Health

Find some great and fun health facts all gathered right here under our health category.  Once you have had your fill of fun facts about health head on over to our random fact generator to learn more random factoids!

WTF Fun Fact 12918 – The First Dental Filling

You’ve probably always wondered when dental fillings started to be a thing. Because everyone loves to think about the dentist, right?

Interestingly, some people have called dentistry “the oldest profession” since archeological evidence shows people trying to treat cavities many thousands of years ago. We’re not sure about that label, but it does make us wonder why humans weren’t built with better teeth.

Dental archaeology and the first filling

The oldest dental filling dates back to at least the Neolithic period. An international team of researchers largely based in Italy published a paper in 2012 noting that they found evidence of prehistoric dentistry in the form of a 6500-year-old mandible in Slovenia with a crown made of beeswax.

Whoever this poor chap was, he was clearly in enough pain to try and find a way to lessen it by getting his chipped enamel treated.

The researchers described how they assessed the mandible (in a paper cited below): “The use of different analytical techniques, including synchrotron radiation computed micro-tomography (micro-CT), Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating, Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), has shown that the exposed area of dentine resulting from occlusal wear and the upper part of a vertical crack affecting enamel and dentin tissues were filled with beeswax shortly before or after the individual’s death.”

Ok, but the next question is, is it really a filling if you’re already dead? We don’t have an answer to that or a way of knowing if the person was dead or alive when it was inserted.

The researchers noted that “If the filling was done when the person was still alive, the intervention was likely aimed to relieve tooth sensitivity derived from either exposed dentine and/or the pain resulting from chewing on a cracked tooth: this would provide the earliest known direct evidence of therapeutic-palliative dental filling.”

Is dentistry the oldest profession?

Dentistry is certainly one of the oldest medical professions (even though the first dental school in the world was opened in the 1820s in Ohio) and the first formal dental text was written in the 1500s. There’s plenty of evidence (written and archaeological) to show that fixing teeth goes back a very long way.

Whether or not it’s the oldest profession (instead of, say, what we normally think of as holding that title) is something we’ll never know. But we kind of doubt it. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Beeswax as Dental Filling on a Neolithic Human Tooth” — PLoS One

WTF Fun Fact 12912 – Tons of Twins

There are more twins living now than ever before. Well, at least we think so. We only started recording the rate at which twins were born in the 1980s when it was about 1 in every 50 pregnancies (2%).

The rise of the twin rate

The rate at which twins were born went up to 2.5% in 1995. By 2001 it was 3%, and it rose to 3.3% in 2010.

Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic (cited below) explained how he calculated the number of twins as of 2014: “When the CDC calculated the number through 2009, they pegged it at 865,000. Now that several years more data is available, I recalculated the number. I took the number of twins that would have been born if the 1980 twin rate had held, and subtracted it from how many twins were actually born.

The result: 1,009,337! That’s a million extra twins from 1981 through 2012, the most recent year for which data is available.”

Why so many twins?

Madrigal also reported that “A few years ago, the Centers for Disease Control researchers looked into the phenomenon.” They did so because, from an evolutionary perspective, twins are more likely to result in premature births and low birth weights – neither of which is ideal for human survival.

The reason? They can only guess, but “Older women tend to have more twins than younger women—and older women are having more of the nation’s babies. The researchers found this demographic phenomenon accounted for one-third of the increase. They attributed the rest of it to the increase in infertility treatments, specifically in-vitro fertilization and ‘ovulation stimulation medications.'”

Reproductive technology allows for multiple embryos to be implanted during IVF, and that’s common since implanting more embryos has a better chance of resulting in a successful pregnancy – of course, it also increases the chance of having twins. However, as the technology gets better, more couples are opting to have just one embryo transferred.

The “twin rate” seems to have leveled off as a result, but hasn’t reversed yet. — WTF fun facts

Source: “There Really Are So Many More Twins Now” — The Atlantic

WTF Fun Fact 12889 – Dasia Taylor’s Life-Saving Sutures

Anywhere from 2% to 5% of surgical incisions and other stitched-up lacerations get infected, and it can be life-threatening. That’s partly because patients may not know their wounds are infected until they see signs like redness or experience pain. Teenager Dasia Taylor has an answer – she invented sutures that turn a different color when a wound is infected.

Dasia Taylor’s suture solution

When she began the project in October 2019, Dasia Taylor was just 17 years old. The Iowa City West High School student was participating in science fairs and was eventually named one of 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, a highly prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors.

Her invention was a suture threat used for medical stitches that changes color from bright red to dark purple when an infection is present. She uses beet juice to make the dye. But it’s far more chemically complicated than that.

Color-changing sutures save lives

Dasia Taylor’s invention is designed in part to help people who don’t have access to convenient medical care and is based on a process already known to scientists.

According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below): “Taylor had read about sutures coated with a conductive material that can sense the status of a wound by changes in electrical resistance, and relay that information to the smartphones or computers of patients and doctors. While these ‘smart’ sutures could help in the United States, the expensive tool might be less applicable to people in developing countries, where internet access and mobile technology is sometimes lacking.“

While less than 5% of people in the US whose wounds are treated with sutures develop an infection, that number jumps to 11% in developing countries.

Taylor is also concerned about the high rate of C-section infections in parts of Africa and the US (the US has just as high of a rate of infection – sometimes higher – than some African nations with fewer medical resources).

How do color-changing sutures work?

So, how do the sutures help notify patients of an infection? Well, according to Smithsonian: “Healthy human skin is naturally acidic, with a pH around five. But when a wound becomes infected, its pH goes up to about nine. Changes in pH can be detected without electronics; many fruits and vegetables are natural indicators that change color at different pH levels.”

“I found that beets changed color at the perfect pH point,” said Taylor. Bright red beet juice turns dark purple at a pH of nine. “That’s perfect for an infected wound. And so, I was like, ‘Oh, okay. So beets is where it’s at.’”

But that wasn’t the full solution. Taylor also had to find a material that would hold onto the dye while not being too thick to be used as a suture. She tackled the problem during the COVID lockdown and ran experiments until she found the best of the 10 materials she was trying – a cotton-polyester blend that could change color in just minutes of picking up a change in pH.

There are still some kinks to work out before it goes from the laboratory to the bedside, but it’s safe to say this teen is on her way to an illustrious research career. – WTF fun facts

Source: “This High Schooler Invented Color-Changing Sutures to Detect Infection” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 12813 – Heartbreaks Hurt

Breaking up hurts – and sometimes that pain is physical in addition to emotional. Research has found that people who have experienced a painful breakup actually show brain activity similar to those who are in physical pain.

Why do heartbreaks hurt?

Researchers have compared the brain activity of those going through the emotional pain od a breakup alongside people who are in physical pain. The results showed that emotional and physical pain are processed in the same part of the brain.

Of course, pain is subjective, so pain research is hard to quantify, but it does explain why breakups can hurt so bad.

We’ve long known about the mind-body connection, but this is next-level.

Physiological connections

Research by author Meghan Laslocky (cited by Healthline, below) suggests that heartbreak hurts so much “because both the sympathetic and parasympathetic activation systems are triggered simultaneously.”

Healthline explains: “The parasympatheticsystem is the part of your nervous system that handles relaxed functions like digestion and saliva production. It slows the heart rate and breathing. The sympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, gets the body ready for action. It’s the “flight or fight” response that sends hormones rushing through the body to increase heart rate, and wake up your muscles. When both are turned on simultaneously, it stands to reason that the body would experience discomfort — possibly even chest pains.”

Don’t discount emotional pain

People have had heart attacks and have even died after experiencing heartbreak. But these are extreme cases.

Still, it would be unwise to discount the pain someone is going through after a breakup of the death of a loved one. Heartbreak can lead to changes in appetite, low motivation, weight loss gain, headaches, and stomach pain.

Even worse, unlike physical pain, medicine doesn’t help heartbreak. The only real remedy is time. – WTF fun facts

Source: “What Does Heartbreak Do to Your Health?” — Healthline

WTF Fun Fact 12774 – A Tick Map for Public Health

Scientists believe that releasing a “tick map” each year (or as often as needed) would be a great public health strategy to allow people to ward off tick-borne diseases. Now, researchers are trying to make it happen.

Why a tick map?

From hikers to vacationers, each summer and fall people head out to new locales without quite knowing the dangers that lurk in tall grasses and forests. These days, tick-borne diseases are spreading more rapidly than ever and it’s causing some big concerns for health professionals. Some of these diseases can be debilitating, and in many cases, a bit of Deet spray just isn’t enough to avoid the danger.

Enter the tick map. If a map of locations where ticks are common (and commonly associated with particular diseases) was available ahead of time, it would not only help raise awareness of the need to avoid ticks but help people take better precautions.

Knowledge is power, after all. But simply telling people there are risks out there does not lead to enough action to stop the spread of diseases that take major resources to treat.

How does a tick map work?

A tick map would involve some predictions, so researchers are still trying to come up with the ideal way of forecasting the locations. And it’s complicated.

According to Scientific American (cited below): “Many factors, not all of them well understood by scientists, shape where and when disease-carrying tick species will thrive—and if they are likely to carry a pathogen at all. Every year people are diagnosed with and treated for tick-borne illnesses such as Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. For Lyme disease alone, the annual figure is nearly half a million, according to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And that number is expected to rise as many tick species continue to expand their ranges.”

The only system we have now is relying on people to know where ticks may be a problem so that they can use tick repellant, wear long sleeves, cover their ankles, and perform tick checks on themselves and their pets.

But if we had a tick map, things might be different: “If hikers, for example, have a forecast indicating that the woods they are passing through are likely to have dangerous ticks, they can take extra steps to protect themselves with bug repellent, long sleeves and tight pant cuffs. Local health care providers can make sure they are looking out for symptoms of tick-borne illnesses. Local officials can advise citizens on how to take care outside during the danger season. But making accurate predictions is complicated. Many factors, not all of them well understood by scientists, shape where and when disease-carrying tick species will thrive—and if they are likely to carry a pathogen at all.”

The other cool thing about having a tick map is that it would show when risks are low, allowing people to relax some of those protocols when they aren’t necessary.

Why is it so hard to build the map?

Risk levels can be hard to gauge, however. Ticks need humid summers, enough animal hosts, and the right habitat, for starters. They don’t like cold winters and hot, dry summers. But there’s way more that goes into creating a predictive model that’s actually useful to people, including specific tick species that carry different diseases or thrive in slightly different environments.

To add to the complexity, we’re still learning about the other kinds of flora and fauna that are abundant in tick-heavy areas, such as a specific type of acorn that one type of tiny mouse feeds on – they’re common when ticks are abundant and they’re a reservoir for Lyme disease. All of those elements need to go into the model. And to top it off, we don’t entirely understand how Lyme disease works.

At the moment, the best data we have is only for one tiny area of the country. Other areas may need different predictive models. According to SciAm, “Data collection is one piece of that puzzle, but another is a better understanding of how ticks interact with host species, both human and nonhuman, and how the arthropods act as conduits for disease.”

So, in the meantime, cover up and check for ticks after a walk in the woods!

– WTF fun facts

Source: “The Quest for a ‘Tick Map’” — Scientific American

WTF Fun Fact 12764 – Mindfulness Meditation Changes the Brain

We need more large-scale studies to make definitive claims, but mindfulness meditation seems to have some cool cognitive benefits. In fact, we can see on brain scans that people who practice mindfulness meditation experience changes in their brains.

Minding your thoughts

Mindfulness practice encourages people to stop and spend time noticing their thoughts and then letting go of the ones that are negative, disorganized, or aren’t serving a positive purpose. It’s designed to help us notice and control our thinking. (As opposed to most meditation practices, which center around emptying the mind of thoughts.)

The part of the brain affected by mindfulness practice is called the amygdala. This is also called the “fight or flight” center because it is linked to fear and emotional responses. Brain scans have shown that mindfulness practice helps shrink the amygdala. While that may sound like a bad thing, an overactive amygdala can be bad for concentration, mood, and emotional regulation.

Regulating the amygdala

However, mindfulness has been shown to help increase the connections between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. That’s a good thing because those connections help us regulate our emotional responses.

We need our amygdala, we just don’t want it to be hyperactive. And when we practice mindfulness, our bodies get better at regulating those emotional responses.

While some of the effects of mindfulness have been overstated in the press, there is evidence that it can modestly increase physical health and compassion and even reduce bias in addition to negative thought patterns.

The popularity of mindfulness meditation

A U.S. survey found that the percentage of adults practicing some type of mantra-based meditation, mindfulness meditation, or spiritual meditation in the previous year tripled between 2012 and 2017 (from 4.1% to 14.2%). Even among children (4 to 17 years of age), the percentage increased from less than 1% to over 5%. These emotional regulation techniques continue to grow in popularity.

Of course, there’s a lot we still don’t know about mindfulness and meditation in general, and they’re not always the best practices for everyone.

There are also different types of mindfulness meditation to practice, each with slightly different outcomes. For example, body scanning can help reduce negative thoughts. But practices in which participants are asked to observe their thoughts can sometimes lead to more negative thinking, especially among those who have just started practicing the skill and can’t let go of those thoughts easily.

In the end, it may be best for those who are new to mindfulness and observing their thoughts to do so with guidance from a teacher or tool so that they can stay on the right track and get the most out of their mindfulness practices. – WTF fun facts

Source: “10 Things We Know About the Science of Meditation” — Mindful

WTF Fun Fact 12749 – The Invention of Kidney Dialysis

The development of kidney dialysis started centuries ago. Even doctors in the ancient world understood the kidneys played an important role in filtering bodily fluids. Galen’s treatise On the Natural Faculties mentioned doctors prior to his time investigating the organ and its function.

But figuring out how to replicate the filtering function of the kidneys didn’t happen until the 1800s when a Scottish chemist named Thomas Graham realized he could create a membrane to act as a filter to “clean” some bodily fluids (though he wasn’t exactly spot on about what he was filtering out).

Despite sometimes being referred to as the “Father of Dialysis,” his discoveries weren’t kidney-related. In fact, for decades, scientists were more concerned with trying to filter blood for trauma patients during surgery. That’s because they didn’t have blood banks, so when someone lost blood, they needed to preserve it for the patient but also needed a way of cleaning it up first.

Blood dialysis was performed on animals in the early 20th century, and the use of blood thinners was already in use to keep it from clotting (which is necessary if you want to put it back in the body!).

In 1924, a German doctor named Georg Haas realized the possibilities of dialysis for kidney patients. Since our kidneys are responsible for filtering out impurities, those in kidney failure need some extra help.

Haas seems to have had around six patients that used his dialysis machine, but it wasn’t quite ready for prime time yet. All of those patients died of kidney failure (possibly as a result of the dialysis not filtering adequately).

The “drum kidney” was introduced in 1945 by a Dutch doctor Willem Kolff, and because materials science was more advanced, the plastics and other materials he had at his disposal made the machine more effective for cleaning bodily fluids (and didn’t leach its own materials into patients either).

Before we get to today’s modern-day dialysis machines, there were many more people involved in the invention of dialysis – including chemists and physicians that improved upon past technology:

– Swedish chemist Nils Alwall designed a machine to both clean and drain blood
– American scientist Belding Scribner had the dialysis process uninterrupted so the body would not be severely lacking in blood during the dialysis treatment
– Michael Brescia and James Cimino found a way to make Scribner’s invention work with needles so patients didn’t need to maintain an open wound that might be prone to infection

And these are just the preliminary steps we took on our way to modern kidney dialysis!

– WTF fun facts

Source: “History of the kidney disease treatment” — St. George’s Kidney Patients Association

WTF Fun Facts 12744 – Laughter Yoga

Laughter yoga was first introduced by Dr. Madan Kataria, a physician in Mumbai, India, in 1995. Using research that showed laughter can have beneficial effects on physical and mental health.

Since it was introduced, it has spread all over the world and has been shown to help improve mood through the release of serotonin and dopamine, improve cardiovascular function by improving blood flow to the heart, and reduce stress by suppressing cortisol levels.

Better yet, it’s free and doesn’t require anything but feeling a little bit silly.

What is laughter yoga?

You can do laughter yoga on your own, but doing it in a group setting (even via Zoom) has been shown to have further beneficial effects as it increases feelings of belonging and reduces loneliness.

According to Healthline (cited below): “Most sessions begin with simple breathing techniques, clapping, and chanting to help people relax. For example, you may begin the class by clapping rhythmically 1-2, 1-2-3 while chanting ‘ho-ho, ha-ha-ha.'”

We tried it. It does feel totally ridiculous at first. But eventually (and especially if you’re in a group), the fake laughter leads to real laughter. And your body doesn’t seem to know the difference anyway. Nothing actually has to be funny for you to get the mental and physical benefits that laughter brings.

Studies on the health effects

In addition, Healthline cited many studies pointing to proof of the benefits of laughter yoga:

“A 2019 review found simulated laughter lowered depression rates and improved mood. The authors stated that laughter exercises require little cognition and don’t rely on subjective humor, meaning most people can easily participate (Source 1).

Other studies have shown that laughing yoga may help temporarily reduce cortisol levels and stress, improve mood and energy levels, and induce a more positive mindset. In fact, it may be as effective as aerobic exercise at reducing self-reported stress (Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, Source 5, Source 6).”

Despite all the research, more large-scale studies need to be done to confirm the benefits. But in the meantime, a little laughter yoga probably wouldn’t hurt!

Check out the video below to see how you can get started. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Laughing Yoga: What Is It and Does It Work?” — Laughter Yoga

WTF Fun Fact 12743 – Laughter is the Best Medicine

We’ve always had lots of anecdotal evidence that “laughter is the best medicine” and studies have shown correlations between laughter and happiness and laughter and better life satisfaction. But in 2005, the first study showed some of the physiological effects laughter has on the body’s cardiovascular system.

So when you say “laughter is the best medicine” to someone and they roll their eyes, you can now hit them with some facts (unless you’re at a funeral or something, then wait a few weeks, please).

The first study

The results of the study were first presented at the Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology, on March 7, 2005 by researchers from the University of Maryland. It kicked off a whole slew of studies backing up the evidence and providing yet more clues that you can laugh your way into old age.

But first, let’s see how this works. The first study used movies to look at the immediate effects of laughter on subjects’ endothelium – the tissue that forms the inner lining of blood vessels and that dilates or expands during blood flow. (And if it’s been a while since you’ve had a biology class, the better blood flows around your body – and to your heart – the more oxygen and other vital molecules get where they need to be.)

The approach

There were two groups of subjects – one watched a movie clip known to cause mental distress (for example, scenes from Saving Private Ryan – a great film, but not exactly a “cinematic joy ride,” aka it’s sad). The other group watched scenes from funny movies (one example was King Pin, which we have never seen, but we’ll trust that the researchers found a good clip).

Ok, so the goal was really just to make one group laugh and the other get kind of mired in sadness and then measure their blood flow. And you can probably see where this is going.

The results

The distressed group’s blood vessels showed an unhealthy physiological response of the blood vessels called vasoconstriction (a narrowing of the vessels that impedes blood flow). That had been suggested by many other studies before – when we’re stressed, our blood vessels constrict. Not good.

On the other hand, those who laughed showed great blood flow. That’s good. But it’s not just good in the moment, it’s good in the long term because the endothelium helps tone our blood vessels, adjust coagulation rates, and secretes chemicals that help heal wounds and respond to infections.

The researcher’s commentary

In an interview about the study, the lead investigator Michael Miller, M.D., director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center said: “The endothelium is the first line in the development of atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, so, given the results of our study, it is conceivable that laughing may be important to maintain a healthy endothelium, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. At the very least, laughter offsets the impact of mental stress, which is harmful to the endothelium.”

The impact of laughter was so strong that they compared it to the benefits one may get from exercise (thought warned against trying to replace exercise with laughter).

“The magnitude of change we saw in the endothelium is similar to the benefit we might see with aerobic activity, but without the aches, pains and muscle tension associated with exercise,” Miller said. “We don’t recommend that you laugh and not exercise, but we do recommend that you try to laugh on a regular basis. Thirty minutes of exercise three times a week, and 15 minutes of laughter on a daily basis is probably good for the vascular system.”

Further evidence

Since 2005, there have been many studies that show laughter is good for health, including:

  • A study of older Japanese people which found that those who laughed more had fewer heart attacks and stroked.
  • A 2020 study showing that overall mortality, as well as cardiovascular disease, were significantly higher among subjects with a low frequency of laughter.
  • A review essay noting that “many kinds of studies, using different methods, conclude that happiness has a positive causal effect on longevity and physiological health.”

So, ask your doctor today about what a funny movie or a night out with fun friends can do for you. And if they look at you funny, just tell them you read that laughter is the best medicine on the internet. They love hearing that. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Laughter Helps Blood Vessels Function Better” — Science Daily