Recent comments in /f/askscience

SGBotsford t1_j93liee wrote

Reply to If a human being is bleeding internally say in their mouth or stomach would they still have a risk of anemia? by Robbeee

Yes. Not all the iron is reabsorbed. One of the marks of a bleeding ulcer, or injured gut is that your crap turns black from the extra blood. Indeed you can bleed to death from a stomach ulcer if it perforates into a vein.

But even if the leak is slow: The average blood cell lives about 6 weeks. Then it's broken down, the iron salvaged and rerouted to make more blood. So if you are bleeding at a rate faster than 1/6 of your blood per week, or aobut 2.5% per day, your body will fall behind.

It's never that easy. If the change is slow, your body can ramp up blood cell production some. So you might be able to keep up with 3% per day. But not likely 5%

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LogicalMeerkat t1_j93k3dt wrote

Reply to comment by akeean in Was reading something related to Rock Salt mining. In places like the Himalayas where rock salt mining is done in cold temperatures, a lot of miners report burns. Why is it so that salt burns in a colder surroundings? Would it be the same reason why the salt ice challenge was so dangerous? by vvdmoneymuttornot

Describing ice cubes as molten is weird and I don't like it. It's not wrong, it just sounds wrong.

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nicuramar t1_j93jshy wrote

Reply to comment by Bbrhuft in Why does the thyroid use iodine ? by geistererscheinung

> It’s a bit of a mystery.

But

> The reason why iodine was used, is that molecules that contain iodine are highly reactive and often powerful antioxidants,

So, it’s not a mystery? Or just not a mystery why it was originally used, but rather how it was retained?

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mschweini t1_j93iz8i wrote

Reply to comment by Nyrin in Was reading something related to Rock Salt mining. In places like the Himalayas where rock salt mining is done in cold temperatures, a lot of miners report burns. Why is it so that salt burns in a colder surroundings? Would it be the same reason why the salt ice challenge was so dangerous? by vvdmoneymuttornot

Since sweat is also salt water - do our bodies somehow do against this effect when sweating in cold climate?

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