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79 Medical Facts That Sound Fake But Are True, As Shared By People Online
It’s hard to believe anything these days without fact-checking it yourself. So one TikTok account asked people on the platform to share medical facts they heard that sounded completely made up, but are actually true.
From amazing insights into how we reproduce to the spread of disease, the answers didn’t disappoint.
Below, you will find some of the most surprising responses that might just teach you a thing or two about the natural sciences. It’s never too late to learn.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Cartilage on an ear does not grow back after being shot.
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#2
the fact that a grapefruit can affect so many medications
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 hours ago
I was on a migraine preventative many years ago that had a "no grapefruit" rule XD Was a bummer because I love grapefruit. That particular medication proved fairly ineffective as a migraine prophylaxis, so at least I can eat grapefruit nowadays XD (Though that was far from the weirdest "effect" I got from a migraine preventative medication... topiramate made me unable to "taste" the carbonation in carbonated drinks. Even a newly-opened soda "tasted" flat and weeks-old to me. Super bizarre as I could HEAR the carbonation, but couldn't taste/feel it!)
#3
when a woman is pregnant with a female fetus, she's also carrying the egg that could potentially be her own grandchild.
Discussions like this one highlight a serious problem. Research by the World Health Organization found that health misinformation online isn’t just annoying — it can actually harm people’s well‑being.
The study examined 31 prior reviews and found that false or misleading health information spreads rapidly across social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, especially during crises when people are desperate for answers.
That misinformation can fuel fear, panic, and confusion, and even delay people from getting the care they need. It’s also been linked to misinterpreting scientific evidence, increasing vaccine hesitancy, and pushing unproven treatments. What’s wild? In some viral health topics, up to half of the related posts were misleading. The WHO says the fix isn’t simple — but efforts like better digital and health literacy, stronger awareness campaigns, and higher‑quality mass‑media content can help push back against fake health info.
#4
When you get pregnant you can get implantation cramps and bleeding so its understandable how some pregnancies go unnoticed for so long. i got the cramps so horribly that i was doubling over in pain. i thought my ovary had twisted or something. So i went to the hospital and a male nurse kept telling me i was constipated. i kept saying i wasnt but he just wouldn't listen to me. I think all female understand when the feeling is in their uterus and not just their gut. so i schedule an appointment when my obgyn and forced them to give me an ultrasound because i knew something was wrong. Not only was i pregnant, it was twins.
#5
One of the very few definitive things in medicine is that no one who is born blind has ever developed schizophrenia.
#6
My brain knows where all my organs are and won't tell me when I'm taking a test about it
#7
you can smell your lungs but your brain is so used to it you just block out the smell
#8
When you take pain medicine the pain does not stop, it just stops receptors from telling your brain
Ace 4 hours ago
There are several difference mechanisms at work in different types of painkillers, some work like that, others (e.g. NSAIDs) reduce the inflammation that is causing the pain, while opiates don't stop the brain from detecting the pain but simply makes it not care about it. Massive over-simplifications, but just to point out that the 'fact' stated here is only relevant for some specific medicines.
#9
A positive pregnancy test taken by a guy can indicate cancer.
Liliana Spiro 6 hours ago
IF it turns out to be cancer the positive pregnancy test is due to the tumor releasing high levels of hCG into the bloodstream and urine, which the test detects
#10
Baby’s saliva will connect to mothers milk when baby is sick and tell the mothers body what antibodies it needs to get better.
#11
Your gallbladder is green which is weird cause I imagine all my organs as red or pink
#12
dogs can smell cancer before we can detect it with our screening systems. They detect a change in the biochemistry of their owners which changes their smell. There are serious trials going on to see if dogs can be used to detect early cancer in those genetically at risk.
#13
Sometimes in a heart transplant, they can leave the old heart inside and it works alongside the new one and it may potentially heal. It’s called a piggyback transplant, which is kinda cute.
#14
That your liver grows back. You can donate half your liver and both people will end up regrowing a full liver in the end.
Nay Wilson 2 hours ago
What I’d like to know is: if the liver has regenerated can you then donate another piece? Or is it a one time thing? Does the original piece of liver need to stay connected to the regenerated portion for the liver to keep functioning?
#15
After they remove your uterus they don't move anything back. As you recover and start walking more all your organs that were on top of your uterus slowly move into the space where your uterus was. It explains why you can get a bladder prolapse after hysterectomy.
#16
You can get pregnant while being pregnant you can also have twins with different fathers
#17
You can’t catch a cold simply by going out in the cold. It’s a virus that you need to catch.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 hours ago
You mean all the years of me watching anime protagonists' true loves going out in the rain and subsequently catching a cold and dying has all been a lie?!
#18
you can ALWAYS hear your heart beating, your brain just tells your ears to indefinitely ignore the sound
Luke || Kira (he/she) 4 hours ago
You can smell your lungs, hear your heart, see your nose, feel your intestines moving... I wonder what madness would we experience if all those brain filters were removed
#20
having locked in syndrome is horrible luckily it only lasted 19 weeks for me
Luke || Kira (he/she) 4 hours ago
If anyone wonders: it's a state where your entire body is completely paralyzed but you're fully conscious and aware
#21
When you get a kidney transplant. They don’t replace the old kidney. They just put the new one near your hip.
Daya 5 hours ago
...If there is enough room for it. There are diseases like polycystic kidney disease where the kidney(s) grow bigger and bigger. And even if the new kidney is placed lower in your body beside the bladder, it can be too small for it so one or both old kidneys will be extracted.
#22
Your brain has no pain receptors, which is why brain surgery can be done while the patient is awake and is a common procedure when surgeons are operating on parts of the brain that control speech, movement and memory
#23
There’s a condition that essentially makes you “allergic” to sunlight (porphyria cutanea tarda) and some people believe that’s where the vampire myth comes from
Luke || Kira (he/she) 4 hours ago
IIRC it also makes you allergic to allium (a compound found in garlic) and makes your gums recede so your teeth look like fangs
#24
“Achoo syndrome” I have it, it’s basically when you sneeze when you step out into the sun because your sinuses get mixed up, so your brain tricks you into thinking that the bright light you’re seeing is irritating your nose
#25
No one knows why we yawn, or why they’re contagious
Liliana Spiro 6 hours ago
A bit over simplified. There are different theories and a recent study suggests yawning alters the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, helping to move fluid away from the brain and potentially flushing metabolic waste. Source: the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA)
#27
Over 100 baby boys pass every year due to complications from the cosmetic procedure circumcison.
#28
in some cultures, schizophrenic people hear and see happy things.
#29
Women have stronger immune systems
#31
"The Placebo Effect" is proof that the brain knows how to heal our bodies naturally, we just don't know how to utilize its potential yet.
Luke || Kira (he/she) 5 hours ago
I've read one technothriller book where it was theorized that human bodies could be capable of almost Wolverine-like healing factor but evolved it out because rapid tissue regeneration also caused rapid and unbridled cancer infestation
#32
your brain doesn't know your eyes exist, if it did, it would send your antibodies to eliminate them like tumors
Sarah Suelzle 46 minutes ago
How do they even know this?! Doesn't the brain interpret the images we see using our eyes?
#33
Sitting on the toilet for too long can lead to hemorrhoids.
Bonnie Blue Bird 5 hours ago
It's the straining on the toilet that is the issue not the sitting
#34
We don't completely understand how anesthesia works
#35
I have a hereditary disorder that makes my body store too much iron- Hereditary Hemochromatosis. The treatment is bloodletting.
#36
The pain of sunburn is your cells literally taking their own lives, so they don't mutate into cancerous cells :)
#37
Mental illness episodes like schizophrenia/psychosis can be smelled. There is a specific odor that is excreted through the pores and sweat glands due to metabolic changes happening in the body during the episode.
#38
that having 6 fingers is a Dominant trait and having 5 is a recessive trait
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 hours ago
True. Only one parent needs to have mutations in the alleles related to digit formation in order for a child to have a 50% chance of displaying polydactyly. However, "dominant trait" does not imply widespread "dominance" - as only a small proportion of people carry the related allele - that's why most people only have the typical five fingers per hand.
#40
People fall asleep and wake up in different stages. Ultimately falling asleep to REM sleep then (usually) slowly waking from that. If, for some reason; you should immediately wake from REM sleep to full consciousness you will be temporarily paralyzed for a few moments until your nervous system can catch up. Commonly referred to as "sleep paralysis."
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 hours ago
I experience sleep paralysis fairly often. It is every bit as horrible and terrifying as it sounds XD I often also "see" something that people term a "sleep paralysis demon" - a hallucination that occurs during periods of sleep paralysis. Basically I "feel" entirely awake and aware, but I am unable to move or speak. I often "see" a threatening, tall, shadowy figure at the foot of my bed that seems to be reaching for me/lunging forward. I try to scream and all that escapes me is a whistling whine of breath. I usually "wake all the way up" within seconds, but those seconds are absolutely terrifying and feel 100% real. What's interesting is that my sleep paralysis "demon" has always looked and acted exactly the same way, over several decades of me experiencing these hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations!
#41
Certain types of ovarian cysts can grow hair and produce teeth
Detroit Citizen 4 hours ago
Its not just ovarian cysts, there are tumors that both sexes can develop. I cant recall the medical terminology. Im too squeamish to google it tbh lol
#44
women get cold faster because their general body temperature is 0,3 - 0,4°c higher than that of a man. A difference in blood circulation also causes women to get cold feet/hands faster
Pat Carter 58 minutes ago
i'm a woman, and my body temp is and has always been 97.2 degrees, and i can tolerate cold much better than heat. i also have low blood pressure 90/60
#45
Leaches & maggots are still used commonly to seal wounds & clean flesh wounds respectively.
#46
There's such a thing as water poisoning, aka Hyponytremia, where you drink too much water and cause a massive drop in the bodies salt levels. It can be fatal.
#47
You can biologically have three parents, as in the DNA of three people
#48
your brain keeps secrets from other parts of your brain
Bonnie Blue Bird 4 hours ago
It's not uncommon for trauma survivors to black out events due to the brain trying to protect itself.
#49
the gene that gives men baldness is the same gene that tells women to grow hair.
Serena Myers 3 hours ago
But I wish it would concentrate on the hair on my head, rather than my chin and nose!
#50
Your skin turns orange when you eat a lot of carrots
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 hours ago
Happened to me as a child - I apparently went through a phase where I wanted carrots, all the time, for every meal. My mother let me have all the cooked carrots I wanted, and I turned a lovely light shade of orange. My mother and pediatrician used to recount this story to me every time I'd see my pediatrician during my childhood and early teen years XD
#52
Cranberry juice does not change your Ph to prevent you from getting a UTI. It makes the lining of your bladder slippery preventing bacteria from attaching.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 hours ago (edited)
Absolutely true! Cranberries contain proanthocyanidins, which make it difficult for bacteria to adhere to the walls of the bladder. As many cranberry juices contain high amounts of added sugar, you can also take cranberry supplements/pills - anything that contains proanthocyanidins (30-70mg.) You will often see "D-mannose" paired with cranberry supplements - this is another beneficial supplement. D-mannose can help reduce the growth of E. coli and has the same "slippery" effect on E. coli that proanthocyanidins do. (And 85% of UTIs are caused by E. coli!) EDIT: Not a medical expert, but I worked vitamins/supplements for nearly three years and ended up nerding out about the supplements we sold and doing a lot of my own research on them XD 90% of it was woo-woo stuff (tart cherry juice will not cure your gout, go see a doctor!) but some of the supplements legitimately can have a benefit.
#53
humans give off a very sweet scent under extreme fear
Detroit Citizen 4 hours ago
To me this seems like an evolutionary faux pas lol. Personally id hope to smell as uninviting as possible under extreme fear... I want to revolt the other party
#55
Our immune system doesn’t know we have eyes. If it finds out through illness or trauma it makes you blind.
#58
Your brain can cancel out you seeing eye floaters!
MoBeLa 12 hours ago
Yes, I’ve had this happen. Like all the other things on this list that the brain filters out when they are constant (the sound of your heartbeat, the smell of your lungs), you stop seeing the floaters eventually unless you really focus on trying to see them. For me, it took about 3 months after a head trauma.
#59
Normal levels on bloodwork doesn’t mean optimal.
Bonnie Blue Bird 4 hours ago
Not sure the context here. Some people do not fall into 'normal' levels because of a variety of reasons (genetics, fitness, etc.). But normal blood levels are an average of a specific population and can vary due to race and gender.
#61
Everyone’s tongue has a unique print just like fingerprints but for your tongue
#62
some people that have had a traumatic brain injury are sensitive to capital letters, especially if they are out of place, it causes pain and/or seizures for some.
#63
Some doctors are taught in medical school (to this very day- depends on the institution) that African Americans don’t feel pain or experience it like others; so they are medically ignored 99% of the time which often leads to an untimely demise.
#65
When you get sick symptoms are not from the illness. It’s from the war your immune system is fighting to defeat that illness.
#66
You can’t watch your eyes move in the mirror. Your brain literally cuts the feed
Nay Wilson 1 hour ago
That’s not completely true. I have a squint. If I focus on moving my right eye (the one with the squint) so it’s in line with my left eye I can then watch my right eye drift back to its normal position once I relax the muscle. It takes effort for me to be able to move my squint
#69
Hair last longer than bones in the ground, because its basicly dead cells, so no decomposers want to decompose them. So if you open hundreds of years old grave, you are likely to find only hair in there
#71
Twins have a bond like nothing else in human history. I was woken out of sleep when my twin passed. I sat straight up, looked at the clock and knew something horrible had happened.
#72
Cell phones emit a tiny amount of radiation
Chich the witch 5 hours ago
Non-ionizing radiation which is not able to break the chemical bonds in your body.
#73
Your mind doesn’t know the difference between a thought and reality. That is why your mouth waters just by imagining eating a lemon.
#74
Alzheimer’s is stage 3 diabetes.
Alzheimer’s can be caused by resistance to brain insulin which is common for people with type 2 diabetes.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 hours ago
Absolutely untrue. People with Type 2 diabetes have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's. That's it. The diabetic mechanisms may play a role in SOME patients, not all. And the metabolic changes that occur in diabetes might accelerate the progress of Alzheimer's. But all of this is so far unproven. The term "Stage 3 Diabetes" for Alzheimer's is controversial and is not widely used among most medical professionals or major health organizations.
#75
Emotions usually only last for 90 seconds, so if you still feel something (like anger), it means your being angry on purpose—you choose to be
#76
Everyone in your dreams is someone you’ve seen in real life at some point
LakotaWolf (she/her) 4 hours ago
Please explain the various monsters, beasts, and de novo creatures that my brain crafts often in my dreams, then. I can guarantee you that I haven't seen them in real life "at some point" XD
#77
when you sneeze, your heart stops beating for that time.
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LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 hours ago
First line of this article: "It’s hard to believe anything these days without fact-checking it yourself." The rest of this article: Completely unproven random comments from random people on TikTok, many of which are not "facts" at all and are completely bogus.
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