A doctor and a stem cell biologist have created an alternative to ventilators that lets patients with damaged lungs temporarily breathe through another part of the body.

Takanori Takebe of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio and the University of Osaka in Japan said an oxygen-loaded liquid called perfluorodecalin is injected into the rectum, where it releases oxygen that can be absorbed by blood vessels, according to Science News (SN).

The procedure was tested on mice and pigs subjected to low oxygen conditions, and the animals’ oxygen levels improved for 19 to 30 minutes.

Takebe told SN that seeing samples of the pigs’ blood change from a muddy, low-oxygen hue to a brighter, oxygen-rich red was a sign that the procedure works, according to SN.

Meanwhile, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, have discovered a new approach to prevent or reduce the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

In an experiment, the researchers recreated the disease in mice by altering their genes and then injecting them with a compound called NaGYY, which gradually releases molecules of a specific gas throughout the body, according to the New York Post (NYP).

After 12 weeks, the scientists tested the mice for memory and motor function — and were amazed to see a striking 50 percent improvement compared to untreated mice, New York Post reports.

“The results showed that the behavioral outcomes of Alzheimer’s disease could be reversed by introducing hydrogen sulfide,” NYP quoted the research team as saying, referring to the gas contained in the NaGYY compound that was injected into the mice.

Hydrogen sulfide — the rotten egg–smelling gas released when one farts — was found in the experiment to potentially protect aging brain cells from cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s, the New York Post reports.

The fart research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences with Dr. Bindu Paul, associate professor at JHM, as co-author of the study.