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Lewis and Clark expedition left a trail of heavy-metal laxatives (2010)
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoI've read that the expedition members left campsite selection to their Native guide. She wanted to camp where her herbs were plentiful. She (and her son) certainly ate more than meat. If the rest had seen fit to follow her example they could have avoided many health issues including vitamin deficiency.
- coward123 5y agoI still don't quite understand how their diet could have been this troublesome... frankly, when I backpack I have almost the opposite problem, as walking gets me going. I'm just an amateur woodsman, but when I'm in the woods I eat a variety of berries, greens, mushrooms, etc - one would think their native contacts and guides would have been a source for information if they didn't have this knowledge for themselves, IE: why was their diet quite so high in meat? Separately - my understanding is that there were many native groups worldwide that ate a meat-heavy diet, so when we hear about native Alaskans (for example) eating an almost exclusive meat diet, why weren't they having those same issues? Maybe fish / whale / seal vs. bison and deer is the problem?
- thwayunion 5y ago> one would think their native contacts and guides would have been a source for information if they didn't have this knowledge for themselves, IE: why was their diet quite so high in meat? They did eat plenty of local plants and likely would have starved without crops shared by local populations [1]. However, they were a large group with prodigious caloric requirements. The corps needed an epic amount of food -- roughly one buffalo worth of meat every 24 hours, likely in addition to foraging. (Buffalo, if you haven't seen any, are huge. Apparently the equivalent of 4 deer, or 9 lbs of meat per person.) > Separately - my understanding is that there were many native groups worldwide that ate a meat-heavy diet, so when we hear about native Alaskans (for example) eating an almost exclusive meat diet, why weren't they having those same issues? Maybe fish / whale / seal vs. bison and deer is the problem? Chronic dehydration likely caused by a combination of insufficient water intake, excessive exertion, and prolonged periods of high sodium diets (their emergency rations were, essentially, boullion and jerky). In a healthy person, constipation is almost always ultimately an issue of under hydration. Fiber can help, because it pulls water in the digestive tract, but the best solution is staying well-hydrated. Hard to do when you're 30 men eating jerky and working so hard that the camp eats an entire buffalo each day. -- [1] https://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/what-lewis-and-clark-ate/ https://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/what-lewis-and-...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- nraynaud 5y agoI couldn't find a map of the mercury sites on google. Anyone has better luck?
- MrVitaliy 5y agohttps://www.oklahoman.com/story/lifestyle/2018/06/19/how-do-you-locate-where-lewis-and-clark-camped-find-their-latrines/60518172007/ https://www.oklahoman.com/story/lifestyle/2018/06/19/how-do-... https://www.memoriesoftheprairie.com/blog/2018/11/30/how-laxatives-saved-the-lewis-and-clark-expedition https://www.memoriesoftheprairie.com/blog/2018/11/30/how-lax... Funny, I've just played through Oregon trail game on a Nintendo DS, recognized many place names.
- duxup 5y agoThe Lewis and Clark expedition is a topic that I find fascinating but because Lewis and Clark and everyone involved seem a bit enigmatic as people they don't seem to get the historical movies, mini series and etc you might expect. The fact that they spent nearly 3 years traveling in the wilderness so far from the civilization they knew / into a fair amount of unknown is fascinating to me. Something you can't really do anymore. Their reliance on laxatives is fairly amusing / interesting. Granted, would maybe not include that in a movie...
- dr-detroit 5y ago
- beart 5y agoYes, particularly when you consider how different the landscape must have been before it was settled and deforested.
- pramsey 5y agoIt was already settled, just not by white folk. In fact that would be another whole aspect of the adventure. Over each rise a whole new culture, which may or may not welcome or tolerate you.
- beart 5y agoGood point, that was a poor choice of language on my part.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ncmncm 5y agoNotably, before smallpox wiped out most of the North American population, the continent was largely deforested. Deliberately. Bison ranged to Louisiana. The "little ice age" after ~1500 is suspected to have been caused by the pulse of reforestation, and thus dip in carbon dioxide, occasioned by the disappearance of the long-time stewards of open range land. In the 14th century, a very large expedition west from Africa is documented, with likelihood part of it reached South America. (One ship was separated and returned, reporting fresh water out of sight of land, suggestive of Amazon outflow.) There is ecological evidence of pre-Columbian disruption in Amazonia thereafter.
- geocrasher 5y agoTL;DR: Mercury Chloride was sold as a powerful laxative referred to as "thunder clappers" which enabled the Lewis and Clark expedition could manage on a meat-heavy diet and the occasional syphilis. Last paragraph sums it up nicely: So as Lewis and Clark’s men made their way across the continent and across Oregon, they were unknowingly depositing a trail of heavy metals along the way – a trail that historians and scientists have been able to detect and use to document almost their every movement, so to speak.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- waynecochran 5y ago"Thunderclappers" is a great marketing term. Seems to be a trademark for it already: https://trademarks.justia.com/881/82/thunderclap-88182645.html https://trademarks.justia.com/881/82/thunderclap-88182645.ht...
- starkd 5y agoThere's a great book by the historian Stephen Ambrose on the Lewis & Clark expedition. He mentions the use of mercury. He says they tended to use mercury to treat a whole variety of ailments. Mostly because they had nothing else to use. They also had many skin problems during the journey from not eating enough vegetables. https://www.amazon.com/Undaunted-Courage-Meriwether-Jefferson-American/dp/0684826976 https://www.amazon.com/Undaunted-Courage-Meriwether-Jefferso...
- rythmshifter03 5y agoAs usual for Ambrose, Undaunted Courage is a phenomenal read.
- Tao331 5y ago> More than a few of the men did end up needing treatment for syphilis, either for pre-existing problems or for ones picked up along the way from friendly Native American women. This struck me as odd. "What? How did syphilis get to this part of the Americas already?" Apparently syphilis was already in the Americas prior to European contact. Two schools of thought are that either Europeans already had syphilis but mistook the diverse symptoms for other diseases, or that Columbus and crew brought it back. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_syphilis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_syphilis
- buildbot 5y agoYep, syphilis is a “new world” illness, not sure the trade for smallpox was worth it.
- thelock85 5y agoThe part that stuck out to me was “friendly”. A subtle insertion of language that at best alludes to some early 19th century frolicking, and at worst rewrites a history of sexual violence. In a fairly objective accounting of historical science (is that a term?), I’d like to see more evidence when suggesting cultural behavior, or just leave the descriptive language out and let the reader interpret.
- ars 5y ago> and at worst rewrites a history of sexual violence. Maybe not: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/lewis-clark-expedition-history https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/lewis-c... And entries from the journal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_(explorer)#York_and_Native_Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_(explorer)#York_and_Nativ...
- andrewflnr 5y agoWow, that's even weirder.
- Tao331 5y ago
- avidiax 5y agoMy favorite anecdote about Lewis and Clark: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/lewis-clark-expedition-history#:~:text=York%20made%20out%20like%20a%20bandit https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/lewis-c....
- bryanrasmussen 5y agoTalk about your mud-flaps, Lewis and Clark got 'em.
- jononomo 5y agoI have eaten a zero-fiber diet for over a year (I ate 0 calories from any plant-based food source for all of 2021 -- beef, eggs, fish, and dairy was all I ate). The one indisputable effect of a zero fiber diet is less frequent, smaller, and much "easier" bowel movements. The idea that not having fiber in your diet leads to constipation can be completely disproven by anyone who is willing to try eating a zero-fiber diet for a few weeks.
- jononomo 5y agoThe more I think about it, the more annoyed I get at this completely unsupported assumption, taken as OBVIOUS, that eating only meat leads to constipation. Not only does eating only meat lead to the smoothest bowel movements you've ever experienced, but it also dramatically improves musculature, skin & hair, mood, sleep, and overall physical fitness. Incidentally, it is impossible to get diabetes on a meat-only diet. In fact, we evolved on a meat-only diet for hundreds of thousands of years (with a berry here and there).
- IntrepidWorm 5y agoCalling it a berry here or there seems to be downplaying ancient hominid diets. We lost the ability to produce our own vitamin C quite early on due to our subsistance on fruits, nuts, and vegetables foraged from the surrounding land. Hunting is a high-stakes calorie game, which foraging supports.
- samatman 5y agoAnyone eating a diet mainly of meat they have hunted will have more than enough vitamins from the meat. Particularly the organs, particularly the liver. The entire old-world primate order lost vitamin C synthesis, and that common ancestor was arboreal and a foot tall. Our genus has primarily subsisted on hunted meat for the entire period between adopting bipedalism and getting forced into growing crops (if you like this stuff, Against The Grain is a great read).
- thwayunion 5y ago