20 “Did You Know?” Interesting Health Facts About the Body

Strange Facts About the Human Body
Fact #1: Napping makes you smarter.

Harvard researchers have found that even a brief nap can improve your learning capacity and enhance your memory, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

Fact #2: Your nerve impulses move way faster than you do.

Experts say there are upward of 45 miles of nerves in the human body, and nerve impulses can travel that network at speeds of nearly 325 miles per hour!alt

Fact #3: The atoms forming your body are even tinier than you think.

To truly understand how small, consider this: the body of an adult human is made of approximately 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (7 octillion) atoms.

Fact #4: Your body glows in the dark.

According to a National Geographic Kids facts list, our bodies give off a tiny amount of light. Sadly, it’s too weak for our eyes to see.

Fact #5: We all have bacteria in our belly buttons, and lots of it.

Scientists identified a total of 2,368 species of bacteria after swabbing 60 belly buttons, 1,458 of which “may be new to science.”

Fact #6: Your muscles are strong enough to lift a car.

This may seem like one of those unbelievable facts about the human body, but it’s true. Without intensive training, however, we can only utilize 65 percent of our muscular power.alt

Fact #7: Blood vessels cover a lot of ground.

Ever wondered how many miles of blood vessels are in the human body? According to the Franklin Institute, if you took all the blood vessels out of an average adult, they would cover a distance of close to 100,000 miles!

Fact #8: Your veins could circle the equator.

Your veins are one of the three types of blood vessels, and while scientists have not determined exactly how many miles of veins are in the human body, we do know that all your blood vessels combined can circle the equator four times. So, it seems likely that your veins alone could circle it at least once!

Fact #9: There’s a good reason to dread Monday morning.

Your chance of having a heart attack is 20 percent higher at the beginning of the week, according to findings published in the British Medical Journal.

Fact #10: You have the same number of hairs on your body as a chimpanzee does.

The difference is, the hairs covering most of your skin are finer and therefore nearly invisible to the naked eye.alt

Fact #11: Stomach acid can dissolve metal.

Researchers have found that after soaking in stomach acid for 24 hours, a double-edged razor blade loses 63 percent of its mass and can be easily broken.

Fact #12: The lining of your intestines regrows every few days.

Because these cells are constantly exposed to your very potent stomach acid, they have an extra high turnover rate.

Fact #13: Your left and right lung are not the same size.

Your right lung is wider and shorter and your left narrower and longer. This frees up space for your liver (located directly beneath your right lung) and your heart (nestled between your lungs).

Fact #14: Your pinky finger is more important than you realize.

When it comes to interesting science facts about the human body, this is a doozy: your pinky finger generates at least 50 percent of your hand strength.alt

Fact #15: Your “tongue print” is just as unique as your fingerprints.

Everyone has their own tongue print: a personalized distribution of bumps and ridges of different sizes and shapes on the surface of their tongues.

Fact #16: Adults have fewer bones than babies.

We start out with about 300 different bones and cartilage elements, but over time, they fuse together, leaving the average adult with 206 bones.

Fact #17: Human teeth are as strong as shark teeth.

After comparing their micro-structures, scientists found that the overall strength of human and shark teeth is the same, though ours are far, far less sharp!

Fact #18: Your small intestine is four times longer than you are.

If it didn’t loop back and forth inside your abdominal cavity, there would be no way for it to fit inside you.

Fact #19: There’s a good reason to compare the sound of snoring to “sawing logs.”

The decibel level of a snore can vary widely: from 40 (quiet chatting) to at least 116.6, which is actually louder than a chainsaw! How’s that for strange facts about the human body?alt

Fact #20: The fingernails on your dominant hand grow faster.

Scientists believe this is because our fingernails grow faster when the corresponding fingertip is used more often.