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The design of the human body is pretty neat: We are aware of when we are hungry and thirsty. The same eyes that can see clearly in blinding brightness can also see in almost complete darkness. When we cut our finger, the wound quickly scabs over and heals. Our bodies are generally good at fixing problems and recovering from illness. However, while it does more good than harm, flaws in the human body do exist.
The appendix is useless. Many individuals have crooked teeth and poor vision at birth. Women can pass away during childbirth because our hips are better evolved to support our internal organs while walking on two legs. To put it mildly, humans are flawed. These design flaws in the human body put humans at a disadvantage, with some people at a bigger disadvantage than others. Interested to learn more about flaws of the human body, a member of the AskReddit community ketra1504 asked fellow Redditors, "What is the biggest design flaw of the human body?". This, and a similar thread, got plenty of traction and revealed what most people deemed the biggest flaws of the human body. Regardless, we can't claim that evolution has gone wrong or done us dirty. We have changed a lot since our species first appeared. And although the remaining human body flaws are unlikely to disappear in the near future, we can only hope that we will be better at coping with them, which is, again, a massive win for humanity.
Below, we've compiled some of the most spot-on answers from the threads, revealing human body design flaws. As always, upvote the entries you agree with, and let us know, what's the biggest flaw of the human body in your eyes? Share your thoughts in the comments. And if you want to learn more about yourself and your body, check out our recent post featuring interesting facts about the human body.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
"How in your brain, your amygdala (fight or flight) hasn't learned to respond directly from your prefrontal cortex (the newer, more recently developed in the evolutionary sense part of the brain that you think rationally with). The fact that the amygdala hasn't adopted to modern times. Amygdala: OMG ARE WE BEING STALKED BY DOZENS OF PREDATORS ABOUT TO KILL US WHILE WERE EXPOSED OUT IN THE OPEN?!? Prefrontal Cortex: Lol nah bro it's good I'm just doing a presentation in front of my class. Amygdala: PANIC ATTACK FULL ON SURVIVAL MODE IT IS!!!!"
Sean Martin 2 years ago
The amygdala saved my life once, when I was nearly hit by a car and reacted before my neo cortex could respond. However, the amygdala usually causes tragedy. I am still haunted by the account of one father, who came home and his daughter wasn't responding to his calls. He got concerned, got his pistol and went to her room to see what was wrong. She was hiding in her closet and jumped out to scare him and before he had the chance to recognize her voice and face, the amygdala took over and shot her. She died. Now that I think on it though, how paranoid does he have to be to grab his GUN before just walking over to see if she is ok?
RELATED:
#2
"It’s gotta be the female reproductive system. Debilitating pain every month shouldn’t be something that just happens to some women. Pregnancy is also way more dangerous for humans than most animals."
Dogcat vet (retired) 2 years ago
Its more dangerous due to the size of the human brain as I understand it. Maybe we should have evolved as marsupials.
Firstname Lastname 2 years ago
As someone curled up in pain and blood right this second, THIS.
Bookworm 2 years ago
But having a period every month allows us to have a baby pretty much whenever, which is huge in terms of evolution.
JK 2 years ago
Cats can have a baby pretty much whenever, I've never seen one crying while holding a hot water bottle to her stomach whilst devouring ice cream and every other sugary calorie in sight. We dont need period pains, cramps, or bleeding. Plenty of mammals don't - it is a massive misstep in human evolution.
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Ray McArdle 2 years ago
It reminds me of the book, "The-Not-So-Intelligent-Designer" by Abby Hafer. If god really designed the human body, he did a sh**ty job.
#3
GreedKite said: "You can bite the inside of your own mouth." gr8ydude replied: "Then you proceed to accidentally bite, multiple times through out the day, that lump that develops."
#4
ferox3 said: "Allergies are basically your body jumping to conclusions about a harmless substance, and flying off the handle for no good reason." slabby replied: "So even my immune system has anxiety?" SpreadingRumors replied: "In the worst of cases, it occasionally decides to attack your own healthy organs, causing organ failure and requiring a transplant. Which, of course, the immune system will then ALSO try to attack the transplanted organ because it really IS a foreign object. I hate my immune system."
Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
One of the main reasons for the surge in allergies is the lack of worm infestations in our gut. Worms suppress our immune system and the immune system has adapted over the millennia to counteract that suppression. But without the worms modulation our immune responses are stronger and sometimes usually harmless molecules get targeted in the 'crossfire'
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
I’m luckily not allergic to much, and what I am allergic to are things the majority of people rarely encounter in normal life. My doctor even told me we’re all allergic to something. We just haven’t crossed paths with it yet, and in some cases we may not ever.
#5
duermando said: "There is a fork in the road in our throats. One is meant for food, the other for oxygen. If food goes down the wrong one, you die." thedomham replied: "Or you cough heavily for a bit."
Susie Elle 2 years ago
Well there is a cover in between that closes off the airhole while swallowing ;)
OneHappyPuppy 2 years ago
And babies can do both, breathe and eat (or should I say drink milk) up to a point in their development
Dogcat vet (retired) 2 years ago
Which is why you shouldn't eat or drink before anesthesia or heavy sedation. Even though people still do this (or feed their pets beforehand)
#6
"Oh you're sick? Better completely block off half your nose so you can't breathe properly."
Kyron Borinot 2 years ago
Actually most people when asleep only inhale through one nostril, exhale through both. Try it Without forcing a breath. It’s dramatically more noticeable and disrupted when you’re sick because of the excess side effects of being sick but totally the norm when breathing through the nasal passage.
#7
"That we cannot delete or sort unwanted/not needed info and memories from our brains."
Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
Yeah and the brain is all like 'We need to remember all the bad stuff, because we need to survive it the next time it comes up!' And it doesn't care that one of these "dangerous instances" was just some stupid thing you said to someone you barely know
Bruce Mardle 5 months ago
There's a book, and 2 radio series, called "Brian Gulliver's Travels". One chapter/episode has the protagonist visit a country (Kognitia) where everyone can choose to forget things.
#8
insidli said: "Vasovagal syncope from pooping." trackofalljades replied: "Pretty much everything neuro/muscular that results from putting the pooper right next to the babymaker would be my vote for design flaw numero uno."
John George 2 years ago
"God must be a civil engineer, because who else would run a waste disposal line right through a recreational facility."
skildude 2 years ago
Be glad you aren't a reptile or bird. They poop, Pee, and procreate in and from the same orifice. Male mammals only pee and procreate from one orifice and women delightfully have 3 different orifices.
Load More Replies... Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
“Vasovagal syncope from pooping”. Glad to say I have never fainted while sitting on the throne, no matter how strenuously. Especially considering that the bathroom would not be the softest place to collapse on.
#9
I0I0I0I said: "That you can have excruciating pain from a tiny hole on your tooth, but you can get cancer and not know until it's too late." eran76 replied: "As a dentist, to be fair, its only a small hole at the surface but a massive area of decay underneath that's causing pain. Most truly minor decay is also painless."
OneHappyPuppy 2 years ago
It's because teeth have nerves to sense if something is wrong but cancer cells are just normal cells with an extra fast spawn time, no nerves to detect that, maybe if that growth starts pressing onto a nerve there would be pain involved
#10
"Men have incredibly sensitive organs that are partly responsible for the procreation of mankind, as well as hormonal balances within the body. Instead of protecting these organs inside a ribcage or something, we dangle them outside our bodies, where they can be sat on, smashed, kicked, or otherwise injured."
John George 2 years ago
Actually it's because body temperature is too high for sperm production. Serious design flaw indeed.
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Nikki Sevven 2 years ago
Sperm are particular about the temperature of their environment. This is why you experience 'shrinkage' when it's cold and 'saggage' when it's hot. Still, a miniature, retractable ribcage-like thing would have been a good idea.
#11
"Chronic pain. Yes I know my head hurts and my head will always hurt there is nothing I can do about it so shut the f**k up brain."
JK 2 years ago
As someone with a chronic pain condition (1 part that's actually a physical problem/degeneration and 1 that's all in my head - "fibromyalgia", which is basiclly doctor talk for "we've no idea what's actually wrong with you, so take these pills and leave me alone") I stop/change plenty, my brain still thinks I'm in pain, it's absolutely ridiculous how easily confused the brain gets!
Load More Replies... #12
Mountainbranch said: "Eyelashes falling loose and ending up in the one place they're supposed to prevent s**t from falling into." Vaguely-Azeotropic replied: "Oh hell, this. I take chemo shots every week for an autoimmune disease, and the worst part isn't the exhaustion, mouth sores, or easy bruising and bleeding - no, it's all the freaking eyelashes falling in my eyes the day after the shot. It's like the sad little Christmas tree in Charlie Brown where all the needles come loose after one good shake. And I'm on a low dose, so there are enough left for the same thing to happen the next week. Serious design flaw."
Dogcat vet (retired) 2 years ago
I was annoyed that my hair didn't come back in curly after chemo. Bummer.
Dead Man Talking 2 years ago
Understand that! Same here. I'm on a medium dose, & really miss my beard.
#13
User No 1 said: "The need to sleep for at least 1/3 of the day." MarcusQuintus replied: "Humans are on the low end of the scale for sleep. Many animals spend >80% of their day sleeping." leagueofuchiha also replied: "I once read somewhere also that the state of sleep is lifes standard and primary state. We only wake up to nourish ourselves with food, water, and s**, and then return to our primary state. Were made to exist just so we can procreate."
Dogcat vet (retired) 2 years ago
Maybe its because we spend 80 percent of our time on the internet instead?
#14
strykazoid said: "The Obstetric Dilemma. Basically, the human body isn't built for easy birth." RIPMYPOOPCHUTE replied: "Also the fact that bleeding still happens in the first trimester, and the bleeding can follow the regular cycle or you can have spotting every week in the first trimester. My BIL’s girlfriend would have like a period the first 4 months of pregnancy. It’s wild, it’s terrifying, and it’s stupid."
Mike Y 2 years ago
Here's the real kicker: For a mammal, humans give birth about 9 months sooner than expected.
Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
That's why human babies are so helpless and undeveloped, compared to other mammals
Load More Replies... #15
etymologynerd said: "Pimples." _userlame replied: "Speaking of pimples, why do we have to get acne on our faces more than anywhere else, the face is the absolute worst place for that s**t, I would 100% prefer to have pimples on my knees or elbows or forearms or anywhere other than the god damn face." etymologynerd also replied: "Clearly you're not speaking for my back here."
Lotekguy 2 years ago
A form of birth control, making teens less appealing to their horny peers.
John George 2 years ago (edited)
Your back isn't the first thing people see in social encounters. Usually.
#16
User No 1 said: "That we lose a pretty good set of teeth at the age of 6. This would be so much more useful down the road, maybe at age 50 or 60, not 6, that's just dumb." gigisilver replied: "We would have to have a 3rd set for this to make sense due to head growth. Could you imagine how creepy and ineffective adult heads with those tiny baby teeth would be? Losing them young allows for bigger more efficient teeth to grow into the new jaw space."
TheElderNom 2 years ago
Honestly being like sharks in this regard would be great. Just growing new teeth.
#17
User No 1 said: "The spine seems to be ridiculously fragile. As does the neck." Redditor replied: "Having performed multiple cadaver dissections and seeing the spectacularly strong reinforcement of the spine that requires a bone saw to cut through, I beg to differ. Most spinal injuries take place via brutal shearing or compressive forces like those seen in car accidents or falls from a distance. For day to day activities, the spine is wonderfully adapted to normal use for a lifetime."
freakingbee (they/them) 2 years ago
well my spine decided to not be normal so here i am living with constant pain in my neck, shoulders, and ribs
WiggleJiggle the Emo Penguin 2 years ago
That’s not fun, is there any way to fix that? :(
Load More Replies... Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
Our spine wasn't designed for use upright though. Our ancestors walked on 4 legs and it shows. Slipped disks is the main problem, because of gravity
#18
"We have incredible cellular machinery designed to repair DNA, replicate DNA, and proofread DNA and destroy DNA if it's wrong. But we have things at the end of our DNA called telomeres that get shorter throughout our lives. They get shorter and shorter and shorter. And that's how we age and eventually die (oversimplification). Oh, and we have an enzyme that actually does replicate the telomeres, we just don't use it in the majority of our cells."
John George 2 years ago
It's so we *can* die. From an evolutionary & environmental standpoint, all sexually reproducing organisms must.
#19
"When you look at them for long enough, eyebrows are really weird."
Terry Tobias 2 years ago
And they've gone from being penciled in years ago to be drawn on with magic marker today. Can't we just let them be?
Justin Rogers 2 years ago
Looks even weirder without them, go try and get back to me. Another option is to sculpt them to your liking, tired of these helgas thinking the unibrow is fashion
Daniel Gómez 2 years ago
So, women can't leave their natural eyebrows as they are, but you can grow your (I guess naturally occurring) beard... talk about double standards. When not your own body, none of your f*cking business what anyone else does with it.
Load More Replies... #20
"Erections. They're like neon signs pointing to things I'd rather keep private. 'No. I am not turned on... ignore that.'"
Lotekguy 2 years ago
Robin Williams said men have a brain and a penis, but only enough blood flow to serve one at a time. Now THAT'S a design flaw.
my sox are in flux 1 month ago
That's a Warning Sign to potential mates as to whom to keep away from, if one is functioning instead of the other.
Load More Replies... #21
"You can kinda just die at any moment from a brain aneurysm, even if you're perfectly healthy."
#22
ThePierceIsRight said: "Our pelvis is extremely small and leads to a lot of complications when it comes to childbirth." RebelStarPilot replied: "I read somewhere it's bc human heads kept getting bigger (to support our big 'ol brain) not that the pelvis was too small to start." terabytes27 also replied: "Combination of both. Pelvis adapted to accommodate us going bipedal. Evolution-wise, the advantages of being bipedal were greater than complications during childbirth."
Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
And the pelvis can't just get wider, because the internal organs would fall out. Even now some women have to deal with prolapses of pelvic structures, like the uterus
#23
Gorf_the_Magnificent said: "We have to wipe ourselves after we poop. No other animal has to wander through the forest looking for something soft and absorbent." User No 2 replied: "They have to lick themselves, though. At least we don't have to do that." Young_Toast also replied: "When we were actually being humans like, pre civilization, we ate very fibrous diets, leading to clean poops. Also squatting to take a s**t might've helped a bit."
TheElderNom 2 years ago
Animals do occasionally "wipe". My cats do it by dragging their butt on the floor, then they lick it clean. Thankfully the butt dragging is rare.
Tea Drinker 6 months ago
I'd rather do it like a horse. Have you seen this? Their a*oles turn inside out, drop the stuff, and suck back in. Neat and tidy.
Terry Tobias 2 years ago
I don't know about animals in the forest, but I've watched my dog using the floor as toilet paper.
#24
User No 1 said: "Still craving sugar when you're already fat." Silkkiuikku replied: "This makes sense from an evolutionary point of view. Historically, starving to death has been much more common than being obese. So it makes sense to store as much fat as possible, because that fat may allow you to survive a famine."
Susie Elle 2 years ago (edited)
Also sugar is addicting and being obese can make you resistant to the hormone that controls satiety (if I remember correctly)
James Tomlinson 2 years ago (edited)
This is exactly what the GLP-1 drugs correct - I will be "testing" this hopefully next week.
Load More Replies... #25
"We've evolved for millions of years with the sun always being there. Yet we get burnt and skin cancer from too much exposure. Dark skinned people are slightly better designed than the fair skinned ones."
John George 2 years ago
Even dark-skinned people can get melanoma; it killed Bob Marley. Basal & squamos seem to be the real "white man's burden". But light skin is a *very* recent evolutionary development.
Aidan Pite 2 years ago
I've never understood that. Why did we evolve to LOSE something that was beneficial to our survival?
Load More Replies... Peter Parker 2 years ago
White skin helps absorb sunrays in temperate/polar climates where the sun doesn't shine as strong. This helps with vitamin D production, since less of the sun is blocked off by melatonin. It's all about evolutionary advantages and tradeoffs.
#26
drygnfyre said: "Unable to regenerate body parts. You lose an arm or a leg, you can't grow a new one. We can grow hair and nails forever, but not body parts." Cold-dead-heart replied: "We go bald over time and if you damage the wrong bit your nails won’t regrow."
JK 2 years ago
I want to know why we can't have regenerative teeth like sharks do. Once the baby teeth fall out and are replaced by the adult teeth that are already waiting in a cavity in our jaw/skull the space they were in remains empty. Why can't we just regrow new teeth seeing as they're so easily damaged/lost?! Genuine question if anyone actually knows why!
Adam Heath 2 years ago
We are born with the only teeth we get..baby teeth are pushed out as our adult teeth grow...look up baby face x-rays to fuel your nightmare...they are all there
Load More Replies... Bruce Mardle 5 months ago
I read an article in "Scientific American" that said we'd have the technology to regrow lost limbs in about 10 years. That was about 30 years ago 🤦
Bruce Mardle 5 months ago
Another thing I remember from the article is that we *can* regrow fingertips... so long as we don't interfere with the process by, e.g., grafting skin over the wound.
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#27
oliwoggle said: "In our eyes, the blood vessels supplying our photoreceptors are in front of them and therefore in the way of the incoming light. Probably not the biggest and there are some good justifications for it being set up this way. But it still must be such a pain for the brain constantly having to edit these out when forming our visual experience." Relative-Hour-9359 replied: "It's amazing how much the brain alters what our eyes actually see. Kinda worrying." atmel9077 also replied: "The brain basically has to upscale 480p to 4K. In order to do that it analyses the visual scene and reconstructs it. This is why when you misread a word, you didn't just read it wrong, you actually see it wrong. Someone couldn't figure out how to build a decent camera but somehow managed to put a supercomputer next to it. I would guess it's easier to have small eyes and a big brain rather than big eyes and a small brain, this way the eyes can move faster and are less fragile and less susceptible to damage."
Adam Heath 2 years ago
To prvroe a point, I bet msot of you read this crorectry. Only the first and last letters are in the correct spot
Jeremy James 2 years ago
The whole circulatory system and nervous system just seem like a case of bad cable management.
John George 2 years ago
The blood vessels can make for a cool visual effect. We all know people with big eyes (& other bits)& a tiny brain.
#28
"Having the CDKN2A and p14ARF genes overlapping at the exact same locus. This way, if one of them mutates or gets deleted, the other one does too. As both of them protect us from cancer, if that happens you lose two cancer defenses at once, which is f***ing st***d."
#29
KARAZINUS26 said: "Digestive system, regenerative system, immune system. isn't it funny how human body can be fully created in 9 month but a broken ankle will take several years and never fully recover?" Cold-dead-heart replied: "To be fair, a human body takes around 20 years to develop. But yes, it’s always open to damage it can’t recover from."
Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
Yeah but that thing we create in 9 months is rather small, to be honest
#30
deluxejoe said: "The eyes often suck and need an external lens to be useful." Eelismon replied: "Well for example a dog could also have equally flawed eyesight but we wouldn't know of it because: 1. Dogs can't read so they don't need a good eyesight 2. Dogs don't complain about being unable to read. **I didn't mean to criticize or anything. I just brought up the idea that bad eyesight wasn't cripplingly bad until we learned to write. After that, it can and indeed is considered a major and crippling flaw."
JK 2 years ago
As someone who is MASSIVELY short sighted and astigmatism in both eyes - reading is NOT the problem!?!? Without glasses/contact lenses everything I see is blurry, lights look weird, in a situation where I was in danger, without corrective lenses I am literally a sitting duck. Eyes are for more than reading you dingbat
Adam Heath 2 years ago
They weren't criticizing, you dingbat, or saying that we only use our eyes to read. They were simply stating the fact that sometimes our eyes need EXTERNAL HELP to be able to see, and that another animal with eye problems CAN'T explain that the need it
Load More Replies... Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
Myopia (short sightedness) nowadays is mostly caused BY reading. The eyeballs grow in length if you stay a lot indoors and read as a kid, which makes you see better what's near, but also worse what's far away. It's actually quite a good adaption if you think about it
TheElderNom 2 years ago
If it had stopped at reading distance maybe. But many short sighted people I know, including me, can't read without glasses. That is unless we literally want to put our nose in a book. And being outside without glasses is dangerous.
Load More Replies... #31
Frito_Pendejo_ said: "The design of the knee: We have 2 of the largest bones in our body and we need to connect them and have them rotate one way. Let's brainstorm!! Let's put 2 ligaments on the outside and just for kicks, put 2 more INSIDE and cross them. OK but how do we keep it from going the wrong way?? I know!! Let's put ANOTHER bone on the outside to stop it from bending backward and we will use 2 tendons to secure that in place. BRILLIANT!!!!" Autocthon replied: "Anatomy is iterative. Also kneeling would be a lot more uncomfortable without that bony plate in the front. And it doubles as a useful weapon in close combat. Which is important when you have a fairly limited number of natural weapons."
Justin Rogers 2 years ago
Yuppers, torn every single one multiple times until they are severed, nothing like being able to rotate foot °180 and get stuck. No insurance so it's been like that for 25 years
Suzie 6 months ago
Cant imagine living in pain because of insurance/money xxx im sorry
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#32
"Having something as pressure sensitive as the testicles being in a sack on the outside of a man's body."
Arunika R. 2 years ago
It's because to create sperms, the temperature needs to be a few degrees less than the body temperature. Which is achieved outside the body
Jake Smith 2 years ago
right, but why not design the sperm to live at body temperature and tuck that s**t away? Like say a dolphin does.
Load More Replies... #33
"IMO the whole “we put food into the only air hole we have and can choke and die if we aren’t careful” thing is a pretty big miss."
#34
Appropriate_Gas_3802 said: "I have autoimmune disease. St***d thing it's hurting it's own body." Smart-Top3593 replied: "This is what I was going to say. Allergies and all of the things that your body does TO ITSELF!!"
Steve Robert 2 years ago
And BP censors don't care if you're dumb, but you can't be stupid without offending the dumb.
#35
"That a tiny blood clot can kill you at literally any second. And oh yeah anxiety."
Suzie 6 months ago
I keep having a weird pain in my calf in the night .. blood clot is my Brain's firsts go to at 3am!!
Load More Replies... #36
"The appendix."
Peter Parker 2 years ago
The gall bladder is useful for storing gall and releasing it when you need it after eating (to digest fats). Constantly dripping gall into your intestines would work too, but it would be wasteful and less efficient.
Load More Replies... Aidan Pite 2 years ago
It's great for spare parts though, if you ever need a bladder reconstruction.
Karen Jenkins 5 months ago
Mine burst and I was in the hospital for 6 days on massive antibiotics,
#37
Jibber_Fight said: "A stroke. My aunt had one when she was 31 and the healthiest person in the world. Ran an aerobics class at the Y, just perfect perfect health. Went to Pizza Hut with her the night before, next day, a massive stroke, and almost died, critical surgery, twenty years later she still has trouble speaking. It sucks. There is no reason that should’ve happened. A perfectly healthy person is damaged for the rest of her life. She’s still amazing and lovely and my favorite person but damn is that annoying." ketra1504 replied: "It is true. A stroke basically ruined the life of my grandmothers friend. One day she went from a happy and healthy person to one who has to be in a special institution because she can't function on her own, has half her body not responding to basically anything, cannot speak and is extremely frustrated to the point of being violent."
Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
That's the blood clot from the former post when it reaches your brain
#38
oppapoocow said: "Rashes... it itches and makes it soothing when you scratch it, but scratching it makes it worse!" ketra1504 replied: "My professor once told me why you need to be extremely careful when handling epoxy resin thinners. You can safely assume that everyone is allergic to them and if it comes into contact with your skin it gives you the most horrible rash imaginable, another thing is that washing the rash with warm water feels almost orgasmic the hotter the water is and you have to be very careful not to burn your hands with boiling water. The rash also stays for around a week."
Adam Heath 2 years ago
I have contact dermititis and it f*****g sucks...i look at a resin wrong and I get a rash
Suzie 6 months ago
I never know which arrow to press.. up seams a bit of a pee take yay u have a awful condition and down seams more suitable as in oh thats awful but then downvotes u is a bad.thing
Load More Replies... Steve Robert 2 years ago
Scratching the affected area sends pain signals to the brain so that we forget that it itches
#39
spit_in_my_eye said: "The laryngeal nerve that needs only travel a few inches from the brain to the larynx, but goes a long way around under the aortic arch instead. And our sinuses draining upside down."
Peter Parker 2 years ago
Perfect example of evolution. The aortic arch moved down to our chest, and the nerve was tangled around it. Instead of taking the short route, it kept stretching as the aorta moved down. No intelligent creator would have designed that mess.
#40
"'Nostalgia is the greatest human weakness. Second only to the neck...' - Dwight Schrute"
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
In the days before sleeping wrong would bring me really painful neck pain that takes a couple days to ease off. Unless I sleep wrong again the next night. Amazing how the simple act of sleeping could be hazardous to your health.
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#41
"The fact the brain can not regenerate more cells, but practically everything else can. Even though the brain is the most important."
Susie Elle 2 years ago
The brain is a badass in delegating tasks to different parts of the brain if needed, though.
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
Yes. Even brains that have been damaged, from an injury or something like hydrocephalus, can rewire themselves, making new connections to replace the old and giving people their lives back.
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Veronica Devlin 2 years ago
We can develop new brain cells. Here’s a link to a peer reviewed study. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214854X20300133
#42
"Some things take far too long to heal and some things don’t."
#43
Chastethrow316420 said: "The sleep cycle." WirelessTrees replied: "Must sleep for a minimum of 8 hours of the 24 per day, and any deviation can lead to exhaustion, even getting more sleep leads to exhaustion. Why??" Redditor also replied: "I'm on a weird 12/32 sleep cycle. I'm just slightly off, but because the world doesn't work around that schedule, I effectively have one of the most brutal cases of insomnia of anyone I know."
Justin Rogers 2 years ago
I am a weird one that functions best when I get 6 hours and can't sleep more no matter what, can even split it up to 2 three hour sessions and be fine
Temporary Dork 2 years ago
I do 4 + 3 and sometimes I slip in an extra 3.
Load More Replies... Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
Before the advent of electrical light people slept 8 to 10 hours on average. Now it's dropped to 6 to 8 (average), so as a society we're chronically tired. Personally I need 10 hours of sleep
Mimi M 2 years ago
Yes, and it was typically split into two chunks (what was called 'first sleep' and 'second sleep'). Now that pattern is seen as abnormal, when really it's quite natural. This is known as a bimodal or biphasic (or natural) sleep pattern. Animals have it as well as non-(or pre)industrial societies.
Load More Replies... Adam Heath 2 years ago
8 hours of sleep is b******t created by the bosses of the 9 to 5...we need to sleep some, but as an insomniac who has gone days without sleep before and basically live on 3 or 4
Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
Yes, you can survive on less sleep. But it takes its toll on your body. 8 to 10h is actually the human norm
Load More Replies... #44
"Eyelashes, designed to keep things out of your eyes but they just fall in anyway."
#45
"Our teeth don't grow back like Shark's do."
Bookworm 2 years ago
The Rise Of Mammals does a really good job explaining this! Basically, one of the great innovations of mammals was the development of teeth with opposing surfaces, for maximum chewing efficiency. Sharks can loose teeth and replace them constantly because they don't chew, they just grab and rip, so it doesn't matter how their teeth meet up. If a human's molars did that, our regrowing teeth wouldn't contact each other the way they need to for us to eat. Elephants do a kind of conveyor belt where only a few of their massive teeth are in their jaw at a time, moving forward as they wear down and eventually falling out to make room for the next set, but once they wear out their last teeth, they die shortly after. Grass-eaters like horses usually have extremely tall hypsodont teeth that gradually erupt out of the gums as the top wears away. And rodents have their always growing incisors. But with mammals, once they actually lose an adult tooth, it's gone.
#46
Lootto said: "You can close your eyes when it's time to sleep but you can't close your ears. I know it's evolutions way to make sure you wake up instead of just sleep trough any dangers around you, but still. Imagine how convenient it would be to just close your ears." _goflyakite_ replied: "So when your newborn is crying it's head off you can ignore it and sleep on."
Adam Heath 2 years ago
But you can't smell anything while you sleep so burn to death...if we are made in gods image, God is f*****g stupid
Dan Holden 2 years ago
Anyone who argues for intelligent design likely don't know much about human/other species anatomy.
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#47
"The human knee. It is a nightmare of an engineering kludge. Two rods, the upper and lower legs, balancing on top of each other, supporting the entire weight of the human body. And the only thing that keeps them from bending backwards? A tiny, free-floating thin half-dome of bone not attached to anything at all. And what keeps them from collapsing entirely? A mass of unhealing cartilage and some muscle fibers. 8 pounds (!) of precise force can snap the knee from the side, permanently crippling a person. It is a ridiculously fragile, slapdash evolutionary kludge of the sort that could only be selected for in a species expected to live no longer than about 25 years. Only - humans live a lot longer than just 25 years now, but the knee has never changed."
Jeremy James 2 years ago (edited)
The maximum lifespan for a human tops out at around 125 years under ideal conditions, and that figure hasn't moved much since the Stone Age. The reason we have this narrative about people not living past 25 is because of the confusion with average life expectancy at birth, which includes high infant mortality and childhood deaths into the average.
#48
"Being able to sit down on your own balls if you're a dude."
#49
"That your chest f***in hurts when you think about someone too much. S**t’s making me nauseous, yo."
#50
"That there is a completely unprotected artery in your neck that if cut will kill you in a couple minutes."
What do you think ?
Arunika R. 2 years ago
Half of these are oversimplifications and assumptions from little knowledge. The human body isn't perfect but it's so damn impressive I could write an essay just from the knowledge I learnt from high school.
Arunika R. 2 years ago
Half of these are oversimplifications and assumptions from little knowledge. The human body isn't perfect but it's so damn impressive I could write an essay just from the knowledge I learnt from high school.
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