Hidden deep within all of us are vast coils called guts — intestines. The fitness magazine Tarzan this month invites us to contemplate them.

They’re in bad shape and getting worse, it seems. Even at best, the subject is an unpleasant one. Eating is fun, dining is culture, but digestion is something we’d rather not talk about, unless we have to — which is to say, when it betrays us.

“Things we’d rather not talk about” is a theme in itself. The women’s weekly Josei Jishin this month steps boldly into it, instancing the aches, pains and itches in unmentionable places, to say nothing of body odor, hair loss and the emotional stress they impose as we and the population at large age.