Navel gazing: checking your belly button can tell you a lot about your health

Studio Romantic/Shutterstock by Dan Baumgardt, University of Bristol Navels, belly buttons, innies or outies … whatever term you use, your umbilicus may have plenty to tell you about the state of your health. For some, they are the thing of nightmares – omphalophobia (the fear of belly buttons) is a real condition. For others, they are a fashion accessory to be shown off in a crop top, or decorated with a body piercing. Whatever your feelings about belly buttons, one thing’s for sure – it once joined you to your mother. The umbilical cord is severed at birth to leave just a small clamped stump that progressively withers and falls away a week or two later. What you’re left with, in most cases, is a small wrinkled depression. That’s if you have an “innie”, as most of us – 90% apparently – do. From this point, the belly button seems to become redundant – other than to gather dust and fluff. But that’s not the whole story – your navel has more depth to it than just a few millimetres. The umbilicus is an access point for the vessels carrying blood to and from the foetus. These have come from...