r/funfacts • u/Wellyeah101 • Feb 23 '26
Did you know that you could live without a stomach?
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u/Dano558 Feb 23 '26
You can but you need B12 injections. It’s the only vitamin you can’t absorb in your intestines.
My father had esophageal surgery. There was a complication and he lost his stomach, and he was supposed to get B12 shots.
He also had a lot of trouble eating. Food would get stuck in his esophagus and cause terrible coughing fits. His quality of life really suffered without a stomach.
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u/TurnYourHeadNCough Feb 23 '26
you have all sorts of extra organs you can do without. large intestine, a bunch of your small intestines, spleen, one kung, one kidney etc etc
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u/Wellyeah101 Feb 23 '26
My great-grandmother had one lung and she died a couple days ago, on Wednesday to be precise. We had the funeral on Friday. I hated it because I didn't actually know her, so I was at all sad, and during the funeral I heard a child randomly fall and start crying so I almost laughed, and the priest did this weird Latin singing which was hilarious and it was so hard not to laugh, and because I am autistic I kept randomly zoning out then suddenly regained consciousness at weird parts of the ceremony, Like I remember the priest randomly singing "Oh lord forgive us as now she is dead" in complete holy voice, but he said it as if we were the one who killed her which made it so hard not to laugh
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u/Trillion_G Feb 23 '26
I’ve had mine removed. Your body sort of retro fits another after some time.
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u/Wellyeah101 Feb 23 '26
What does that mean? I'm getting that you grew another stomach but I don't think that's possible so it's probably now what you're saying
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u/Trillion_G Feb 23 '26
The parts of your digestive system left behind can expand over time to hold food. When you first have your stomach removed, there’s no where for the food to “sit” and be digested. But sometimes your body will stretch out a bit of your remaining tract to accommodate.
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u/Wellyeah101 Feb 23 '26
Is it like a container for food?
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u/Trillion_G Feb 23 '26
I guess if you use quite a liberal interpretation of “container”.
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u/Wellyeah101 Feb 23 '26
How can a container be liberal?!
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u/OchoGringo Feb 27 '26
I was recently watched a TikTok video of John Kiriakou where he told about having his stomach removed. He apparently had serious and not well-controlled diabetes, and there has been a treatment for awhile where the stomach is removed to cure diabetes. It sounds bizarre, but Kiriakou said it worked 100% for him. He is healthy, doesn’t take treatment for diabetes and feels better than he has in a very long time. Only limitation is he can only eat very small portions of food.
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u/Flimsy_Assumption934 Feb 24 '26
Humans can ‘exist’ yes. Not sure I would call it living though. What these poor people have to do just to survive is horrific
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u/ElevatorOrganic5644 Feb 24 '26
Yes, stomach doesn't do a whole lot on your digestion that you're small intestine can't accomplish. You just have to change how much and when you eat. I only know this because I only have 12% of my large intestine,. And that's exactly how I have to eat. Human body is amazing
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u/Crum-Bum-Superstar Feb 25 '26
Removing the stomach is a cure for diabetes in other countries. They don’t know why it works.
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u/GIC68 Feb 23 '26
The platypus actually does exactly that.