#1
Well, what do you think happens to people who were born deaf, but then get schizophrenia?
It turns out that if they were taught sign language, the "voices" come out as visions of disembodied hands signing at them to tell them the same kinds of bad stuff.
OTOH, people born blind apparently never get schizophrenia.
#2
And you'd be wrong.
In fact, the nerve comes down from the brain, goes screaming right past the larynx and down to the vicinity of the heart, where it loops under the aortal arch, then finally comes back up to the larynx. And that is true for all mammals. In giraffes, the thing can be about 10 meters long.
And the reason it is that way is that evolved from a nerve that used to go from a fish brain to fish gills, and the shortest path was underneath the heart. But as fish evolved, their shape changed, and eventually they acquired a neck, moving the brain to a different place in the body. It's WAY easier for evolution to just make something longer as opposed to rewiring it, so the RLN just got longer and longer, still looping under the heart.
Reason #4821 why we know evolution is real.
#3
I adored my maternal grandmother and was extremely close to her. Knowing that she carried and nurtured part of me is such a beautiful thought.
A few days ago, in the AskReddit community, the user u/wassim_elia posed the question to netizens: "What's an interesting fact about the human body that a lot of people don't know?" The result was a thread that, in just a couple of days, has already garnered over 3.6K upvotes and around two and a half thousand various comments.
From amusing coincidences and absurdities to truly profound scientific opinions, netizens' “body facts” are astonishingly diverse. And the lively discussion surrounding many of these opinions and things truly makes them even more interesting. So, please read this selection of over three dozen of the most exciting pieces from this thread!
#4
Fearful that I had essentially lost half my reproductive organs, the surgeon gave me an anatomy lesson.
So, typically when an egg is released by the left ovary, the left fallopian tube will snatch it up, same for the right side. I thought, “this is a bummer guess I have like half the opportunity to get pregnant again.” NOPE. My remaining tube can CREEP ACROSS my uterus to snatch up an egg released by the ovary on the opposing side.
#5
For example, fainting is essentially the brains super cool way of saying "I want better blood flow, but i'm not getting it, therefore I will *force* the body to be horizontal".
When you're on the floor, gravity acts in favor of better circulation to the brain than standing upright (the heart and brain are then on the same level).
Other examples can include glucose hoarding, blood shunting, and cushing's reflex, to name a few.
#6
The evolution of human views on our own bodies is strikingly uneven. Two thousand years ago, Chinese and Roman doctors performed complex surgeries and inserted dentures - and just a couple of centuries later, millions of people in Europe seriously believed that humans were literally molded from a special kind of clay.
Some even considered attempting to understand how our bodies function as deeply sinful, while others, like Leonardo da Vinci, drew countless drawings of human muscles and bones to achieve maximum realism in their paintings. And so it has been throughout almost all of human history.
#7
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#9
Just over two hundred years ago, doctors learned to administer anesthesia during surgery, and a couple of decades later, they began actually washing their hands and disinfecting their tools. This revolutionized medicine.
However, the pioneers of these discoveries sometimes faced genuine persecution from "academic science" - like Ignaz Semmelweis, for example, who suggested that obstetricians simply disinfect their hands, thereby saving countless lives of new mothers and newborn babies.
But even in the 20th century, seemingly the most enlightened in terms of science and medicine, incredible things were sometimes quite common. With each passing decade, we learned more and more about our bodies - and often these discoveries completely overturned what had previously been considered absolute axioms.
#10
It's also not a new phenomena - it was first described in ancient Greece, and the Dutch Famine in WWII is what helped narrow down gluten as the culprit for what triggered Celiac - children dying of malnutrition in hospitals actually improved during the Famine because they were no longer fed bread.
#11
If you get a sinus infection the swelling can push against the nerves and your brain thinks you have tooth ache. .
#12
Very soon, in a couple of weeks, the first quarter of the 21st century will end, which many unfairly consider the era of the internet and computer technology. In fact, medical science has made tremendous strides in the last 25 years - in particular, we've gradually begun to achieve success in treating complex genetic diseases, as this dedicated article at National Geographic says.
And, beyond generating funny pictures and other meaningless slop that only clutters the internet, artificial intelligence is truly helping us discover new cures and solve health problems by finding new approaches to long-known problems. Every year brings us new knowledge about ourselves. We just need to have the desire to acquire this knowledge.
#13
#14
#15
Well, we're pretty sure you may know some of the facts listed in this selection, but some of them may be a real revelation for you. And then, in conversation with friends and colleagues, you can show off your new knowledge - after all, why not?
So please feel free to read this list to the very end - and in case you know something about the human body that isn't included here (after all, any list has its limits), please feel free to share your interesting piece of knowledge in the comments below.
#16
For example, if your grandparent experiences a traumatic event in early childhood (say, a parents death) and lacks the appropriate support system to deal with the loss, the trauma they hold from this event can be passed to their child which in turn can be passed to you.
#18
#19
Source: I perform autopsies.
#20
