Amazing Body Facts

Fetal cells can heal their mothers' damaged organs.Fetal cells can stay with their mothers for years, even decades after the pregnancy ends. Research shows these leftover fetal cells can help if the mother gets an injury, like a stroke.

Louise McCullough, director of stroke research at the University of Connecticut Health Center, led a study with colleagues. They found fetal cells act like stem cells.

McCullough studied fetal cells in mother mice that had strokes. These cells quickly found the stroke area in the brain. Within 72 hours, the fetal cells surrounded the clot.

Desperate times demand action. Your digestive system can shut down in emergencies to send energy to other body systems. This means you might feel 'super strength' when pulling someone from under a car.

The sympathetic nervous system shuts down your digestive system to give you extra energy.The sympathetic nervous system shuts down your digestive system to give you extra energy.The sympathetic nervous system alerts your brain to danger. Adrenaline releases, which increases breathing, speeds up your heart rate, and relaxes stomach and intestinal muscles. This decreases blood flow to these organs, which can slow down or even stop digestion.digestion.

For centuries, men and women have used muscles to compete in tough sports in intense locations. This demands the body go past comfort, but the brain sometimes stops the body from using its full strength.

According to E. Paul Zehr, a professor of neuroscience and kinesiology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, your brain keeps you from using your full strength.E. Paul ZehrE. Paul Zehr, a professor of neuroscience and kinesiology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

Our brains constantly try to stop us from pushing too far and causing damage. If you use all possible force or energy to complete exhaustion, you risk a fatal situation.

The brain keeps you from using your full strength.human brainThe human brain acts like a computer, programming muscles through learned thoughts and actions. Elite athletes learn to train their 'computers' to exceed normal operating limits.

According to a 2009 study, the brain keeps you from using your full strength.2009 study, human bioluminescence in visible light exists. Our bodies can emit light in low amounts that change daily. However, our eyes cannot see this glow.emitting lightOur eyes cannot pick up this glow because our eyes cannot detect it.

"The intensity of the light emitted by the body is 1,000 times lower than the sensitivity of our naked eyes," states the team from the Tohoku Institute of Technology.

To study this visible light more, the team used ultra-sensitive cameras. These cameras detected single photons from five male volunteers. The males stood bare-chested in front of the cameras for 20 minutes every three hours from 10 am to 10 pm for three days. They found the body light rose and fell during the day, peaking at 4 pm.

Who would think cardiovascular health could offer music benefits? OnestudyThis suggests a direct link between physiological changes controlling heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure.

"Music induces a continuous, dynamic - and to some extent predictable - change in the cardiovascular system."Luciano Bernardi says this.He is a professor of internal medicine at the University of Pavia in Italy.

Bernardi and his team tested experienced singers and non-musicians. Participants listened to five random classical selections by Beethoven and others, then a two-minute silence.

Scientists found selections with crescendos caused blood vessels to constrict proportionally, increasing heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure.Scientific America writes:The article states:

The team also found that 'rich' music phrases, about 10 seconds long, like rhythms from Verdi arias, made heart rate and other cardiovascular parts sync with the music.

Evolutionary psychologist Andrew Gallup studies yawning. Though yawns usually signal sleepiness or boredom, recent evidence suggests yawning helps cool the brain.Andrew Gallup.Gallup says, "Recent evidence suggests that yawning may function to promote brain cooling."

Yawning cools your brain.Cooling." effect happens when you breathe deep, stretch your jaw to boost blood flow, causing spinal fluid and blood to flow down from the brain. This lets incoming air slightly cool the fluids moving down."

Gallup explains why we yawn at night: "At night time, when we prepare to sleep, our brain and body temperatures reach their highest point during the day."

Noam Cohen, director of the Rhinology Research Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, says our sinuses have taste receptors just like those in our mouths.These receptors taste bitterness.These receptors check molecules entering the respiratory tract. Harmful bacteria trigger these bitter receptors, just as contaminated food warns our tongues against eating it.

The nose tastes bacteria.Your lungs and nasal passages taste bacteria to check for threats.are filled with thousands of tiny hair-like projectors called cilia. These fine hairs detect body impurities. A 2009 study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science showed that once cilia detect a bitter impurity, they brush it out of the body.a 2009 studypublished by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, showed that once cilia detect a bitter impurity, they brush it out of the body.

Cilia can respond to bitter flavors like nicotine, sweeping away impurities as soon as they taste them.

Auto-brewery syndrome., also known as gut fermentation syndrome, makes those who suffer feel hungover. Those whoThis condition makes some people brew alcohol in their guts.can suffer from drinking even a small amount of alcohol, or no alcohol at all.

This syndrome happens when the gut makes too much *saccharomyces cerevisiae*, a type of yeast. This yeast sits in the GI tract, causing fermentation that makes ethanol. Many who have this strange syndrome eat lots of sugar or carbs.

Can your joints predict the weather? Rheumatologists have tried to answer this question for years. Research shows your joints probably can. According toOrthopedic surgeon Robert Tait, MD.:

When a storm front moves in, atmospheric pressure drops. Major joints' sensory nerve endings register a higher joint fluid pressure, causing pain.

A 1997 study published in theInternational Journal of Biometeorology.The study found a link between arthritis pain and weather variables: temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed, and rain.

Humans are the only animals that blush. Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory, called it "the most peculiar and the most human of all expressions."Charles Darwin.He called it "the most peculiar and the most human of all expressions."

Why humans blush is a mystery, but evidence exists. Blushing shows that after a social mistake, people view you more sympathetically if you blush.Evidence.shows that after a person makes a social faux pas, they are regarded more sympathetically if they blush.

You might think it's crazy, but you are actually a little taller in the morning than at night. Throughout the day, you putPressure on your joints., which makes the cartilage in your spine compress.

As you walk, run, bike, and live during the day, gravity slowly pushes things down. This squeezes the cartilage in your spine—even by small amounts. When you lie down for sleep, pressure on your spinal disks eases, letting you return to your full height in the morning.

When cold weather arrives, people put on coats and hats to protect their bodies. But what about your eyes?Dr. Rupe Hansra.senior director of eye care at LensCrafters, says your eyes signal when it's too cold. "When hypothermia gets bad, blood vessels in the eyes shrink to save energy," Dr. Hansra states.

Your eyes also give your body clues that spring is coming. Before the weather warms up, your eyes might becomeDry and itchy.. Dr. Hansra says this happens because "pollen and spore count increase before the weather turns, and your eyes notice this first, making them itch and water."