports.

Twenty-seven people were arrested after authorities discovered that four tonnes of eels had been fraudulently exported between 2021 and 2023 for a profit estimated at more than €1m.

Suspects in Spain, France, Belgium, and Portugal were arrested after a cooperative investigation by authorities from France, Spain, Europol, Eurojust and the European Anti-Fraud Office.

The European eel is classified as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, meaning that its fishing is regulated and subject to strict quotas.

I find an eel in my immediate vicinity, it is going to stay on the critically endangered list.