Medical fun facts
Impress friends with trivia
By Raechel Van Iwaarden, December 2011
Staff Writer
Photo by Raechel Van Iwaarden
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| An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but what will asparagus do? |
Do you play a lot of trivia games? Do you like to expand your knowledge for random facts that are completely useless but fun to know? Do you want to compete on Jeopardy someday? Do you like to tell your friends new, interesting factual treats each day? If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, then read on . The following are 10 fun medical facts to store away for the possibility that they may be of some use to you in the future.
- People who can lick their elbows are rare. It all depends on the length of your humerus, and most people would have to dislocate their shoulders in order to accomplish this feat, says Kathleen Woodruff, nurse practitioner and faculty member for ASU West.
- A little known fact is that “the brain and body are still developing until age 25,” says Woodruff. Everything is still physically changing in the body, and this is why doctors refer to young people up to this age as “adolescents.”
- Following the teachings of researchers, Woodruff says that if people deprive themselves of one hour of sleep every day, then by the end of the week, those individuals will be functioning as if they were legally drunk.
- Eating asparagus can make urine smell potent due to the chemical reaction asparagus cause in the body. However, whether you will be able to pick up the scent is a matter of genetics says Woodruff.
- When you eat, no matter what it is, at the end of four to five hours the body has broken it down completely. All the glucose has been metabolized, which is why individuals can begin to feel tired or unfocused after waiting more than six hours to eat. Carbohydrates only last two hours, while proteins can take up to five hours to metabolize says Woodruff.
- “When babies are introduced to foods between 9 to 12 months of age like, carrots and sweet potatoes, their skin develops an orange hue,” says Tina Burk, CCS-P, of Laguna Medical in Tempe.
- There are 208 bones in the human body. Infants have “greens tick bones until they are 3 years old, meaning that their bones are flexible and develop spiral fractures instead of being brittle and snapping when they are older and more solid says Burk.
- Everyone has heard the old slogan, “ An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” but few know why. “Apples contain pectin,” says Jo Sardinha, a registered nurse at Sunnyslope High School. Pectin binds with toxins in the digestive tract and limits certain chemical reactions. Pectin is only found in apple peels, so Sardinha recommends eating the whole apple or applesauce to get the full effects when dealing with an upset stomach or rowdy digestive system.
- Peppermint, especially peppermint oil is a natural smooth muscle relaxer and anti-spasmodic says Sardinha. The same goes for cough drops. Both relieve muscle spasms and can aid with symptoms such as upset stomachs or coughing.
- “The brain has no pain receptors,” says Sardinha. Most people assume it’s their brain hurting when they have headaches. In reality, the pain is coming from the tissues and blood vessels surrounding the brain.
Have fun these random tidbits of medical facts and enjoy their novelty and triviality.
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