If you think you know your body that well, think again.
The human body is more fascinating than you think. It does several internal processes each second. Plus, each part plays a critical role to allow you to eat, breathe, think, laugh, and do so many things! It’s a seriously complex but fascinating machine.
If you want to know more about your body, check out these 74 facts you probably didn’t know about.
1. Heart attacks happen more often on Mondays.
It is the worst day of the week for heart attacks. The risk on Mondays increases by 15% for women and 20% for men. It’s caused both by alcohol consumed over the weekend and the stress of going back to work.
2. Your skin is replaced around 1000 times in your life.
We’re talking all of the skin on your body. It is in a constant cycle of shedding and being replaced with new skin. This works out to the skin being completely replaced about once a month.
3. The brain generates more electrical impulses in a day than every telephone in the world combined.
The neurons in the brain are constantly receiving and sending electrical signals. The sheer amount of them is inconceivable. While the impulses aren’t going to be as powerful as all of the phones in the world, there will be more of them.
4. Hiccups are a byproduct of when people used to be aquatic.
They are a remnant of our ancient ancestral past. About 370 million years ago, our ancestors spent a lot of time in the ocean and had both gills and lungs. The hiccup prevented water ingress.
5. Smoking a pack of cigarettes per day amounts to a half cup of tar per year.
That is a lot of tar buildup! It can’t be very healthy for the lungs and throat to smoke that much. One cigarette isn’t going to kill you, but years of regular smoking definitely can cause some issues.
6. The human body contains enough sulfur to kill all of the fleas on a dog.
It’s a mineral that is crucial to insulin production. The body contains quite a lot of it. If you could extract it all, it would be enough to treat one average dog for fleas.
7. Botox deprives people of their ability to feel emotions fully.
It eliminates the wrinkles, but in turn, makes the facial muscles tighter. The facial expressions you make are directly tied to your emotional state. If you can’t make the full expression, the emotions you feel won’t be as powerful.
8. The heart pumps an average of 182 million liters of blood in a lifetime.
It’s unfathomable how much blood that is. The heart is constantly working, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Each heartbeat pumps out about 1/3 cup of blood.
9. The human body’s structure contains only four minerals.
They are apatite, aragonite, calcite, and cristobalite. These mineral crystals are what make up the bones, teeth, and all of the other structural pieces of the body. It is a system that is both simple and complex.
Both are covered in a pretty incredible amount of bacteria. In some cases, the toilets are actually cleaner than the ATMs. The bacteria may or may not be harmful to the health of humans.
11. In the time it takes to read this sentence, 50 million cells died and were replaced.
There are about 100 million new red blood cells being formed in the body every minute. Other tissues have different rates of replacement, but it’s all taking place at the same time as well. It’s a state of constant regeneration.
12. Kissing creates a fun chemical party in your brain.
When you kiss someone passionately, your brain releases the same chemicals as it does when skydiving or firing a gun. It’s a powerful cocktail of dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin.
13. Embryos get fingerprints in the womb at three months.
Babies develop very rapidly. After three months of gestation, they already have fingerprints forming. They will then have the same fingerprints for the rest of their lives.
It happens at a rate of about 1 in 500 people. It’s called a cervical rib and can happen on both the left and right side of the rib cage. Even though it is an abnormality, it doesn’t usually cause any problems.
15. Fingernails grow up to four times faster than toenails.
You would think that they both grow at the same rate. However, that’s not the case. On average a fingernail can be replaced in 6 months, but a toenail will take over a year.
Studies claim that people with higher IQs experience dreams that last longer and are more vivid. However, most people don’t remember their dreams anyway, so it doesn’t really matter that much.
The phobia is called Parthenophobia. The people who suffer from it normally feel strong social anxiety when around young girls. Sometimes, it results in a full-blown panic attack.
The average resting heart rate of women is about three beats per minute faster than that of men. Women between 40 and 49 years of age have the highest average RHR of all. Everyone is different though and there a lot of different factors that determine heart rate.
19. Most people bend their heads to the right when kissing.
As many as 70% of people kiss this way. This stat was determined by observing thousands of people kissing. It’s likely that kissing position is associated with right or left-handedness.
20. Colds are caused by more than 100 different viruses.
It’s likely you’ll never catch the same cold twice. It’s is possible to have more than one type of cold at once though. There are so many of them and they are always changing.
22. People are more convincing liars when they have to go to the bathroom.
Having to go forces people to focus on self-control and making fewer extra movements. This, in turn, makes it harder for others to tell if you are lying or not. Therefore, if you plan on lying anytime soon, it’s best to drink a lot of liquid first.
23. The brain has a memory capacity of approximately 4 TB.
If it was compared to a computer hard drive, the brain could hold 4 terabytes. Of course, it is difficult to really quantify human memory. There are so many aspects of it that don’t directly translate into computer form.
24. Kissing is more effective for oral hygiene than using chewing gum.
It’s because kissing someone for an extended period of time causes the acidity in the mouth to normalize. It’s a lot more fun than chewing gum too. You and your partner can kiss away that bad breath.
25. There’s enough blood in the body to feed over a million mosquitoes.
Most humans contain enough blood to feed 1.2 million to 1.8 million of the hungry insects. The body is a literal feast for them. Although, in reality, it would be hard to get bit enough times to lose any substantial amount of blood at any one time.
27. Newborn babies can breath and swallow at the same time.
They are able to do this incredible feat for up to seven months. It has to do with a mechanism involved in breastfeeding. Once the babies get older, they can’t do it anymore.
Try it for yourself. Rub some garlic on your feet and within 30 minutes, you will start to taste it in your mouth. A compound in garlic called allicin is able to be absorbed through the cell membranes and journey through the bloodstream.
29. Humans are the only animals that can draw a straight line.
Yes, some other animals can draw. However, none can connect two points in a straight line. They also can’t construct a perfect circle. These skills are reserved for humans.
31. Only 1/3 of people can move one ear at a time.
Most people can move both of them at once, but not each separately. If you are among the 33% that can move one at a time, consider yourself special. Unfortunately, it’s a talent that probably won’t benefit you much.
32. The feeling of thirst arises when your body loses 1% of its weight in water.
If it loses 5% of its weight in water, you will start to get dizzy and could potentially faint. A 10% loss will result in extreme dehydration and possible death.
33. People learn better when the information is printed on paper.
If the same information is read off of a computer screen, it won’t be absorbed into memory as readily. That’s what some studies show. It’s a major win for the fans of the traditional paper book format.
Surprisingly, they aren’t the same size. It’s because the left lung is positioned over the heart. It has to be slightly smaller to accommodate the important organ.
36. 80% of body heat loss happens through the head.
If you want to stay warm, the head is the most important place to cover up. That is where most of the body heat escapes from. Put on a heavy wool hat and you will stay much warmer in the cold weather.
37. All of the bacteria in the body combined weighs around 2 kg.
If you piled it all up, it would weigh 2 kg or 4.4 pounds. It would include a mix of all kinds of bacteria, both good and bad. Just thinking about all those living creatures makes us a little uneasy.
38. Your lips are 100 times more sensitive than your finger tips.
They are one of the most sensitive parts of your body. Any contact with human lips instantly creates a noticeable sensation, no matter how light the touch is.
39. People are able to remember about 150 trillion pieces of information from their life.
At the end of life, that is the number of pieces of information stored in the brain. It’s an unfathomably large number. It lends some credence to the idea that wisdom comes with age.
Just like all the plants start growing more after the winter passes, so do children. It is believed that the increased spring growth rate is due to sun exposure. Some kids can have growth spurts that result in several inches of growth in just a few weeks’ time.
