“Nine Strange Medical Facts”
Medical facts can be stranger than fiction, as evidenced by the following examples. The human body has incredible regenerative powers. Reportedly, your entire brain replaces itself every 2 months; your liver, every 6 weeks; and your epidermis, every 35 days. Even your stomach lining replaces itself every 3 to 4 days. If your body didn’t do this, the strong acids used by your stomach to digest food would also digest your stomach! Your stomach acids are so strong that they can dissolve razor blades. Babies are born with about 300 bones, but by the time they reach adulthood, these bones will have fused together to form 206 bones. Babies are born with more cartilage than bone. The children of identical twins are genetically siblings rather than cousins? This is because they share 25% of their DNA. Full siblings share 50% of their DNA, half-siblings share 25%, and cousins share 12.5%. Thus, they are the genetic equivalent of half-siblings. Having a good cry really is good for you. The tears you shed when you cry contain stress hormones and crying itself may actually stimulate the production of endorphins—the body’s natural painkiller—as well as feel-good hormones such as oxytocin. The human nose can remember 50,000 different scents, and experts say that the memories evoked by our sense of smell are some of the oldest and most potent we have.
