How is sword swallowing possible

If you've got a burning question that you'd like to see answered here, shoot me an email at flossymatt at gmail. Twitter users can also make nice with me and ask me questions there. Be sure to give me your name and location and a link, if you want so I can give you a little shout out. BY Matt Soniak. In general, the movement of skeletal muscle is voluntary.

When you talk, type, blink and move, you're using skeletal muscle. The movement of smooth muscle, on the other hand, is generally involuntary. Smooth muscle is responsible for actions like the dilation of blood vessels and movement of food during digestion. Many of your body's activities, including breathing and eating, require the participation of both skeletal and smooth muscle tissue.

The portions of the GI tract made of skeletal muscle include your mouth, your pharynx and the upper portion of your esophagus, which connects your throat to your stomach. These are the parts of your GI tract that you have conscious control over. When you swallow, you consciously use your tongue to move the food toward your pharynx. Your larynx then moves upward, and a ring of muscle called the upper esophageal sphincter relaxes. This allows the food, or bolus, to move into your esophagus.

A flap of tissue known as the epiglottis seals off your windpipe during this process so the food doesn't go into your lungs. The actions of the rest of your GI tract are involuntary. When the bolus reaches the part of your esophagus lined with smooth muscle, an automatic process called peristalsis takes over.

The ring of muscle tissue just above the bolus squeezes together, forcing the bolus down toward the stomach. Then, the process repeats itself until the food reaches the stomach. A second sphincter, the lower esophageal sphincter, relaxes to allow the bolus into the stomach. This whole process takes place in very close proximity to other organs in your body, including your:. A number of other important structures, like blood vessels and lymph nodes also surround your throat, esophagus and stomach.

These are the structures that the sword passes by on its way down. When a performer swallows a sword , it takes the same path that food does, but the process is significantly different. Swallowing food involves the contraction of several muscles. Sword swallowing, on the other hand, requires deliberate relaxation of the upper GI tract. Here's what happens:. Sometimes, the sword also passes the lower esophageal sphincter and enters the stomach, but this doesn't necessarily happen every time.

The distance from the teeth to the portion of the stomach that connects to the esophagus, known as the cardia, is approximately 15 inches 40 centimeters. The Sword Swallowers Association International SSAI defines a sword swallower as a person who can swallow a inch centimeter sword, which wouldn't necessarily enter the stomach.

The SSAI's maximum recommended length for a swallowed sword is 33 inches 83 centimeters , which would put the tip of the sword well into the performer's stomach [source: swordswallow.

Those three steps can sound deceptively easy, but sword swallowing is extremely difficult to master. It's also not something that people should try without the help of an experienced professional. We'll look at why — and what can go wrong — in the next section. The stomach is a curvy pouch in the digestive system. In many people, the esophagus makes a distinct curve at the entrance to the stomach. In others, the junction is a little straighter.

This can have a big impact on the length of a sword that a performer can swallow without injuring himself. The process of swallowing a sword involves more than just lining everything up and letting gravity do its work.

In order to successfully swallow a sword, a performer must learn to relax muscles that are typically not under voluntary control. These include the upper and lower esophageal sphincters and the muscles of the esophagus that are involved in peristalsis. He must also make the performance look easy, which can be a challenge. If you have ever swallowed a mouthful of food that was too large or not thoroughly chewed, you know how sensitive your esophagus can be. A sword swallower must move a cold, rigid sword down the entire length of his throat and esophagus without showing any discomfort.

This is an updated version of a post that originally appeared on the archived blog in The views expressed are those of the author s and are not necessarily those of Scientific American. Jennifer Ouellette is a science writer who loves to indulge her inner geek by finding quirky connections between physics, popular culture, and the world at large. Follow Jennifer Ouellette on Twitter. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue.

See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Per the book Bizarre Medical Abnormalities , published in "The instrument enters the mouth and pharynx, then the esophagus, traverses the cardiac end of the stomach, and enters the latter as far as the antrum of the pylorus, the small cul de sac of the stomach. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. Read More Previous. Support science journalism. Knowledge awaits.

See Subscription Options Already a subscriber? Create Account See Subscription Options. Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription. Sword swallowing is not just an elaborate visual trick. Trained performers really do stick at least 16 inches of blade into their bodies.

The key?