SHAH ALAM - First tested on rats, pigs, and mice with respiratory issues, the concept of anal breathing – where oxygen or oxygen-rich liquid is injected into the rectum – is now being developed for potential use in humans.
The technique is called "enteral ventilation via anus (EVA)."
This method was originated by Japanese and American scientists, who eventually won the Ignoble Nobel Prize, a satiric prize awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate unusual achievements in scientific research.
A Japanese research team headed by Ryo Okabe and Takanori Takebe, who accepted their prizes on Sept 12, discovered that mammals could indeed breathe through their anuses.
Takebe said their inspiration came from loaches, a type of fish capable of absorbing oxygen through their intestines.
"In Japan, we have a very interesting creature called loaches that has a capacity to suck up oxygen from the butt. So, why we can’t do that? So, that was the question we started,” Takebe said in a media interview.
The Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, which seeks to ‘celebrate the unusual, honour the imaginative and spur people's interest in science,’ awarded the team the Physiology Prize.
Clinical trials are ongoing, with plans to commercialise the technique in Japan by 2028 and in the United States by 2030.
Their research, published under the title Mammalian Enteral Ventilation Ameliorates Respiratory Failure, suggested the EVA method could offer an alternative for delivering oxygen to critically ill patients, particularly during ventilator shortages like those seen during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The prize was presented by the US scientific magazine Annals of Improbable Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Takebe, a Tokyo Medical and Dental University professor, thanked the public for ‘believing in the potential of the anus.’
Initial experiments involved administering oxygenated liquid into the intestines of rats, pigs, and mice suffering from respiratory diseases, significantly improving their symptoms.
Takebe’s team even wore loach-inspired hats while accepting the prize.
They also added that patients with respiratory failure who get treated with ventilators and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or ECMO usually experience difficulties when being handled by medical staff.
Takebe further stated that the treatment could also be applied to extremely premature infants and expressed his hope that the award would raise awareness of the technology.