Ah, the human body – so fascinating and baffling at the same time. With so many scientific breakthroughs, there’s always something new to uncover about human anatomy.
With that in mind, don’t forget how special you are. “Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.” — Carl Sagan.
So, are you ready to have your mind blown? These interesting facts about the human body will surely surprise and enlighten you.
Related Read: Interesting facts about humans.
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33 Interesting Facts About the Human Body
Did you know that the human body contains roughly 37.2 trillion cells? That’s just a small taste of what’s to come. If you want to know, keep on reading.
Right. It’s time to get into some of the most intriguing, weirdest, silliest, and grossest facts about the human body.
1. Your Body Gives Off a Small Amount of Light
Yip, you read that right, starting the list of facts off with a banger: your body is literally glowing right now. Although, this light is far too faint for the eye to notice. If you’re wondering if this ties into auras, you’re on the right track.
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2. An Adult’s Blood Vessels Could Circle the Earth’s Equator Four Times If Laid End to End
The Earth’s circumference is approximately 40,075 kilometers (24,901 miles), and all the blood vessels in your body can circle that enormous amount four times over. Let that sink in for a few seconds.
While blood vessels are pretty small, their network is exceptionally long.
3. Your Brain Is Often More Active When You’re Sleeping
Your heart rate and blood pressure increase, leading to dynamic brain activity during the REM stage. REM sleep occurs for at least two hours every night and plays a significant role in creating memory and information processing.
Psst: You might also like these psychological facts about dreams.
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4. You Produce About 1 Liter of Saliva Each Day
Gross human body fact alert – you produce around 23,000 liters of spit in your lifetime. Funny enough, there’s a good reason behind this crazy amount of saliva: it moistens the mouth, neutralizes harmful acids, and aids chewing and swallowing.
Producing more saliva than usual is hypersalivation, often caused by pregnancy, allergies, strep throat, heartburn, etc.
5. There Are About 67 Different Types of Bacteria in Your Belly Button
If you’re wondering why the belly button contains so many bacteria, you’re not the only one. These invisible pests seem to flourish here for a silly yet logical reason: it’s warm and moist. Bacteria thrive in these exact conditions. However, many microbes do not belong in the belly button, such as staphylococcus, which causes staph infections.
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6. Information Travels at 268 mph (430 kmph) Along the Nerves
Here’s an epic fact about the human brain. Information zooms at about 268 miles per hour (430 kmph) along the nerves. This lightning speed results from an electric pulse generated by a stimulated neuron. Furthermore, a disruption in this process can cause an epileptic seizure.
7. Humans Are the Only Species That Can Blush
Who thought that blushing would be such a huge flex? So far, we’re the only known species on earth with this adorable ability. Blushing is linked to embarrassment – a complex emotion that only humans experience. It’s caused by dilating blood vessels in the face during humiliation.
Read Next: Psychological Life Facts
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8. The Human Heart Beats More Than Three Billion Times During the Average Lifespan
Suppose you live up to 80 years. This means that your heart will have beaten more than three billion times.
9. Your Blood Makes Up Roughly 8% of Your Body Weight
Roughly 7-8% of an adult body’s weight is blood. The average man has about 12 pints of blood in his body, while a woman has nine.
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10. You Lose 8.8lbs/4 kg of Skin Cells Annually
Shedding skin is a natural human process and essential to our health. Thankfully, we don’t shed skin like snakes or lizards do (how horrifying would that be!), but we lose lots of it to replace dead or damaged skin cells with healthy ones.
You might enjoy reading my article psychology facts about beauty.
11. Human Teeth Are as Strong as Shark Teeth
How interesting is this? Research suggests they’re precisely the same hardness. Apparently, human teeth have an enamel layer on the outside that is exactly as hard as the enameloid found on the outside of a shark tooth.
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12. The Left Lung Is 10% Smaller Than the Right One
There’s a pretty good reason for this oddity. Your left lung is smaller to make more space for your heart. The left lung has no middle lobe and has two parts the right one doesn’t have: the cardiac notch (where your heart fits) and the lingula, the equivalent to the right middle lobe.
13. Listen Up: Your Ears Never Stop Growing!
The rest of your body may stop growing after you’ve gone through puberty, but the ears refuse to listen and get with the program. Instead, these stubborn organs allow gravity to take the wheel, causing the lobes to elongate and the cartilage to grow.
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14. The Nose Can Differentiate a Trillion Scents
According to researchers, what the nose knows may as well be limitless. Who knew there were so many different scents? Well, the nose knows and can distinguish between a trillion odors.
15. The Average Joe Has About 8,000 Taste Buds On Their Tongue
The nose is not the only body part with an epic talent. Adult tongues have between 2,000 to 10,000 taste buds. This explains why people with more taste buddies are called ‘supertasters’ and why some of us are better in the kitchen than others.
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16. The Heart Is the Only Muscle That Never Tires
Considering the heart beats about 100,000 times daily, it never gets tired of this constant work. After all, it’s why you’re alive and kicking, so this makes complete sense. The heart contains unique muscle cells called cardiomyocytes that are highly resistant to fatigue.
17. The Body Has More Than 2 Million Sweat Pores
Here’s a smelly fact for you. Known as eccrine glands, the human body has between two to four million of these sweat pores. These are present throughout the body, but most are found in the feet, palms, groin, and armpit soles. The average person sweats three to four liters per hour or as much as 10 liters daily.
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18. The Whole Surface Area of the Skin Gets Replaced Every Month
Yip, your entire skin replaces itself with brand-new cells each month. This means that you’ll have 1,000 different skins in your lifetime. Wow, you’re practically a new person every month.
19. On Average, Some People May Fart Enough in One Day To Fill a Party Balloon
Seriously, who is out there conducting these experiments? To give you the full picture: it would take an average of 79 farts to fill a standard 11-inch party balloon. While gas is a normal part of life, people shouldn’t be farting more than 25 times per day. Anything beyond that is considered excessive.
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20. Your Brain Density Continues to Increase as New Neuronal Connections Occur
This is because the brain’s structure is constantly changing. According to neuroscientists, after eight years old, the gray matter of certain areas begins to decrease, but the density of the gray matter in particular increases.
Increased density enables high processing and further mental development. If that hasn’t blown your mind yet, you might be surprised by these facts about men.
21. You Blink About 10 Million Times a Year
The average person will typically blink between 14,400 and 19,200 times per day. Someone tired will blink more often and for a longer duration. Interestingly, a person’s blinking may increase when asked a question they were unprepared for.
If you don’t blink, the lack of oxygen and nutrients causes dryness, infections, and blurry vision.
22. The Cornea of the Eye Doesn’t Get Any Blood Supply and Receives Oxygen From the Air
The only part of the human body with no blood supply is the cornea, which gets oxygen directly through the air. This ‘super-human’ ability is also why the cornea is the fastest healing tissue, being able to heal from abrasions within 24-36 hours.
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23. The Body Has So Much Fat That You Could Make 7 Bars of Soap With It
How scientists figured this out must have been wild. Hopefully, no one was turned into soap after their passing – oh, right, this has happened before. A female serial killer named Leonarda Cianciulli became known as “The Soap-Maker of Correggio” after murdering three victims and making soap from their corpses.
A healthy body fat in men should typically be 8-19%, whereas a healthy range for women sits between 21-33%.
24. The Human Brain Can Survive Up to 6 Minutes Without Oxygen
After four to six minutes without oxygen, the brain will die. What’s more, the brain uses a fifth of all the oxygen in the body, and if it doesn’t receive enough, brain cells will start to die. The temporal lobe (at the temples) is the first part of the brain to die, which is also where memory is located.
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25. Teratomas Are a Type of Tumor That Can Grow Teeth and Hair
As if tumors aren’t scary enough, some can grow hair and teeth. If we’d never discovered microscopes, life would be peaceful, not knowing all these tiny critters exist within our bodies.
Alas, the teratoma tumor is a germ cell that contains immature or fully-formed tissue, including bone, hair, teeth, and muscle – terrifying.
26. Astronauts Grow Almost Up to Two Inches When in Space
The human body is exceptional as it can grow up to three percent taller in space. That means a six-foot astronaut can be two inches taller. So, if you’ve ever been a bit insecure about your height, you may want to consider a career as an astronaut (jokes).
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27. Your Heart Can Sync to the Rhythm of the Music You Listen To
This is probably the coolest fact on here and proves the meaning behind the saying, “Music moves your soul.” Relaxing music may lower your heart rate, making you feel at ease. In contrast, up-tempo music hypes you up.
Sound processing starts in the brain, which controls the heartbeat and respiration — this results in the rhythm of the music affecting your heart rate.
28. The Longest Recorded Pregnancy Lasted 17 months
Here’s one lady with a helluva ‘bump-y’ road on her pregnancy journey (get it?). The average woman carries her baby for nine months. However, Wang Shi from China’s central Hunan province has set a new Guinness World Record with her 17-month-long and counting pregnancy in 2016.
Next Read: Psychological facts about women.
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29. Your Brain May Start Eating Itself Under Extreme Starvation
If you weren’t expecting such a grim fact, you’re welcome. Unfortunately, this is entirely true. When you’re parched for food, the hunger-inducing neurons in the brain start eating bits of themselves.
After this, your brain receives a “hunger signal” prompting you to eat. The act of self-cannibalism may be why it’s challenging to stick to a diet.
30. You Can’t Breathe and Swallow at the Same Time
Okay, now that you’re done trying to breathe and swallow simultaneously – you saw for yourself that it’s impossible to do. It’s time to get “science-y” and look at why this is so.
When swallowing food, the epiglottis covers the glottis and prevents the entry of food into the respiratory tract, which halts your breathing for a moment.
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31. A Pregnant Woman’s Brain Shrinks Slightly During Her Pregnancy
Ever heard of pregnancy brain? Well, odd things like brain fog, forgetfulness, memory loss, and struggle to focus kick in during the first trimester. Otherwise known as “mommy brain,” this phenomenon may continue beyond pregnancy.
The reason behind this is intriguing: the significant surge of hormones, like progesterone and estrogen, can affect your ability to think clearly, remember things, and focus.
32. Each Person Possesses a Unique Tongue Print
Like our fingerprints, our tongues also have unique identifying marks. The tongue has a distinct geometric shape and physiological texture that could be used for verification purposes.
Hopefully, forensic officers can finally start saying: “We’ve found your tongue prints all over the scene.”
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33. Hiccups Occur When the Temperature Changes
Who would have thought? Your hiccups may be linked to a change in temperature. Hiccups occur when there’s a disturbance to the nerve pathways that connect the brain and the muscles responsible for it.
Sudden changes in the atmosphere or emotional situations may trigger this disturbance, and you’ve got the hiccups.
Amanda O’Brien is the owner of the New Interesting Facts website. She attended Monash University in Melbourne, where she attained two degrees with first class honours. She lives in London and runs four websites (including this one) and loves to geek out on facts of all types.
