If you’ve ever experienced a sharp, stabbing pain while running, you’ll know how hard it can be to get rid of a stitch.
And while Dr Karan Rajan’s video, which highlights how diaphragmatic breathing can rid you of the malady in no time, was helpful, that’s not what stuck out to me.
Instead, I was pretty alarmed by how he described the anatomy of a stitch ― and it seems I’m not alone.
How does a stitch happen?
It’s basically jiggly organs (yep).
“A stitch is basically a hardware malfunction of the diaphragm,” Dr Rajan explained.
The diaphragm is a dome-shaped band of muscle below your lungs that helps to control your breathing.
“It’s either due to the diaphragm being strained due to rapid or shallow breathing, or tension on the ligaments which connect the diaphragm to the abdominal organs,” the doctor said.
“You know, because your organs jiggle around during exercise and tug on those ligaments,” he added (far too casually for my liking).
Health information site Medical News Today says that there’s no definitive cause for side stitches, but the ligament tugging theory is a very common one among experts.
They add that stitches are far more common on your right-hand side and tend to happen more often to younger people.
People were... displeased by the information
That last point, about younger people having more stitches, seemed to ring true in Dr Karan’s comments.
“Someone needed to show this to my mum when I was a kid,” one app user wrote. “I honestly couldn’t walk anywhere without getting a stitch.”
Others were surprised to learn the grim mechanics of the process.
“I’m sorry, your organs are attached to your diaphragm? How am I only just learning this,” another TikToker wrote.
A commenter said that diaphragmatic breathing helped them to cure their hiccups, which makes sense ― those are actually little spasms in your diaphragm.