Well, as I’ve mentioned before on the blog, I’ve been taking Human Anatomy during this summer semester and it is almost over! Originally I wasn’t too thrilled about taking the class…it was ruining my summer, I’ve heard it was really, really hard, so all in all it didn’t sound appealing. Well, so my whole summer wasn’t carefree, and yes the class WAS really, really hard, but I really feel like I’ve learned a great deal of valuable information and I’ve earned a much greater respect for how our bodies function. All I can say is that I have gained a greater sense of gratitude for the gift our Heavenly Father has given us and I am just amazed at how incredibly complicated and intricate His creation is. My final is tomorrow, so to celebrate this fantastic event I thought I would share a few more “interesting” anatomy facts that I’ve learned over the last 7 weeks.
*if you see or talk to me on a regular basis, you’ve probably already heard some of these because I seem to spew random anatomy info all the time in regular conversation…sorry about that, I’ve just got it on the brain!
- a teratogen is anything that causes a birth defect; 25% of babies born to mothers taking Accutane (the acne medicine) have serious birth defects and 50% are mentally disabled! (maybe I didn’t know that because I never took Accutane, but that is a crazy high percentage)
- Male Pattern Baldness was the medical term for when men lose their hair and some women tend to lose their hair too and they basically got mad that doctors were telling them they had male pattern baldness so they changed it to Diffuse Hair Loss, when talking about women.
- Osteoporosis is when your bone cells are deconstructing old bone faster than they are making new bone, so your bone weakens from the inside out. Most elderly people who say they fell and broke their hip – actually their bones became so weak it broke on it’s own therefore causing the person to fall.
- Neurons in your brain are not regenerative, so whatever neuron damage you cause is permanent (so DON’T do drugs kids)
- At a baby’s check up, the doctor measures the circumference of the baby’s head to see if their head growth is proportional to the rest of the body. If the baby’s head is growing at too rapid a rate the doctor has to run tests for Hydrocephalus – where there is excess cerebral spinal fluid in the brain and since a baby’s skull is not fully formed the baby’s head ends up expanding like a water balloon.
- You can get a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage from pooping. So if you get a severe headache after a restroom run, don’t be too embarrassed to go to the doctor. A lot of people die because this happens and they’re too embarrassed to tell anybody.
- Some doctors have been known to operate on babies with Spina Bifida while they are still in the womb! Doctors can go in, do surgery on the baby’s spine to make sure everything is fixed and closed up correctly, sew the mama back up, then the mom can deliver the baby naturally and the baby comes out fine with zero scarring. They have to make sure the baby’s head doesn’t leave the mother’s body so the baby can’t take its first breath. Once the baby takes it’s first breath they can’t sew her back up with the baby inside, they have to actually deliver the baby
- People used to think a frontal lobotomy (where they stick a probe in one of your eye sockets and swish it around in the frontal lobe of your brain) was a “cure” for people with mental disabilities or violent characteristics. Needless to say it didn’t work, the majority of these people ended up in mental institutions, and frontal lobotomies were ruled as inhumane.
- A person with Shingles can give another person chicken pox, but can’t actually pass on Shingles. (side note – I never had chicken pox when I was little)
- A fetus’ blood doesn’t need to go to the liver or the lungs because the mom is already providing oxygen and cleaning the blood for the baby. A fetus’ blood flows freely between the left and right atrium of the heart through a hole in the heart instead of going to the lungs. When the baby takes it’s first breath, the pressure from the air inside the lungs causes the two membranes between the atria to slam together therefore closing the hole between the two compartments of the heart. Way cool, huh??
- Your left lung is smaller than your right lung because it has to leave room for your heart.
- When massaging someone’s stomach (especially a baby) you must go in the direction the large intestine flows (start around the right hip and go clockwise), otherwise you could push fecal matter the wrong way possibly making the person/baby very sick.
- If you have heart burn you should lay on your left side.
- Diarrhea is caused when food travels too quickly through the small intestine so your body doesn’t have time to absorb all the nutrients.
- Most bleeding/hemorrhaging during child birth happens after the baby is born, when the placenta is being expelled because it is so intricately attached to the mother’s blood vessels.
- “bed rest” during pregnancy is usually due to possibility of placental abruption, when the placenta detaches/tears itself away from the uterine wall, therefore depriving the baby of oxygen.
- There is a larger percentage of breach babies now than 50 years ago – some think it is due to having a more sedentary lifestyle.
Sorry this is so long but I hope you liked the randomness of it all! Don't you feel just a little bit smarter?
4 comments:
Wow, that was all really interesting! I hemorrhaged after I gave birth. Now I know why!
Thanks for the cool info!
Oh anatomy! That was an awesome class. It was super hard but I really enjoyed it. It looks like you learned some really cool stuff though : )
I learned SO much...thanks for making me smarter ;)
This is the best post of all time and I'll probably be bookmarking this post! I love completely random information about the human body!
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