Our bodies are amazing, complex, and weird. There are countless things they can do that would make you raise your eyebrows or make you say WOW. We’ve collected a few weird facts about the human body we thought you’d like to know.
Make sure to let us know in the comments if you know more weird human body facts that we can add to our list! Thanks.
1. Our circulatory system is veryyyyyyy long
The total length of our capillaries, veins, and arteries can stretch to up to… drum rolls please… 60,000 miles (or around 100,000 km)! Just so you can get a sense of how extremely long our circulatory system is, the Earth’s circumference is around 25,000 miles (or 40,000 km) making it two and a half times smaller than the circulatory system.
2. After we die, within 4-5 minutes, bacteria and enzymes will start eating our body away
I mean, bacteria line up waiting for us to die. It’s both gross and weird. What’s surprising is that it can take around 10 years for a body to fully decompose and only the skeleton to be left of it.
3. 1 year of our life is spent on the toilet
Chances are this estimate will only increase since so many of us tend to grab the phone before going to the bathroom only to end up spending way too much time checking timelines and feeds.
4. You might have already fought cancer and not even know it
If mutations happen in one’s DNA, it can lead to the creation of cancer cells. These will then divide uncontrollably and clump together forming tumors in the body. Many cells split every single minute and there are about 30,000 genes that need to be copied when this happens. Which means DNA errors can occur all the time (in theory) and this could mean we can get cancer every day. So why don’t we? Because our proofreading enzymes will immediately spot and fix any potential DNA mistakes. If this doesn’t happen, the cell itself can even commit suicide, sacrificing itself to save the body! Talk about strange facts about the human body, right?
5. Your nose and ears NEVER stop growing
Does my nose look bigger? Yes, yes it does, it’s not all in your head. While our bones don’t grow anymore past puberty, anything cartilage (like the ears and the nose) will continue to grow. Earlobes keep growing because of gravity.
6. Our DNA is 67 billion miles long
So much DNA! If you would uncoil all your DNA and place each strand end to end you will get about 150,000 round trips to the Moon.
7. Humans glow in the dark
This took us by complete surprise: we glow in the dark! Japanese scientists have released a series of pictures of glittering human bodies. Using ultra-sensitive cameras, the scientists showed that human bodies emit small amounts of light which are impossible for the human eye to see.
8. Your nose can distinguish 1,000,000,000,000 different smells
Our nose is pretty amazing, so yes, that’s 1 Trillion with a T. Here’s the study that determined this. Scientists previously thought we can smell just 10,000 scents – not even close, were they?
9. Bone count goes from 300 to 206
Who let the bones out? Well, no one, just that when we reach adulthood that number goes down because some of the bones fuse together and other bones make the switch from partly cartilage to full bones. So, yes, babies have more ‘bones’ than adults.
10. Enough saliva to fill two pools in a lifetime
In your lifetime you will produce around 40.000 liters of saliva! It usually ends up being swallowed either when you’re enjoying a meal or between meals. This is one of the weird facts about the human body that’s also gross at the same time.
11. Ear wax is a kind of sweat
This was a slam dunk for us #themoreyouknow Mix natural secretions from oil and sweat glands and you end up with the unpleasantness of ear wax. Medicine tells us that the sweatier you are, the more you are likely to have pulled the short stick aka produce more ear wax.
12. Stomach acid is so powerful that it can dissolve metal
Your stomach’s acidity is no joke! If this acid managed to touch your skin you would get a serious burn. Some (not all) metals can be dissolved but it would take some time for this to happen, longer than the time food usually stays in the stomach.
13. Your pinky is responsible for 50% of your hand’s strength
That pinky is pretty tough! Hand surgeons say that if you’d have to choose a finger to lose, that would be the index finger as it offers the least force out of the 5 fingers of the hand. Odd but true.
14. Grass can’t be digested by humans
Peckish for some grass? Although some health fanatics might say otherwise, grass is not the right option for human consumption. We would require a few more stomachs (like cows have) to be able to digest it. And yes, if you’re still thinking about metals, those are better managed by your stomach than grass.
15. We blink 900 to 1200 times per hour
How many times did you blink today? 140-150 minutes every single day, to be precise. You can blink anywhere from 5.2 to 7.1 Million times a year! Blinking is essential for eye health, bringing in oxygen to the eyes, clearing dead cells or debris from the eyes or bringing useful substances to our eyes.
16. Semen can’t live at body temperature
That’s why men’s testicles are outside the body. The average scrotal temperature is around 3 degrees Celsius lower than body temperature – so 34 degrees Celsius instead of 37 (or 93.2 Fahrenheit instead of 98.6). This is one of those weird facts about the human body you probably didn’t think about or did you?
17. Your brain creates enough energy to power a lightbulb
Brain light, anyone? The 100 billion neurons in your brain could be considered an alternative source of energy. One neuron doesn’t create much energy but billions of them, creating and sending messages, well, they can create a lot of energy.
Want more good (and weird) stuff? Check out our list of 12 Weird Websites That Will Leave You Asking “WTF Did I Just See?”
Summing Up
The body can do a lot of weird things, most of which we are not aware of. How many of these weird facts about the human body were you aware of? What other weird things do you know about? Let’s hear your – weird or not – thoughts in the comments.
FAQ
What are some scary facts about humans?
Besides glowing in the dark, filling bathtubs of spit in our lifetime or being able to smell 1 trillion different smells, the human body can do a lot more. We won’t get into details, just know that your heart can pump blood at a pressure which can push it 9 meters across the room if your artery is ruptured. Or how about the EHS or Exploding Head Syndrome? This affects some people and makes them hear a very loud bang as soon as they wake up. There’s no pain but the sound is unbearable.
What is the craziest fact about the human body?
Right when you wake up each morning you are about 1cm taller than the time you go to bed. How about that? During the day your soft cartilage (that’s found between bones gets compressed) and this leads to this difference in height.
What is the most useless body part?
The appendix is probably the most useless body part. In the past it may have aided people to digest plants rich in cellulose which is not that useful today.
