‘How the hell does the human body even manage to stay alive?’ – 23 medical facts that will blow your tiny yet fiendishly complicated mind

13.

‘The doctor took out all my bowels, untwisted them and then put them back in again. And now I’m sore but not on the verge of death. WTF.’
–PrincessCG

14.

‘The fact that humans need to sleep basically a third of our lives. All that time not contributing toward our survival and (in prehistoric times) being vulnerable to predators.’
–Puzzleheaded_Cell428

15.

‘The body’s energy is managed by 5 separate compounds: Peptide hormones: Glucagon and Insulin regulate sugar levels stored away and allowed to persist in the blood stream. Enzymes: Hexokinase; Phosphofructokinase, and pyruvate kinase.

‘These guys all work in balance to regulate sugars and energy production in the body, a malfunction of any of them reduces lifespan significantly. The body is essentially a massive chemical factory with a giant checklist of if this, then this, else this.’
–Professional-Fee-957

16.

‘The fact that I flushed around 385 kg of pure ethanol through my liver over the course of the last six years and I’m still alive. Stopped 86 days ago. Fatty liver has fully healed and my pancreas works fine again.’
–Upset_Location8380

17.

‘If we counted all the cells in your body by number, you would be mostly bacteria. If we count all the cells by volume, you are overwhelmingly your own body cells.

‘Your immune cells are like a swarm of Death Stars floating through your blood, they are absolutely colossal and 99.99% of infections die before you experience the first symptom.’
–grendus

18.

‘Stomach gets a new lining every 3–4 days. The stomach produces so much acid to digest food that it would actually digest itself if it didn’t constantly renew its protective lining.’
–Ok-Raspberry-5374

19.

‘Fewer stars in the Milky Way than connections in the brain. Less power than a really powerful LED, because the brain is ~20 watts, and the LED bulb that lights my whole room (1600 lumens) is 14 watts and is comprised of dozens of small LEDs.’
–DeProgrammer99

20.

‘We require sodium for survival, but we do not produce any on our own.’
–palindrome4lyfe

21.

‘The human digestive system is pretty primitive compared to animals, this is why we have to eat so many different kinds of food and animals don’t.’
–cashmerered

22.

‘That you don’t need to know or learn anything about the miracles and intricate mechanics, physics etc. required to stay alive to actually stay alive. Even more so most of it seems to be only accessible through scientific research.’
–DonQuake3

23.

‘Not a medical fact but a developmental stage, specifically toddlers. I am unsure how any of us survived it to be honest. They’re mad.’
–sewistforsix

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