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 13018 – Can Meditation Be Dangerous?

While we know various types of meditation can promote better mental and physical health, it’s easy to neglect the fact that just about anything can be dangerous if you don’t know how to do it right or aren’t prepared for it. But can meditation be dangerous?

In some cases, yes. But mostly for beginners who quit too early.

How can meditation be dangerous?

Dangerous is a loaded work, however, there are certainly some potential downsides to meditation. For those who are in a dark place or have multiple stressors that they have been repressing, harmful thoughts can sometimes arise during meditation. And if you aren’t skilled at pushing those thoughts away, it can cause you to ruminate on them even more.

According to Psychology Today (cited below), “The most profound interaction you experience in meditation is the interaction with yourself. As part of that, you would get in touch with buried and suppressed emotions. Meditation could trigger waves of anger, fear or jealousy, which had been sitting deep within you, and that would make you feel uncomfortable.”

Of course, having these emotions surface is likely good in the long term if it helps you deal with them and get past them. But if you stop meditating due to discomfort with those feelings, it can leave you worse off. (This is similar to starting and stopping therapy too soon – it can be uncomfortable at first, but that’s usually part of the process.)

The danger of being a beginner

If you’ve ever had a hard time meditating or found that you feel worse afterward, you’re not alone. But we tend to downplay the potential side effects for beginnings since there are so many potential benefits. And typically, the more you keep meditating, the better you get at it.

However, for those who have been through traumatic experiences, being left to meditate on their own with no other emotional support can be very challenging and can lead to poor mental health outcomes. You may need more than just meditation if you’re dealing with trauma.

Meditation beginners also sometimes misunderstand the idea of non-attachment and of letting their feelings go. Most techniques allow troublesome thoughts to come up and encourage you to acknowledge them and then push them away. But sometimes that can lead us to avoid truly dealing with these emotions in a way that will be productive in the long run.

While meditation seems to benefit many people, it’s not as easy as the internet makes it sound. Those dealing with trauma will probably want more personalized guidance and a support system as part of their meditation practice. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Dangers of Meditation” — Psychology Today

WTF Fun Fact 13004 – You Are More Likely To Die Around 11am

“Fun” fact: Because of a gene linked to our circadian rhythms, humans are more likely to die around 11am than at any other time of day.

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In 2012, a study published in the Annals of Neurology reported on a gene variant that affects our circadian rhythms. And that variant, it seems, could also predict the time of day you will die. And that time is around 11am.

According to a write-up in The Atlantic (cited below), the study’s authors “realized through their research that there seems to be one DNA sequence that determines, essentially, how each of us relates to time itself. And data analysis — poring through 15 years’ worth of sleep and death patterns collected from subjects in an unrelated sleep study — helped them to make the realization.”

Why do we die around 11am?

A lot of this work has to do with the ways in which we are no longer beholden to a strict social schedule as we age.

Our external environment affects our inner circadian “clocks,” which regulate our bodies’ functions This includes elements like work schedules and daylight exposure. But there’s also a genetic component to the time of day we’re most active and alert.

According to another Atlantic piece on the research that studied the phenomenon: “Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston borrowed data that had been collected 15 years ago from a sleep study at Rush University in Chicago…First, its subjects had worn a device, called an actigraph, that provided detailed information about their sleep-wake patterns. Second, the subjects were all over the age of 65 when the study was originally done. So by the time the Harvard researchers got to them, many had passed away. They had all also agreed to donate their brains to science. Because of this, the researchers knew their precise times of death. Finally, in the course of the many physical and psychological evaluations undergone by the subjects, they had also had their DNA sequenced.”

The researchers compared data from over 500 participants, looking at genetics and the time of death. They found a piece of DNA that was linked to sleeping and waking hours.

People with a more common gene variant tended to die in the late morning, around 11am.

But this doesn’t mean 11am is a more dangerous time of day. The study participants had largely died of natural causes. So the issue is that their circadian rhythms affected their bodies in a way that late morning was the most common time for them to expire. — WTF fun facts

Source: “You Are Most Likely to Die at 11 a.m.” — The Atlantic

WTF Fun Fact 13001 – Unhappy Monday

Fun Fact: A 2011 study found that people tend to be so miserable on Mondays that, on average, they don’t crack a smile until 11:16 am. Do you experience an unhappy Monday?

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If you hate Mondays, you’re not alone. People seem to find it a depressing day of the week. In fact, in 2011, the food company Marmite did a study that found people were so depressed on Monday mornings they typically didn’t smile for the first time until 11:16 am. That’s pretty late in the day for something as small as a smile!

The study by Marmite, the British food spread, also found that half of employees will be late to work, and will only log about three-and-a-half hours of productive work time.

Why are we so bummed on Mondays?

Ok, so there’s the obvious reason to hate Mondays if they signal the end of the weekend to you. That’s probably why some studies found Sunday to be pretty depressing as well.

According to HuffPost (cited below): “Yet other studies have found that it’s Sunday, not Monday, that is the most depressing day of the week. In 2009, a study by researchers at the University of Gothenburg and Institute for the Study of Labor found that Sunday is the darkest day of the week in Germany, where individuals reported the lowest level of subjective well-being.”

Americans also found Sunday to be the most depressing day.

Defeating the unhappy Monday

Well, the bad news is that there’s no magical cure for Mondays (short of winning the lottery, quitting your job, and spending the rest of your days at leisure).

The best the Marmite study could suggest was finding time on Monodays to indulge in activities you enjoy, such as shopping, watching TV, planning a trip, or eating a treat.

— WTF fun facts

Source: “Mondays Are More Depressing Than We Thought, Says Study” – HuffPost

WTF Fun Fact 12986 – Healing A Broken Heart

All you need is love. Well, all you need is oxytocin, really. That’s the brain’s “love hormone.” When it’s released into our bloodstream by our hypothalamus, it helps us bond with others and feel happy. And it turns out it could also be the key to healing a broken heart.

And we mean the real kind of broken heart – this hormone may be able to help cardiac health after a heart attack, at least according to a study using zebrafish and human cells.

Studying how to heal a broken heart

 Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology published the study, which found that oxytocin also has the ability to “promote the regeneration of the heart after an attack.”

According to IFL Science (cited below): “During a heart attack, cardiomyocytes – highly specialized cells responsible for heart contractions – die off. This can be a problem as they cannot replenish themselves.”

However, it appears that a subset of cells in the outer layer of the heart can undergo reprogramming and become something calls Epicardium-derived Progenitor Cells (EpiPCs). The cool thing about EpiPCs is that they can eventually become different types of heart cells, including the ones that are killed off during a heart attack.

Unfortunately, these EpiPCs need some help since they can’t regenerate fully under normal conditions. That’s why researchers looked at zebrafish.

Zebrafish are able to regrow parts of their heart. Naturally, scientists wanted to see just how they managed to do it so efficiently in the hopes that they could spur this regeneration in humans.

The role of oxytocin

The experiments involved injuring the hearts of zebrafish (through freezing them). Researchers found that the genetic material that leads to oxytocin production showed a 20-fold increase in the brain. This triggered a biological process that ended in some cells turning into EpiPCs and migrating to the heart to develop into cardiomyocytes.

“Here we show that oxytocin, a neuropeptide also known as the love hormone, is capable of activating heart repair mechanisms in injured hearts in zebrafish and human cell cultures, opening the door to potential new therapies for heart regeneration in humans,” lead author Dr. Aitor Aguirre said in a news release.

Now, the question is whether we can make something similar happen in humans.

It turns out it may be possible. But we’ll have to find a way to activate the production of oxytocin in order to produce EpiPCs.  

“Oxytocin is widely used in the clinic for other reasons, so repurposing for patients after heart damage is not a long stretch of the imagination. Even if heart regeneration is only partial, the benefits for patients could be enormous,” Aguirre added.

Next steps towards healing a broken heart

Now, the team will need to look at oxytocin production in humans who have experienced cardiac injuries as well as drugs that can stimulate oxytocin production. But before working on humans, it’ll have to go through a pre-clinical trial stage.

“Next, we need to look at oxytocin in humans after cardiac injury. Oxytocin itself is short-lived in the circulation, so its effects in humans might be hindered by that. Drugs specifically designed with a longer half-life or more potency might be useful in this setting. Overall, pre-clinical trials in animals and clinical trials in humans are necessary to move forward,” Aguirre concluded. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Love Hormone” Oxytocin Could Help Mend A Broken Heart” — IFL Science

WTF Fun Fact 12961 – Ride-Sharing Risks

We would have assumed that with fewer cars on the road, ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft would have helped decrease the number of traffic deaths. But a 2018 study from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, there are some unforeseen ride sharing risks. In fact, these services have contributed to a 2%-3% increase in traffic deaths.

Reporting on the risk of ride-sharing

In “The Cost of Convenience: Ridesharing and Traffic Fatalities,” authors John M. Barrios (University of Chicago), Yael V. Hochberg (Rice University), and Livia Hanyi Yi (Rice University), claim that since 2011, roughly 1,100 deaths could be attributed to ride sharing companies in the U.S.

The report (cite below) states: “The arrival of ridesharing is associated with an increase of 2-3% in the number of motor vehicle fatalities and fatal accidents. This increase is not only for vehicle occupants, but also for pedestrians.”

Why the increase in traffic deaths?

After looking at the data, the authors note a number of ride sharing risks that contribute to traffic accidents.

The biggest increases occurred in large cities, where ride sharing also put more cars on the road despite the presence of public transportation. An increase in new vehicles leads to more congestion on the streets, which is correlated with more accidents.

According to the Booth School of Business: “Evaluating the effect of ride sharing on driver quality is complicated, according to the researchers. An increase in high-quality ride-share drivers could offset increased VMT and potentially reduce accident rates; however, while some poor drivers may substitute ride sharing for driving, other passengers may be skilled drivers who simply enjoy the convenience. At the same time, lesser-quality drivers may be tempted to drive for ride-sharing services.”

The cost of the increase in accidents is estimated to be $5.33 billion to $13.24 billion per year.

Of course, there are benefits to ride sharing: “These include improved mobility for the disabled and for minorities, flexible job opportunities that are especially valuable to those otherwise at high risk of unemployment, and customer convenience and resulting consumer surplus.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “The Cost of Convenience” — University of Chicago

WTF Fun Fact 12958 – Odorless Sweat

Most sweat doesn’t smell. Body odor comes from the bacteria that feed on sweat in your armpits and groin only. Other perspiration is odorless sweat.

What sweat is odorless?

When most of us sweat, we can smell it. But that’s because getting sweaty means we sweat all over our bodies. However, the sweat that comes from our head, arms, back, and legs has no odor at all.

Only the perspiration from your armpits and groin produces body odor. If you use a strong antiperspirant in those areas, you can get all sweaty and not smell it.

Why does some sweat smell bad while some have odorless sweat?

According to Harvard Health (cited below):

“Your body has two main types of sweat glands — eccrine and apocrine — that release fluid (sweat) onto your skin’s surface when you’re hot. Sweat serves an important purpose. As perspiration evaporates, it cools your body temperature. Eccrine glands are all over your body. Apocrine glands are in areas like your armpits and groin. They produce a thicker, milky fluid. Sweat itself doesn’t have a smell. The odor happens when bacteria come into contact with the perspiration your apocrine glands release.”

Food and body odor

Your diet can also change the way you smell.

According to Harvard Health: “Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower produce gas. The breakdown of garlic and onions in your body releases sulfur-like compounds that waft out through your pores. And people with a rare condition called trimethylaminuria develop a fishy odor after eating seafood.”

Odorless sweat is still more common, however.

Can you stop sweating?

Those with a medical condition such as hyperhidrosis can address excess sweating with antiperspirants, other prescriptions, and even BOTOX. There’s even a surgery that can remove your sweat glands entirely.

However, sweat helps us cool down. So unless it’s ruining your life, it’s probably better to just sweat it out. — WTF fun facts

Source: “What’s that smell? Get rid of body odor” — Harvard Health Publishing

WTF Fun Fact 12957 – The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Rhyming

A recent publication reports that a neuroscientist who suffered a series of strokes and seizures couldn’t stop rhyming and rapping after his recovery.

The rhyming neuroscientist

Of course, the neuroscientist’s name has been withheld to preserve his privacy, but a Feb 2022 piece in the journal Neurocase titled “The neurologist who could not stop rhyming and rapping” (cited below) says he is 55 years old.

In the abstract, author Mario Mendez states that “His strokes included right posterior cerebellar and right thalamic infarctions, and his subsequent focal-onset seizures emanated from the left frontotemporal region.

The urge to rap

The abstract goes on to describe the aftermath of his strokes:

“On recovery, he described the emergence of an irresistible urge to rhyme, even in thought and daily speech. His pronounced focus on rhyming led him to actively participate in freestyle rap and improvisation. This patient’s rhyming and rapping may have been initially facilitated by epileptiform activation of word sound associations but perpetuated as compensation for impaired cerebellar effects on timed anticipation.”

We still don’t know the underlying mechanisms that cause a person’s brain to develop linguistic dysfunctions after an injury such as a stroke. Some strokes affect the ability to speak or understand language, while others cause brain injuries with more unique symptoms. The irrepressible urge to rhyme is certainly a unique one!

Other post-stroke rappers

In 2019, The Atlantic published a piece on a 50-something man who couldn’t stop rapping after a stroke – and it’s likely the same person.

Dr. Sherman Hershfield specialized in physical medicine and rehabilitation and was in excellent health before he was plagued by blackouts and then a grand mal seizure and series of strokes. Then: “His personality also seemed to change. He suddenly became obsessed with reading and writing poetry. Soon Hershfield’s friends noticed another unusual side effect: He couldn’t stop speaking in rhyme.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “The neurologist who could not stop rhyming and rapping” — Neurocase

WTF Fun Fact 12945 – Snapchat Dysmorphia

If you’re over 30, you probably remember the days when getting rid of red-eye in a photo was your biggest photographic concern. Now, people have so many options that the results hardly look human. And that’s a big problem when it aids people’s body dysmorphic disorder or creates the newly-minted “Snapchat dysmorphia.”

Striving for perfection

Plenty of us are guilty of looking at an old photo and wishing we looked that good in real life. Some of us even try to use that photo as a guide for how to style ourselves in the future. But social media filters do something different to our psyches. That’s because they allow us to airbrush away the tiniest flaws, see what we look like in perfect lighting, and even allow us to snip in our waists or hips.

Once we see ourselves as we truly want to be, the effects can be a little too alluring. In fact, more and more people are getting plastic surgery to look more like their filtered selves.

According to Jessica Baron in Forbes, “[In 2018] we were introduced to the phrase “Snapchat dysmorphia” in a piece by researchers from the Department of Dermatology at Boston University’s School of Medicine. In JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, they described the ability of Snapchat and FaceTune filters to smooth out skin and make teeth look whiter and lips look fuller as a gateway to seeing oneself in a whole new way – a way users wanted to replicate in real life.”

Things have only gotten worse since then.

Your profile pic, yourself

According to Healthline (cited below), filtering isn’t necessarily the problem: “Filtering your selfies isn’t necessarily harmful. Often, it’s nothing more than a fun exercise, like dressing up or experimenting with a new makeup style.” The problem is when we filter ourselves so heavily and so constantly that we start to get disconnected from reality (especially the reality that someone could be so flawless).

“Snapchat dysmorphia, to put it simply, happens when you compare filtered selfies to your actual appearance. When you fixate on your perceived flaws, the feelings of discontent and unhappiness that surface might lead you to wish you could alter your features to match those filtered images.”

Snapchat dysmorphia is a problem, but not yet a diagnosis

Social media use in general has long been linked to increased bodily dissatisfaction. In fact, Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) is named in 8 lawsuits accusing the company of exploiting young people for profit.

Healthline states, “Snapchat dysmorphia isn’t an official mental health diagnosis, so experts have yet to determine a standard definition, criteria, or symptoms.”

Simply filtering your selfies doesn’t qualify you for this potential future diagnosis, however. Cosmetic surgery or injections to alter your face or body are things people have been doing for decades.

The problems come in when we fixate on our appearance in selfies, feel like we can no longer be as good as our social media selves, and get preoccupied with “flaws” that only we see (such as our eye placement, forehead, lip shape, etc.).

Some people become obsessed with taking selfies and editing them. They may go back and edit old photos to alter their appearance to measure up to some perceived standard. They feel anxiety over going out without heavy makeup. Or they get defensive when others take photos. They may even feel worse about themselves the more they take and alter selfies. The problem is, they’re unable to stop.

We may find that, in a few years, there’s a mental health diagnosis that addresses this. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Snapchat Dysmorphia: Does Perfection Lie Just a Filter Away?” — Healthline

WTF Fun Fact 12936 – Evidence for the First Amputation

Archaeologists have found a skeleton bearing the signs of a Stone Age amputation procedure. This evidence for the first amputation (that we know of) is significant because it’s much earlier than previous evidence and the person it was performed on survived the surgery.

Is this the first amputation?

We’ll never really know of this skeleton belongs to the first person to survive an amputation since we can’t possibly know when we’ve collected every archaeological sample.

But what we do know is that the skeleton was found in a cave in Borneo (in Indonesia) and is roughly 31,000 years old! It belonged to a young adult (the gender is uncertain), possibly around the age of 19-20.

When the child was roughly 10 – 12, their left leg was amputated below the knee, and they went on to live for years as an amputee.

Prehistoric surgery

It appears the child died 6 – 9 years after the left leg amputation. That’s pretty impressive considering it was done without modern painkillers and the blood loss was probably severe.

It’s proof that there was some way of controlling the bleeding and helping the patient survive tens of thousands of years earlier than we first thought.

Proof of the amputation was discovered when researchers came across a grave and found a skeleton missing the lower part of its left leg. Because there were no bones found nearby, it was clear that the person was buried without a leg.

Upon closer inspection, researchers realized the bones had been carefully removed. Enough healing had taken place to indicate that it was an intentional surgery that took place years before the person’s death.

Because there were no signs of infection, bone crushing, or other fracturing, it’s clear that the leg wasn’t bitten off (by a crocodile, for example) or lost in an accident.

The skeletal proof

As the researchers put it in their article in Nature (cited below):

“There is no evidence of infection in the left limb, the most common complication of an open wound without antimicrobial treatment. The lack of infection further rules out the probability of animal attack, such as a crocodile bite, because an attack has a very high probability of complications from infection owing to microorganisms from the animal’s teeth entering the wound. The partial consolidation of the bone between the left tibia and fibula and complete closure of the distal end of the left fibula are consistent with late-stage amputation changes. The small size of the left tibia and fibula compared with the right suggests a childhood injury, as the bones did not continue growing. The severe bone thinning of the left tibia and fibula is also suggestive of the heavily restricted use of the left leg resulting in musculoskeletal disuse atrophy. Some thinning of the cortical margins of the right tibia suggests that TB1 was rarely ambulatory owing to the incapacitating nature of the injury to the lower left leg.”

TB1 is the name of the specimen. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Surgical amputation of a limb 31,000 years ago in Borneo” — Nature