Bezoars galore!

At the request of our dear co-director, Taylor, I am sharing this health issue with you all here on the blog. My sister, a med student, recently brought to my attention the existence of bezoars as she was studying the gastrointestinal system.
What's a bezoar, you might ask? Perhaps if you recall from the Harry Potter series, they are commonly referenced as a magical stone from the stomach of a goat that works as an antidote to poisons. However, on a more general level, bezoars are conglomerations of undigested material that form in the stomach (i.e., hairballs).

Now here comes the gross part. Being the inquisitive "life-learner" that the University of Michigan has trained me to be, I decided to google "bezoars." I came across this article from CNN about a girl who had a 10lb bezoar removed from her stomach. Since the picture isn't with that story, I found it here. (Beware, it's mildly disturbing).
Lessons learned: 1. Never eat your own hair; and 2. Hairballs (and curiosity, of course) can kill cats and humans.