12 Mind-Blowing Facts About Your Body (PART 2)

7. When We breathe, We Favor One Nostril

 

Dr. Foster said: "We naturally tend to alternate from one nostril then the other as this helps keep the air we breathe moist so as not to irritate our lungs.

"But our bodies give one nostril a break while the other is active – we just don't know we do it."

8. We Don't Know Why We Yawn

Dr. Foster said: "Many animals seem to do it, and there are different theories as to why we do—some say it helps get more oxygen in, others think it helps regulate temperature.

"Either way, we all do it, we just don't why."

9. Eyes Remain Almost the Same Size Your Entire Life

Copeland said: "Although our nose and ears keep growing throughout our lives, our eyes remain the same size from birth.

"By three months, our eyes are the same size that they will ever be as the corneas have reached their full width."

She quotes Cornell University neurobiologist Howard C. Howland, who stated: "Human eyes grow rapidly in the womb and for the first three months after birth."

This is thought to explain why babies are so cute, with their disproportionately large eyes gazing out from those little round faces."

10. We Erase and Reform Our Memories

Dr. Foster said: "This is my favorite one. We imagine that when we remember an event or something in the past, it is like playing a recorded file in a computer.

"But actually our brain re-writes the memory each time we think of it, slowly altering it or twisting it over time.

"Therefore, the childhood memories we cherish may have actually been distorted by our brains over many years."

11. You're Taller in the Morning

Dr. Foster said: "If you ever look in the mirror in the morning, your stomach is flatter, and clothes then to hang better.

"Due to gravity, over the daytime our cartilage compresses to make us slightly shorter and our organs tend to settle."

12. You Can't Breathe and Swallow Simultaneously

Dr. Foster said: "This may sound obvious but is actually a deliberate evolutionary protective process that stops you accidentally aspirating/choking on your own food or even spit.

"It also works as a way of suppressing a chronic tickly cough. Just swallow and you can't cough either."

13. Every Second, You Produce 25 million Cells

Dr. Foster said: "Every new cell is reproduced from the template of our DNA.

"As we get older it is therefore not surprising that this DNA template gets worn away and errors occur.

"We then age—until we can keep the template perfect, it will always happen."