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Popular Science revealed some fascinating fun facts about the human skeleton, including:
- You start off as an infant with 300 bones, but after you’re done growing and your bones are done fusing, your adult skeleton will have only 206 bones.
- The humerus or upper arm bone starts as three or four separate pieces of cartilage and transforms into bone from the time after birth until puberty.
- The skull starts as 44 separate elements and a baby’s skull is one of the earliest bone areas to fully meld.
Speaking of fun facts, following are some more that may surprise you:
Healthy Huggers Facts:
Huggers are healthier!
Because hugging increases your levels of the “love hormone” oxytocin, a 20-second hug reduces the harmful physical effects of stress, including its impact on your blood pressure and heart rate.
A 10-second hug a day may fight infections, boost your immune system, ease depression and lessen fatigue.
The giver of a hug receives just as much benefit as the receiver. But before you start throwing your arms around strangers on the street (which might land you behind bars), realize that the healthiest hugs must come from someone you trust.
Wonder Watermelon Facts:
Watermelon contains more of the antioxidant lycopene than fresh tomatoes; 1 cup of watermelon has 1.5 times the lycopene as a raw tomato, so eat up!
Some watermelon varieties are yellow, which are sweeter than the red variety.
Watermelon is both a fruit and vegetable.
The rind is not only edible, it’s good for you —try putting it in a blender with some lime juice for a healthy, refreshing treat.
L-citrulline, an amino acid in watermelon, seems to protect against muscle pain and can lead to significant improvements in blood pressure and cardiac stress in obese study participants.
Watermelon was etched in hieroglyphics in Egypt close to 5,000 years ago, so apparently the first pharaoh also loved watermelon.
Ahh-Choo Facts
A sneeze starts with a tickle in the back of your nose and you know within seconds you’ll be sneezing, likely more than once.
Hard as you may try, you cannot keep your eyes open during a sneeze, but the old myth that your eyes may pop out if you don’t close your eyes while sneezing is not true.
Sneezing is an involuntary, explosive release of fluid and air from your lungs and nasal cavity, which may be nature’s way of “rebooting” your nose to protect your health.
Nearly one-quarter of the population is genetically prone to photic sneezing, or sneezing after initial exposure to bright light, thought to be the result of triggering the trigeminal nerve.
It’s important you don’t stop a sneeze as it can lead to a tear in your esophagus, ruptured eardrums or a ruptured brain aneurysm. Yikes! Sneeze, baby, sneeze!