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The human body is everything that makes up, well, us. However, there are plenty of fascinating things we don't know about it, or rather, ourselves.

Once you look closer, dive under the surface of the skin, explore the inner workings of the biological systems that ensure our everyday life, you just can't help but admire the marvel that you really are.

To learn more about our bits and pieces, Redditor u/Zenssei made a post on r/AskReddit, asking other platform users to share some facts about the human body that not many people know about. Their call to action was immediately answered.

u/Zenssei said the idea for this post came to them pretty naturally. "I was just watching TV, thinking of [something] I could post on r/AskReddit," they told Bored Panda.

"I have learned quite a bit from the comments such as there is a right and a wrong way to swallow, or that about 20% of people have a bone ridge on the roof of the mouth... It was fun reading through the replies."

As of this article, the post already has received over 56K upvotes and 23K comments, and has become one of the coolest online trivia archives out there!

#1

“What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Your brain regulates how strong your muscles are. If your leg muscles were to contract at full strength, they would snap your femur.

Its why people in emergencies on adrenaline can lift cars off children. Your body is capable of great strength, but it could also severely damage you, so your brain keeps you a weak, soft bag of jelly.

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    #2

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) When doing surgery where the doctors have to take out some organs, when placing them back, they don't have to be put back In the exact position there meant to be, your body kind of just, moves the organs into the correct position after the surgery

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    There are many ways we could look at the human body. "On an evolutionary scale, sometimes we are similar to animals, and sometimes we're not," general practitioner, medical researcher, and founder of PrimeHealth Clinical Research, Iris Gorfinkel, M.D., told Bored Panda. "We're symmetric, [our] basic body structure is similar; we have what's called homologous bone structure. In other words, you can find exact similarities between humans and other animals and how our bones are put together."

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    "Even our muscles and heart and vascular systems are similar. Our lungs are often similar too. [As well as] the fact that there's a long tube from the moment food enters our mouth to the point at which it goes out of our rectum," Gorfinkel explained. "Their breathing is similar to ours neurologically. Urologically (how urine is formed), we're also quite similar. In all of these aspects, we are very similar to animals."

    #3

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) People who live in "extreme" conditions for generations adapt in extreme ways. For example people that live in high elevations often have larger lungs and different blood makeup. Or my favorite is the Bajau people that live on the water and spend a lot of their time diving, their spleens have become 50% larger in order to store more blood.

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    Coleonema
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I think they can also hold their breathes for longer than most as well

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    #4

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) You hate the sound of your recorded voice because it's missing the low frequency you're used to hearing.

    When you talk, you hear your voice as it goes to the air and back to you ear. It also goes through your skull to your ear, and this bone conduction mechanism transmits the low frequencies better than air does.

    Your recorded voice only has the air transmitted sound. That causes the dissonance between what you think your voice sounds like, and what it really does. It's also why your voice will (almost) always be higher pitch than you think.

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    Raine Soo
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I hate listening to recorded phone messages of my voice. It actually sounds more lower pitch than I realize.

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    But if we continue to measure ourselves against animals, we inevitably start noticing differences. "Animals communicate across miles of land through subsonic sound, that's true. But human beings, on the other hand, have very complex language systems," Gorfinkel said. "We have introspection—that's another critical difference, [as well as] our creativity and emotions, like joy and sorrow and grief—although grief has been described in some animals, including elephants, wolves, and sea lions. But the biggest difference that makes us humans a complete and utter separate category within the animal kingdom, is our ability to have an imagination, to use language in such a complex way, and to hold fictions in our mind."

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    The comparison that Gorfinkel thought of on the spot illustrates her point on a meta-level. "Let's just say the lion is the guardian spirit of our tribe. He still could never convince a monkey to give him a banana by promising the little guy, say, an unlimited supply of bananas in monkey heaven. So our ability to create and believe in collected fiction, that's what makes human beings really different."

    #5

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) The heart smells like mushrooms.

    Source: I’m a cardiac anesthesiologist

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    lith
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    im half awake and i fully anticipated the source to say "im a cannibal" 🤐

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    #6

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Humans have, on average, just as many hairs on their body as chimpanzees, human hair is just a lot shorter and finer.

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    Some parts of our body, however, remain unknown even to science. Take the human brain for example. It has approximately 86 billion neurons, woven together by an estimated 100 trillion connections, or synapses. So untangling such a delicate network is a daunting task—we don't know the details of how those cells work, let alone how they come together to make up our sensory systems, our behavior, our consciousness.

    "You would think it would be easy [to study the brain], it weighs only three pounds, and three-quarters of it is water and 60% of it is fatty tissue. And you'd also think it's easy because the brain can't feel pain. You know, surgery could be done on it, allowing for easy experimentation, as inhumane as it sounds. But there are several things that make it extremely difficult," Gorfinkel said.

    "[Our billions of neurons], connected by trillions upon trillions of synapses in a barrel, is a veritable neuronal forest, and the information is moving at all different speeds, some up to, I think, 250 miles an hour. So even with things like functional MRI [we don't get close to] the nitty-gritty of understanding the very fine neuronal connections that are happening, that really define memory, that define all the complexity that I was just describing: language, reason, creativity, and emotions."

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    #7

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Your eyes have a separate immune system from the rest of your body and in a lot of occasions if your body's immune system finds your eyes, they will assume they are a foreign body and blind you.

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    #8

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Humans are bioluminescent and glow in the dark, but the light that we emit is 1,000 times weaker than our human eyes are able to pick up.

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    Christof Koch, Ph.D., Chief Scientist and President of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and his colleagues study the brain on a large scale. But the more they look at many or most cells in the brain rather than just a few, the more they realize that even the parts of neuroscience they thought the field had nailed down are more complicated than anyone had realized.

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    "There may not be any simple path to understanding complex systems shaped by natural selection,” Koch thinks. "Evolution doesn't care about elegance. The brain doesn't care if you understand it."

    #9

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) When you cry and your nose becomes runny, it's actually your tears.

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    #10

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) The reason it's so easy to break your collar bone is because its designed to break.

    The way it was explained to me is that its like a circuit breaker. It breaks there to stop the shock of impact getting to your spine

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    But that doesn't mean we should stop learning. On the contrary. There's plenty we can do as individuals and as a society to get a better understanding of ourselves and in turn, those around us. "Emotional education is sadly lacking in schools," Gorfinkel said. "We teach all kinds of useless things. And I hate to say it... They're not useless, but they're not as relative to us as understanding our emotional selves."

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    The doctor said there is precious little time devoted in schools to understanding emotions, such as anger, humiliation, shame, guilt, and what to do when we face them. Instead, they're often presented as something negative we need to control, as opposed to being contextualized. These emotions can actually help us, show us the path towards what needs to be done next. "They shine a light on how we need to manage our lives better," Gorfinkel explained.

    "That is something that has long bothered me. Emotional education is, for the most part, not focused on; we focus on physical education, we focus on [general] education [like] mathematics, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, whatever it is, but a lot of the time, the most critical part that will determine our happiness, and our productivity is completely overlooked."

    Because of that, we have to do it ourselves. "Just make the most of picking the low lying fruit," Gorfinkel said. "I'm talking about [things like] sleep or finding the right amount of stress in your life—stress is an interesting thing. Too little stress is actually bad for a person, there's a sweet spot when it comes to stress. And it's kind of a bell curve, right? That if you have too little, there's not enough stimulation. And a person does not approach self-actualization. Even though stress is roundly considered a negative thing, in fact, a little bit, just the right amount is a positive thing. Of course, it can turn into a very negative thing if there's too much. But finding the sweet spot of stress is probably the best tip that I could give."

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    When you think about it, the Internet is a beautiful thing. One moment, u/Zenssei is chilling in front of their TV, the next, tens of thousands of people are teaching one another about the human body. More of this, please.

    #11

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Our brains make up, on average, around 2% of our body weight but consume 20% of our caloric intake

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    Sum Guy
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I would like my brain to take up more calories at times... especially during exams or work presentations

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    #12

    Your body will reduce your muscle strength to protect your spine.

    Stand on flat ground, hold your arms out in a t-pose, and have a friend push down on your hand while you try to hold it in place. That's your control, how strong you actually are.

    Now, remove 1 shoe (or put a book under 1 foot) and repeat with your hips askew so your spine isn't straight. An inch is all it takes.

    Your strength will be reduced to the point that your friend can use a single finger to push your hand down.

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    #13

    Alzheimer’s disease isn’t just gradual loss of memory. It physically exists in the brain. It’s a physical substance that attacks the brain. Like, if you were able to open the skull of a person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease to take a look at their brain, you would actually see this sticky, fibrous, grey physical matter overtaking their brain.

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    #14

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) The eyeball is the fastest healing part on your body.

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    #15

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) You will sooner die from lack of sleep than lack of food.

    You can live, depending on your current body fat and health level, for months without food. Estimates are you that you will die for lack of sleep within 2 weeks

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    #16

    The appendix is not a vestigial organ. It actually protects good bacteria in the gut. You can live without it, but it’s not just chillin’ in there

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    #17

    Scars are not made of "permanent" tissue (they're held together by collagen) and are in a constant state of repair. This repair is facilitated by vitamin C (amongst other things). Yes, this means that people with scurvy (from vitamin C deficiency) will see all their old scars reopen into fresh wounds.

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    #18

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Some women can feel the exact moment an egg is released from the ovary during ovulation. Feels like a little pop just on one side. Pretty neat

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    #19

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Humans are one of a few species of mammal that oddly don't produce their own vitamin C due to lack of a certain enzyme. Other mammalian species who exhibit this mutation are those contained in the main primate suborder Haplorhinni (monkeys, apes, tarsiers), as well as bats, capybaras, and guinea pigs.

    All other mammals produce vitamin C in the liver.

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    Bernd Herbert
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Fun Fact: Primates can't produce the necessary enzyme L-gulonolactone oxidase because of a mutation that probably happened 58 to 63 million years ago. It is believed that this very negative mutation survied because of the arboreal living conditions with plenty of fruity Vitmain C sources. Anyhow, another proof of common ancestry of the primates as we all have that same mutation in our genes.

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    #20

    You can calm yourself down by splashing cold water on your face to trigger the mammalian diving reflex.

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    #21

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) You can grow a new human being faster than most missing toenails can grow back

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    Jo Johannsen
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Hmmm... lost a toenail in an accident, and it was back in about six months vs. nine months for preggers.

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    #22

    If you carry a lot of unprocessed trauma, it can cause psychosomatic autoimmune diseases.

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    Nikki Sevven
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Note that "psychosomatic" does NOT mean "imaginary." It means that emotional trauma is translated into physical trauma.

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    #23

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) X-rays of childrens mouths are nightmare fuel. The second set of teeth to replace baby teeth are already grown and lodged in their skulls. So you'll see two rows of teeth and its freaky looking. They don't grow in when the old ones fall out, they are already loaded in the chamber waiting to get launched.

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    #24

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) The surface area of the lungs is about the same size as a tennis court

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    #25

    If you say haaah your breath comes out warm,but when you say Woooh it comes out cold.

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    #26

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) It's possible to pull a jaw muscle while yawning. I found this out the hard way at work one day.

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    Lauren Caswell
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It's possible to pull all sorts of muscles I only seem to have just so I can injure them

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    #27

    Your body must warm fluids before absorbing them, so drinking ice cold water to hydrate is only burning more energy, and you're not hydrating as quickly.

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    #28

    That there is NOT 20 lbs of toxic poop in your body at any given time. But apparently a ton of people still believe all sorts of ads about some pill or another being able to flush some imaginary "toxins" out of your body like it's going to magically cure you of 20 years of terrible eating and exercise habits.

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    Jo87
    Community Member
    3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Well that's not strictly true - because of the shape of the lower intestine and colon, they never really empty fully. It's very rarely 20lbs worth (you would be extremely ill if that was the case) but there's certainly areas that don't fully clean and bad bacteria can build up there. These drinks and pills work by irritating the gut so badly that everything gets removed, including good bacteria so they are not a healthy option, but they do technically do what they claim.

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    #29

    Apparently not everyone knows that women grow a new organ while pregnant.

    In addition to growing a child, they grow the placenta.

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    Helena Houzarová
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Only part of the placenta is grown by the mother. The rest is grown by the baby, as evidenced by father's DNA in it. Fascinating.

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    #30

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) 39% of people have an extra bone in their knee. 100 years ago only 11% of people had this bone.

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    Raine Soo
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My niece has an extra bone in her knee. It's not noticeable at first, but once you know what it is, you think, "Oh, yeah, right."

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    #31

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Your brain continues to try to revive the body long after the heart has stopped. In some cases 30 hours later there has been found brain activity trying to make repairs to bring the body back. This is used to indicate time of death in murder victims.

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    Sandy Kavanaugh
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    How could a brain deprived of oxygen and glucose for so long function on any level?

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    #32

    The proportion of your vision that is actually in sharp focus roughly equates to the size of your thumbnail at arm's length. The rest of it is just your visual cortex filling in the blanks.

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    #33

    In children under 11 (for some reason), cutting off the fingertip from the last knuckle will result in complete regeneration of the finger in 100% of cases, assuming the naibed is intact. There's no explanation for why this happens, why it only happens to children under 11 and why it can't be sequences to fully regenerate / grow organs. It also occurs in many animals, as observed in test rodents.

    I learned that in science class in grade 8 and my dad called me a liar. I showed him my science textbook and he threw it away and said it was fake.

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    Raine Soo
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I'm sorry that your father did not believe your or your science textbook. Is he a flat-earther as well? I had to ask.

    Dynein
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    While OP's father reacted badly and not like a parent (or any adult) should, the fact as stated is definitely not correct. The fingertip cannot be removed from the last knuckle without removing the entire nailbed. If the nailbed must stay intact and attached to the body, this can only refer to a portion of the fingertip with only very little of the bone. Science text books for schools aren't a good source for things like this.

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    Demi Zwaan
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    How do you cut of a fingertip, but leave the nailbed intact? That means you just slice some 'meat' of the fingerprint part. Of course that grows back.

    Dynein
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yes, cutting off the fingertip at the knuckle but leaving the nailbed is impossible. I'm guessing OP meant cutting off the tip of the finger including the tip of the bone? That MIGHT be possible to do without damaging the nailbed but still would only nick a tiny sliver of bone, I reckon. And I could imagine that in adults, it would keep the cut-off look and not regenerate to be as round and filled-out as it was before. But even than this amount of regeneration is not near as impressive as OP makes it sound, and doesn't even come close to regenerating an entire organ.

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    kasa alex
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    How did they discover that? Presumably not through rigorous scientific testing in a lab

    Monday
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Poorly worded. You can't cut off a fingertip and leave the nail bed intact. You can cut off a chunk of the fingertip though, and that chunk will grow back assuming the kiddo hasn't gone through puberty.

    Spikey Bunny
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I just shaved of a tiny bit of the side of my thumb nail and a large chunk of skin and it bled like crazy for hours.... but it really did heal well on it's own and zero scar now.

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    bonnyatlast
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I'm calling BS on this one. My daughter received such an injury when she was about 1 and a half years old. It my first day back at work. My then husband was supposed to be watching the kids. Her 3 year old brother got on the exercise bike. She was standing beside it holding onto the chain. He pedaled and the top of her finger came off. Nail bed intact. My X rushed her to the hospital with the tip in ice. The Dr's reattach it but told us the majority of such injuries do not take. Her's did partially. Still missing muscle tissue above the bone. Has just skin over it.

    Josette Bergeron
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I know a surgical nurse who lost her fingertip at 6 years old, to an axe her brother was wielding around carelessly. It never grew back. It's just a smooth partial knuckle that originally still had some nail bed, but the nail surface sloughed off before she was 7 years old. So, not 100% of the time!

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    Peter Kirkwood
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It happened to me! My finger was cut off when I was three months old just above the quick of the nail. They tried to sow it back on, but it did not take and fell off and died. About 90% of it grew back and my ring finger on my left hand is only about 3 mm shorter than on my right hand.

    Vicky Zar
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I wonder who found out about it. And how and why? How many children had this happen to them? Was there a study (can't imagine)? HOW did they find out???

    Sandy Arguijo
    Community Member
    3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Not possible to cut off the figertip from the last knuckle while leaving the nail bed intact!

    Seabeast
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My father believed that women have more ribs than men and used this to argue against evolution and for proof of the bible story.

    Donald McClane
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My Grandfather lost the end of his middle finger about an eighth of an inch beyond the nail. It grew back completely, nail and all. He was in his seventies.

    Catherine Brady
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If you cut off down to the first knuckle, you have cut past any nail bed. This doesn't make any sense.

    Gissel Escudero
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Ooh, this actually happened to the oldest sister of a friend of mine. Part of her thumb was severed accidentally by a door. It grew back, albeit a little shorter.

    Meredith Adams
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    When we were both little, my brother slammed his finger in our kitchen door. The tip was chopped off right below the fingernail. It was just hanging by a bit of skin! The doc tried to convince my mom that it would grow back, if they just cut it all the way off, but she didn’t believe it. She thought he was crazy and begged them to sew it back on instead, which they did. I’ve always believed that the doc was crazy too. Now, having read this, I feel bad for all of the times that I’ve told this story and made fun of the doc for thinking that a finger could grow back. Whoops! Sorry Doc!

    Knoxy
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Has anyone asked why they're cutting off kids fingertips?

    AzKhaleesi
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is true, I started shaving very young and was shaving when I was 10 / 11 and cut the tip of my finger clean off and you can't even tell now. Never thought about it before until I read this. So wow.

    Brivid
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Looked it up https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/06/10/190385484/chopped-how-amputated-fingertips-sometimes-grow-back#:~:text=Doctors%20have%20seen%20the%20effect,t%20involved%20in%20the%20research.

    Ashley Keenan
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is not true. I had my thumb slammed in a car door at three years old and am still missing the tip of my thumb at 40.

    Billy Scott
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    How do you cut off a fingertip but leave the nail bed intact?

    Michelle Albert
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I am fully sceptical of this. It certainly didn't happen for my neice whose finger was injured when she was three years old.

    Donald Holder
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Your classification of 100% is pretty shaky when true science statistics and blind studies are included.

    onearmed bandit
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My son, age 2, stuck his index finger in a bunny cage. Momma bunny bit off the end, including the nail. Grew back with a very small scar. What I wanted to know is: did the new fingertip have the same fingerprint as before?

    Mazer
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Technically one would have to have the finger cut off somewhere between the tip and the nail bed not the first knuckle

    M Kate McCulloch
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    so, we all now know that the OP's dad is an asshat, denier, control freak of massive fuckery.

    CharliAnn Olney
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    When my Mother was four, she cut off the tip of her thumb on a "screw type" piano stool. The family lived on a ranch, so Grandfather put pepper on both pieces (pepper is a natural antibiotic) and wrapped it all up. The thumb healed completely. However, although the top of the thumb and thumb nail continued to grow normally the tip underneath always remained the size or her four year old self.

    Khadija Hammond
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If you cut off your finger it shouldn’t matter about your nailbed! That doesn’t make any sense.

    fuggnuggins
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Sounds like a convenient adaptation that allows for a durable alteration of a child's behaviour.

    Paige Garberding
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My sympathies. It must have been hard to grow up with your father. This has been credibly proven and published countless time in countless pediatric patients over at least the last 50 years. And we can thank the first worm for passing on this evolutionary superpower. Don't tell me, your dad was/is a Republican, no insult intended, but they didn't used to be such brain-dead morons back then. Have you ever written about your experience?

    Thrash Hippie
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    True. This happened to me at 6. It grew back and there’s no scar.

    JD Lee
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Had this happen in my 30’s; nail intact & untouched. Finger grew back perfectly but my nail is now half as thick & very brittle. There is a weird scar from the tip of the finger just under the nail down to the pad in a teardrop shape.

    Puter Prsn
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It can also happen to adults - it happened to me. Regrew the end of my finger, nail and all.

    Jill Tremblay
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Wonderful....so we are cutting off rodents fingertips just to see if they grow back? Seriously? WTF is happening?

    Sarah
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    So THAT'S why my fingertip that got cut most of the way off when I was ~3 ended up growing back OK.

    Leslie Burleson
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I'm pretty sure if you could cut a kid's finger off and it grew back , we'd all know about it

    Sonia Reddel
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    How could the nailbed be intact if the finger is cut off at the knuckle??

    Milord Cutter
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Dad was a science denier? I bet he voted for the Orange Former Guy.

    J. F.
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Oh, I've once read an article why babies and pregnant women have faster wound healing and are less likely to get scars - had to do with an enzyme that supports child development. Don't know if that is responsible for this

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    #34

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) You can live "normally" with half your brain. In some severe drug resistant epileptic syndrom in young kids, the only option to stop the seizures is to remove a complete brain hemisphere.

    After a while, with proper reeducation and all, the children can go on to have a normal life without cognitive deficit. They will have a limping, blindness from one eye and a very weark arm but can lead a normal life and not end up cognitively impaired.

    One of the earliest sign of alzheimer's disease, before the memory loss, could be the loss of the sense of smell. It's also the case with Parkinson disease.

    Our brain looks wrinkled because it is actually "folded" inside our skull in order to fit a maximum of surface and thus neurons & cell communications. Some animals like rodents have a completely smooth brain.

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    LottieH
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This fascinated me at uni. Google Roger Sperry and split brain theory. It's pretty amazing stuff..

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    #35

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Every minute you shed over 30,000 dead skin cells off your body

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    #36

    The reason it feels weird when you or someone touches the inside of your belly button is because the nerves actually go to your spinal cord. These nerves lie at the same level that relay signals to your urethra and bladder. So when you feel like you have to pee when you touch the inside of your belly button, that's why.

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    Sandy Kavanaugh
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I can't take it. That's why I don't wear elastic in my pants. Can't stand it against my belly button!

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    #37

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) You can poop out of your mouth if your intestines get backed up enough. It's like vomit, doesn't look like actual poop per se, but it's still disgusting.

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    #38

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Humans have stripes, we just normally can’t see them. They’re called Blaschko’s lines and form along the paths of embryonic cell migration. The stripes are sort of U-shaped down our front, V-shaped on our back, wavy on the head and face and we have basic, simple stripes on our extremities.

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    Ashamba
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Ha ha, the bot that picks the images and just looked for 'human'+'stripes'!? Good fact though.

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    #39

    Each one of your eyes has a blind spot where the optic nerve exit your eye into your brain. You can't see it because your brain tricks you not to see, it covers the spot with some made up image of what it thinks fits better with the rest of it.

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    Monday
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Dear person reading this. You can see your nose. You are now in manual blinking mode. You are now in manual breathing mode. You're welcome.

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    #40

    We're the best marathon runners in the animal kingdom and can win a marathon against any animal out there.

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    Refugee Pups
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    AND - that's why we pair with dogs so well, because they're marathon runners also, so we could hunt prey together by wearing it down over time rather than catching it in a sprint or a super quick movement the way many animals do - alligators, bears, birds, snakes, spiders, oh, and obviously... cats ;). That's true!

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    #41

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) The average adult has 22 square feet of skin. Perfect size for a nice rug.

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    #42

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Human eggs are small but big enough to be visible to the human eye

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    Hans
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That stockphoto does not really fir though...it is by far not as big as a chicken egg...

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    #43

    Baby don’t get knee caps until 2-6 years old

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    #44

    Your brain likes stimulation, if it doesn't get any it will make some up, some people are more sucepticle to it then others, the colors you see before you fall asleep are a common mild occurrence, there are several classes of these hallucinations, closed-eye visuals, which are caused by leaving your eyes closed for a long time, hypnagogia, which is caused by the onset of sleep, prisoners cinema, which is caused by looking into a dark place for a long time, ganzfeld effect, which is caused by blocking out all external stimuli, and Charles bonnet syndrome, caused by sight loss.



    Most are these are simple phosphenes but some can be whole imagined scenes, or more abstract fractal-like imagery

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    Laugh or not
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I get the fractal imagery. It is very pretty. Box that I know it is because my brain is bored, I will try to stimulate it more.

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    #45

    When you have a bowel movement, your heart rhythm shifts temporarily due to a vagus response. The reason Elvis died on the toilet was because his heart was beating 200+ bpm and the quick rhythm change caused a myocardial infarction. People with low heart rates have been known to pass out on the toilet because their bodies can't handle the shift.

    It's also why EMTs will absolutely not let you use the bathroom before getting on the ambulance. Especially if the bathroom is a standard 5'x8'.

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    Refugee Pups
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    What do the dimensions of the bathroom have to do with poop-based heart attacks?

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    #46

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Jaw muscles are the strongest in the human body

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    Sum Guy
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Anyone who has been in contact with a bitty toddler can attest to this

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    #47

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) It only takes about 15 pounds of force to rip off a human ear

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    #48

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Synovial joint fluid is the most frictionless stuff on the planet (unless they've synthetic'ed something up that recently.)

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    #50

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) If you faint at the sight of your own blood you may have an oversensitive vasovagal response. The theory is that this developed as a survival mechanism, kind of like an opposum playing dead.

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    #51

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) When you get conditioned to physical activity, your circulatory system adapts -- more blood, more vessels, more blood cells. But your lungs really don't. This is because no matter how much blood your heart is able to deliver to your lungs, the lungs still have no problem oxygenating it. This is why your oxygen saturation doesn't drop during exercise (unless you have a heart defect.)

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    Zophra
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    IDK - you can increase lung volume with training... isn't that adapting?

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    #52

    Babys can break their collarbone during delivery. It happens quite often, but heals quickly. My teacher told me that (if it happened to you ofc) you may feel a slightly higher spot on your collarbone, called the callus where the fracture grew back together.

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    Batwench
    Community Member
    Premium
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    In a difficult viginal birth medical staff have been known to break or dislocate this area to help baby get out. Probably more common than it is let on.

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    #53

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) There's a "right" and a "wrong" way to swallow and the first swallow pattern you learn isn't the right one! Babies swallow by pushing their whole tongue forward (since it's better for nursing). However, as you transition to solid foods, you are supposed to change to a swallow where you put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth and roll the food back. Not everyone does, and those that don't are more likely to choke, eat too fast, develop dental problems, and some develop a lisp or distorted sounds as they learn to talk!

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    QueerTheory
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I tried swallowing by pushing my whole tongue forward, it was uncomfortable and i suddenly felt my mouth is full with my tongue lol.

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    #54

    It is simply impossible to laugh after tickling yourself, since the cerebellum sends commands to other parts of the brain to ignore these actions.

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    #55

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) In theory humans could breathe a liquid if it was super saturated with oxygen. It wouldn't be easy because the density of liquid being so much higher than air so after 15 mins or so you would be too fatigued to continue breathing.

    The hardest part is getting all the liquid out of the lungs so the person doesn't get pneumonia

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    #56

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) Your stomach is surrounded by more brain cells (half a billion neurons) than the brain of a cat contains in total.

    It's your enteric nervous system. It controls digestion, operates autonomously, has its own memory, can handle its own reflexes, it has its own senses even.

    It's thought to have come about because of the blood-brain barrier and the main brain being locked away in the skull, a spinal column and nerves away from the critical action of nutrition.

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    Nadine Debard
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I recently heard than, in symbiosis with your gut microbiom, these brain cells constitute a second "brain" and we're far away from understanding its whole potential, in particular in preventing autoimmune diseases. The future is crap...

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    #57

    Apparently about 20% of people have a bony ridge on the roof of their mouth. Most people's pallettes are smooth with a very slight ridge.

    The 20% like me have an exaggerated and more pronounced ridge. Apparently it's most common in women and Asian folk, and I'm neither so that's neat. I always thought it was totally normal.

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    Sandy Kavanaugh
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Ha! Mind's got an extremely high arch and rows if parralell ridges. It's genetic.

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    #58

    Most reflexes never make it to your brain. The sensory aspect travels to the spinal cord and the spinal cord itself sends the muscle movement signals to your limbs.

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    Car addict
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    i wonder if a seizure is just all the reflexes going to your brain at once

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    #59

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) There are tiny cilia that spin in a certain direction. If they spin in the opposite direction while you're developing in the womb early on, that is how you get organs transposed onto the opposite side of your body.

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    ispeak catanese
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My friend's husband was born with everything on the wrong side of his body, supposedly had surgery to correct it.

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    #60

    The shoulder blade is a more complicated joint than you'd think. While the hip is a ball and socket that just rotates, the shoulder can fold forward. If you sit with your back against against the chair, hold your hand on your collarbone. Then try moving your shoulder forward. You should be able to move the joint forward without moving your back from the chair

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    Cain Hargreaves
    Community Member
    3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    And if you have screwy connective tissue like me, you can do even more weird stuff with your shoulders!

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    #61

    “What Is A Fact About The Human Body That Not Many People Know About?” (50 Answers) The hyoid bone is a bone not attached to any other bones in the human body and is only considered the anchor of the tongue

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