The human body is utterly fascinating. But just when you think you’ve got a grip on everything there is to know, science progresses and throws you a curveball. What you may have learned in biology class at school is just the tip of the iceberg and might have already changed over the years.
The members of the r/AskReddit online community shared the creepiest and most bizarre facts they know about the human body, and we’ve collected some of the most intriguing ones to share with you. Scroll down, have a read, and you might just see your perspective change.
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#1
If you have severe mental illness like anxiety and depression, you feel like there’s an entire universe within your brain. The amount of thoughts, pain, feelings, sensations, imaginations and perceptions about everything, and it’s complexity, is just too much to handle. You literally feel like time has stopped and are living in an alternate reality.
What I’m trying to say is, when you are mentally ill, you have no control over what your brain is feeding your mind, already considering that the brain has high affinity towards negativity (thoughts, pain, etc). Your brain can/will turn against you.
Mental illness is no joke, please take care.
Our brain filters out a lot of what we see along with just straight making s**t up based on extrapolation.
#3
There’s a nerve that has the nerve of not knowing what its purpose is.
Specifically the ulnar nerve aka the Funny Bone.
-rest taken from tumblr post
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The reason it feels so weird to hit it is that it’s not designed to deliver pain signals, so when you hit it it just wiggs out and sends Garbage signals to the brain, and the brain is just like “uh, dude- Ulnar, what the hell is this garbage?? You’re supposed to curl a finger and a half, and move some muscles in the forearm, why are you sending me this c**p? How am I supposed to make this into sensory output?”
And the Ulnar nerve is just like “dude dude dude, brain- what the hell is going on?!?”
And the brain goes- “idiot. Fine. You’re on fire, freezing and being electrocuted. Happy?”
And the Ulnar goes “holy c**p brain!! I’m on fire, freezing and being electrocuted! What am I going to do!!??!”
And the brain says “You’re an idiot ulnar. A damn idiot.”.
If you ever plan on working as a doctor, nutritionist, sports scientist, chiropractor, etc., then you’ve got to have a firm understanding of human anatomy, biology, and biochemistry. However, like with anything science-related, this body of knowledge is constantly evolving.
This means that as a professional, you have to put in the time and effort to stay up to date with the latest developments in your area: reading science journals, attending conferences, and engaging in debates with your fellow researchers. If you’re not active enough, you might soon find that what you know is outdated and you’re not as competitive as your colleagues.
#4
Your intestines “know” what shape they’re supposed to be in, and can move themselves, which means gut surgeons can just stuff them back into you when they’re done and they’ll sort themselves out.
#5
When you get laser tattoo removal the ink doesn’t disappear, you pee it out.
Your body’s immune system breaks down the pigments of ink and it flows in your blood stream, gets processed through your kidneys, then you pee out the ink.
#6
Your tongue has **incredible** tactile capabilities. So much so, that if you look at any object, you can vividly imagine what it would feel like to lick it. Go ahead, look at the wall, your shirt, your shoe—the tongue knows.
One of the most intriguing things about the human body, at least for us, is our brain’s capacity for neuroplasticity—the ability to change and adapt throughout our entire lifetime. Though neuroplasticity is very active when we’re kids, we have the ability to mold our brains even when we’re older.
To put it simply, neuroplasticity means that our brains are slowly shifting and adapting as we learn new skills and things about our environments. New connections get formed, and some existing ones get stronger, while weaker ones end up being lost.
#7
The liver can grow parts of itself back.
If you get a splinter or foreign object stuck in your skin you can hold a flashlight against your skin and shine the light through your flesh, and the foreign object will be a dark spot. Light actually passes through our flesh quite well. Also, if you shine a bright enough light into your mouth you can see the light in your own eyes.
Edit: I’m really glad that so many people have gotten out their flashlights and had some fun with them! Never stop exploring and being curious and trying to discover new things! The world is amazing and has so much crazy stuff to uncover! Y’all keep having fun now, and thank you everyone for all the wonderful replies and absolutely making my day!
#8
People keep saying “your brain” in these comments. I think one of the creepiest things is that you are the brain and the brain is you, but for some reason we brains really don’t like to acknowledge this.
#9
Incident number 1: I had a bad enough broken bone when I was 9 that it almost killed me. Apparently the marrow that makes blood can’t exist in your bloodstream, fun fact lol.
Incident number 2: My orthopedic surgeon and my neurologist still don’t have a good explanation as to how I have full range of motion in my legs (ie: the ability to walk/run even) I’ve never seen a super smart guy like my neurologist just go “I don’t really know?” after I had broken my back and had nerve damage and partial paralysis in both legs. My neurologist says that sometimes cerebrospinal fluid can act as a bridge for major nerve damage so MAYBE that. Otherwise? He wrote some published stuff about it that was more question than answer haha.
All I know is that when I get x-rays done or switch doctors, the response is “how did you walk in here??” it visibly unsettles them. Like I’m playing a prank and my wheel chair is hidden somewhere lol. I don’t really care, if I’m being honest. It hurts a lot sometimes, and people get really weird sometimes when I remind them that I can’t do some things but, *shrugs* I can walk so it doesn’t matter much to me.
Long story short, sometimes your body can do some weird and creepy s**t that even the professionals go…..”ehhhh?” about lol.
Meanwhile, our capacity for neuroplasticity depends a lot on our lifestyles. Someone who’s constantly stressed, sleeps poorly, and is underfed will have a harder time rewiring their brain than someone who is very fit, active, social, and constantly engages in new and interesting tasks.
Of course, neuroplasticity isn’t a panacea. It still requires a massive amount of effort for us to learn new skills, languages, and information. That being said, it means that we never lose the ability to learn as we grow older, which is a very optimistic thought.
#10
Food that was consumed can sometimes take up to 5 days to fully pass through your intestines into your colon. So when people say that you are full of s**t, they ain’t lying.
#11
Bodies will move as they’re coming out of rigor. I’ve been bumped by a few (I’m a coroner). Bodies can also make sounds as the remaining air/ gas leaves… 2am in the morgue and I thought I was in COD zombies.
#12
The placebo effect is one of the biggest superpowers of the human body, showing how strong and weak it is at the same time and how easy is to trick any mind. Modern day science can’t still fully understand it.
#13
The pain you feel from a sunburn is your skin cells effectively killing themselves before they mutate into cancer.
#14
A dead body will often move as its being cremated. Muscles contract as they cook, after all. Sometimes this means a body will sit up in the crematory machine.
#15
The first time a scientist discovered the existence and function of the brain, what really happened was a brain discovering the existence of itself.
#16
The front of your tongue is curious, constantly patrolling, and autonomous. It chases the dentist around your mouth and you aren’t even aware of it. So embarrassing and weird/creepy.
#17
Human skin is overlaid with a pattern called Blaschko’s Lines, stripes covering the body from head to toe. The stripes run up and down your arms and legs and hug your torso. They wrap around the back of your head like a hood and across your face. You just can’t see them.
#18
Heard a story of this guy who got an axe or something to his head. Destroyed most of his brain, except the part that processes routines. He got up from the bed beside his dead wife, got dressed started brushing his teeth, (what was left of them), casually checked the mirror and wiped his skin of some blood with tissue. Walked round the house and collected newspaper from the doorstep, eventually he just collapsed. he was like a zombie , unaware of anything but for his routine. really freaky.
#19
In really bad cases of endometriosis, uterine tissue (the lining of the uterus, i.e. the blood and ‘stuff’ shed during a period) can grow throughout the *entire* body. Colon, bladder, chest, even the head/brain in rare cases. It’s incredibly painful, since it still tries to ‘shed’ like a normal period but has nowhere to go.
It can only be confirmed via surgery, since it doesn’t show up on most ultrasounds/MRI scans.
#20
A female baby is born with all the eggs she will ever have.
#21
The intestines are covered by a double “fleece” of peritoneum. See it like a blanket.
When your intestines get damaged for whatever reason, this blanket starts moving out of itself and crawling upwards towards the place which has the injury. It will stay there until the injury is recovered. And then move on again.
Maybe not the most creepy fact, but definitely interesting in my opinion.
#22
Human beings are a cesspool of bacteria and when you die your body eats itself from the inside out.
#23
There is an urban myth that your fingernails continue to grow after death, which is supposed to explain why dead bodies often appear to have long nails.
The truth is that the soft tissues in the fingers and hands tend to contract as they lose moisture, leading to the *appearance* of growing nails.
#24
One thing that spun me out was hearing about Fallopian tubes after a friend went through emergency surgery.
Fallopian tubes are mobile and active parts of your reproductive tract. When one tube isn’t there or is “broken” the other tube can actually move over to the opposite ovary and “pick up” an available egg.
#25
Our minds can be tricked, and our minds can trick us. Some people sleep with their eyes open. Our memories are fallible. If you remember something from 10+ years ago, the events in your mind are likely changed. You might remember a couple things properly, but our memories are almost never 100% accurate. On top of that, we usually don’t remember the unimportant stuff. Our dreams are a product of our subconscious, from any memory especially recent ones.
Edit: thank you for the upvotes! :D.
#26
You can grow tumours with hair, teeth, and eyes but no heart or brain.
#27
My favorite is the blind spot at the center of each eye, where the optic nerve is.
A lot of people don’t even know it exists, and even if they do, it is bigger than people often think.
And it’s also really easy to demonstrate to people if you know how. It’s one of my favorite bar tricks – all you need is a pen and a napkin to draw a cross and a dot.
https://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/capsules/experience_jaune06.html
Alternate demo: https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chvision.html
Edit: If it doesn’t work, you’re doing something wrong – not getting close enough, the image is too small on your phone, you’re not closing the correct eye or not keeping your gaze fixed on the cross.
It isn’t because you don’t have a blind spot. Unless you’re a squid, you have a blind spot. All vertebrates have them.
#28
The fact that our chromosomes can never truly and perfectly replicate themselves. Most defections can be and is usually fixed and wont cause any harms. But if the damage is too big to be fixed that cell will literally commit suicide, If it doesnt the cells around it will try to kill it. If they cant the immune system and white blood cells deal with it. But if a defected cell survives all 3 of these counter measures. It will start to rapidly replicate and replicate. This is how a tumor forms and how we get cancer. Cancer wont stop growing untill its host is dead. This is also why its this hard to treat since cancer cells arent a new organism they are still fundementally human cells. any medication that aims to kill them risks the chance of killing the healthy cells with the cancer cells. This is why we cant be too agressive with medication on cancer. Any part that can be physically removed will be removed via surgery and the rest will be taken care of with chemotherapy and meds. If the tumor is big enough to be physically removed but is in a position that makes it almost impossible to remove it like around vital organs or veins that person will most likely die. So yeah there is only 3 measures between you and having cancer.
Edit: I am so happy that my comment has lead to an educative conversation in the replies. You guys rule. And also I have to say this too. Cancer cant be prevented due to its nature unfortunately.
#29
You can become allergic to yourself.
#30
Humans are bioluminescent. We literally glow, the visible light that emits from our bodies are 1000 times less intense than the levels which pur eyes are sensitive to.