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Ieva Pečiulytė

These 77 Weird Body Quirks Prove That The Human Body Is Fascinating

Human Body Reddit Threads Brain

There’s no denying how impressive the human body is. It can be incredibly strong, capable of pulling off amazing feats at the Olympics. It can also endure all kinds of conditions, from scorching summers to freezing winters. And that is without even getting into everything the brain can do.

At the same time, it can also be pretty strange. So when people on Reddit and Threads were asked to share the weird things their bodies do, plenty of them had stories to tell. We’ve rounded up some of the most interesting replies below. Scroll down to read them and upvote your favorites!

#1

Sometimes I can't find my itch for a while. Like, I'll think it's my leg that itches, but after scratching my whole leg I still can't find it, and then I figure out that the itch was on like the back of my neck the whole time.

#2

Sometimes I just feel random sharp pains, at random times, on a random place of my body. Usually they only last a second, but sometimes I need to rub the area to get it to stop.

#3

Right as I'm drifting off to sleep and I'm in that in between state, I'll sometimes get auditory hallucinations. I may hear someone talking or a door open or something specific. It'll be very realistic, and I'm not quite asleep yet, but it's all in my head.

#4

I swear I can smell sickness on people. My husband smelled funny and I kept telling him to go to the dr he went they ran tests, and ultrasounds and said his prostate was enlarged no big deal. I kept nagging him and he ignored it. Christmas Day 2021 he came down with a 104 fever and we rushed him the hospital. Within 2 week he was diagnosed with stage 4 terminal metastatic kidney cancer. I also, can smell it on animals.

#5

I can vomit at will. No pain, no fingers in my mouth. I can just regurgitate quickly and easily if I wanted to. I have no idea why. Could do it from a young age and still can in my mid twenties.

#6

When I yawn sometimes air escapes my throat and makes a weird noise. I got made fun of in high school for it.

#7

Sometimes if I wake up out of a super, super deep sleep . . . I lose all information and it's terrifying. I don't know where I am, who I am, nothing. It only last a few seconds but it's indescribable fear.

Thankfully, it hasn't happened in a while.

#8

I get flashbacks of embarrassing or traumatic events and memories and I absolutely have to do something physical to get them out of my head, either in the form of a twitch or a verbal outburst of some kind. I'm 30 and actually quite surprised no one has noticed yet. I have almost been caught a few times but usually play it off quite well.

#9

Every 36-48 hours i need to peel the top dead skin layer off my lips. No matter what i do, drink water, moisturize, my lips always go to that point that the top layer is dry and crumbly, and it will look nasty if i don’t peel it. And no my lips don’t bleed, they’re perfect once the dead skin is off.
It’s kinda satisfying but at the same time i hate it and wish i had normal lips.

#10

Frequently when I scratch a tiny bump on my skin I will feel it somewhere else on my body. It’s a sharp feeling, just like I scratched a bump somewhere else.

ETA: Guys, I’m 51 and have never told anyone about this, but just looked it up…and there’s a German word for this (of course there is), mitempfindung. Referred itch in English. My nerves are just being wonky and I’m not crazy after all.

#11

I can hear electricity. like a high pitched buzzing, or tinnitus, but it’s not tinnitus because it stops when i unplug.

#12

Sometimes it feels like my rib slips out of place. Very painful, but goes away if I wiggle around a bit.

#13

I hear music in white noise. Like full-on compositions -- It's usually big band or classical, but I also hear jazz and rock. I can pick out the specific instruments, and it's definitely compositions I have never heard before.

#14

I have an eyelash that grows about an inch below my right eye. It only started appearing in 2018. Pretty sure that's my absorbed twin finally breaking through. I pluck him every few months to make sure he knows who's boss in this body.

#15

If I scratch the area right above my booty crack, it immediately gives me the sensation that I have to pee.

I recently told my wife about it, we've been together for 11 years now.

Our 6 year old son literally told us out loud a few weeks ago: "If I scratch the top of my bum it makes me have to go pee!"

My wife and I laughed and I told my son, "Me too!" We laughed even more.

#16

Every morning about 1 minute before i get the urge to poo, I feel the gas in my lower abdomen move and it is excruciating pain for about 20 seconds. I have no clue why it hurts so much but it’s how I know I’m going to need to poo. The poops are always normal.

#17

If I am really hungry, I'll get nauseous all of a sudden, and then I'll end up sneezing. After I sneeze I feel normal again.

#18

I can't lie down on my left-hand side, it feels like all my organs are being crushed. Totally fine on my right side.

It's not a secret, I've just never thought to bring it up with anyone. Is it just me?

#19

Oh also—I can ‘detect mold’ in an old house/building in about 30 seconds bc I’ll get a sudden, RELENTLESS tickle in the back of my throat and start coughing (or else driving myself nuts trying NOT to cough..like eyes watering wildly, using all the self control I have to try NOT to start the coughing fit).

As soon as I get outside in fresh air, it immediately calms & stops.

And I HAVE told people about it in the past, but every single time they’re so darn indignant that their 140 year old cottage in the woods in the Northeast DeFiNiTeLy dOeSn’T hAvE mOLd that I’ve simply stopped telling people and just say I’m having a weird allergy attack.

#20

I can feel people moving around a room even if I can’t see or hear them. I never understood why Marco Polo was a hard game as a kid.

#21

Sometimes I’ll randomly get really shaky and dizzy but it usually goes away after a bit.

#22

After I chug a bunch of water if i shake my body I can hear the water sloshing around in my stomach.

#23

I get really bad panic attacks and it causes my entire body to get tingly and eventually lock up. my hands look like crab claws.

#24

I have a pancreatic insufficiency. It’s annoying but basically the crux of it is, I just have to take enzyme pills with every meal to help my body break down fat. Anyway, since I developed this issue, a side effect is that I get very gassy after I eat certain foods. I’m talking like, bodaciously loud farts. So I’m constantly having to find ways to excuse myself at work or at home in order to avoid subjecting my family, friends and coworkers to the symphony of tubas after I eat. It’a been like 3 years and even my wife has no clue. The kids know though. I don’t have to hide it from them…they think it’s funny.

They’ll be like, “OMG dad you fart so much…daddy farts so loud.” My wife always leaps to my defense like, “kids be nice yo your dad. I’ve known him 25 years and I’ve heard him fart like 5 times. Stop making things up.” It’s because I spare you honey. The kids aren’t making it up. The tuba concert….it exists, you just don’t have a ticket to the show.

#25

In the morning I can’t clench my fists? they really hurt if i try but it’s been like that for years, whenever I ask people they always say that has never happened to them….

#26

Derealization. I have many moments of feeling like I'm in a waking dream. It's hard to explain but my doctor told me that's what it's called.

#27

Drinking certain fizzy drinks too fast (Dr Pepper is def the worst offender) gives me a pain towards the top of my right shoulder.

#28

If I’m around someone with a cold or flu, I can normally tell in 30 minutes if I’m going to get sick or not. I know it’s coming before there are any signs. Weird.

#29

I make facial expressions while having fake arguments or scenarios in my head. I’ll be walking down the street looking like I’m winning a Nobel Prize or having a breakdown, but it’s all just happening in my mind. I hope no one ever catches me.

#30

I see a lot of people mentioning random sharp pains. I used to have random, sharp, lingering pains in my abdomen that would last several minutes at a time. I never mentioned it to doctors. Except - I have an explanation.

One day I bent over to pick up my dog's poo in the morning and started feeling unwell, but okay enough for work. That stabbing lingering pain, but a bit more than normal, and some nausea. Pain on my right side, this time.

Went to work, was there an hour then I felt bad enough to go home. Told my boss, packed up my laptop, while walking out, thought, "I should go to an urgent care, not home." Got to my car, and it had escalated to "Oh no. This is ER-level." Got into my car, and "Oh no. I can't drive myself." Called a coworker who drove me to the ER, and I have *never* been through an ER so fast. Sudden abdominal pain on the right side so bad the patient is sobbing at intake just from pain + nausea? They thought my appendix burst, and so did I. Then, CT showed a massive 5cm x 7cm tumor in my liver that had filled with blood and was pressed against my diaphragm, every inhalation was pain.

They sent me home with opiates since the bleeding had stopped at that point, told me to get an MRI later. Got one a month later, and found out my liver has 30+ similar tumors in it, any of which could burst and fill with blood. It's called hepatic adenomatosis, and a rare side effect of the birth control I'd been on since age 12. The random, lingering stabbing pains were almost definitely smaller, better placed tumors bursting. I haven't felt them since going off that BC, and my regular MRIs to monitor the tumors said they shrank. So...maybe be careful about those random pains. Mention them to your doctor. Maybe it's nothing, but maybe it is something.

Edit: everyone keeps asking, I was specifically on Daysee (I think the name changed a few times, the one that only gives you a placebo every 3 months). However, this side effect is caused by *any* estrogen-containing birth control pill, so like almost all of them. But, it is very rare.

#31

If I eat a heavy meal I need to be near a toilet for like 30-90 minutes because at some point in that window I will have an urge to poo that needs to be resolved within about 10 seconds of it arising.

#32

Sometimes I get cramps around my heart. It hurts and I just hold still till they pass. It’s been happening off and on as long as I can remember.

#33

My right knee feels very weird, like almost like I hurt myself

But there's no pain and I can walk and do everything normally

I don't have insurance so all is well.

#34

I cry when I poo. Not because it hurts, it’s like when you yawn.

#35

Sometimes when I yawn or open my mouth in some specific way, saliva squirts out from under my tongue. It's random and I can't control it.

#36

If i eat too much protein, my whole body gets a slight achiness for an hour or so.

#37

I have endo and can feel the exact moment I begin ovulating. There’s a “bursting” feeling from either my left or right ovary. That side thats released an egg is sore for about 12 hours, then it goes away. I write down which side releases an egg every month for funsies.

#38

I've told people but yet to find someone who experiences something similar or has a proper explanation.
Sometimes my mind just goes into this state where it seems like everything is happening at 3x the speed. Like... I'm experiencing things at a faster rate. If I focus on it, it stays longer, if I focus away, it goes in about 10 mins. It's harmless, doesn't seem to be dangerous experience-wise, but surely very different.

#39

Occasionally, while drifting off to sleep, I experience a sensation of free-falling. This results in involuntary limb movements where I strike out in all directions. I have inadvertently hit partners and my children quite forcefully because of this

It's called hypnic jerks, and it's quite intense.

#40

A few things.

Sometimes when I take my first bite of food in the morning or after not having eaten for a while, my mouth and jaw kind of hurt? My guess is that I'm feeling the saliva come out and it hurts for whatever reason?

Also, when I'm about to cry or my eyes are about to water, I smell a smell that I can only describe as "hospital smell".

I'm autistic and have some interesting sensory quirks (I can hear my phone charging and some radio signals) but I've never quite understood those two things.

#41

With the cost of medical visits in the US, there’s a list of things my body does that I haven’t told anybody and likely never will.

#42

When I get overstimulated visually and audibly or am way overtired — I start seeing as though everything is moving in slow motion. I don’t even know how to describe it properly. As if a strobe light is constantly going and life isn’t moving at the proper speed.
It’s very weird.

#43

If I eat/drink anything sweet with alcohol, especially sweet drinks like Smirnoff Ice, I get a radiating pain that starts at my mid back and up to my neck and jaw. Can put me on the ground for an hour or two.

#44

Not something ive never told anyone else before but something i havent seen in anyone else before: ice cream makes me cough SO BAD. not sure if it's genetic but my great grandmother had the same issue, she had a crazy sweet tooth and would occasionally stand over the freezer sneaking a couple spoonfuls and whenever my great grandfather would hear a muffled cough coming from the kitchen he'd yell "get out of that icecream!" (affectionately of course) i think of her every time i get cough attacks trying to have a milkshake lmao.

#45

#46

#47

#48

#49

If I squeeze my bum cheeks together real hard I can crack my tail bone.

#50

Randomly and rarely, when I start drifting to sleep, I’ll get a full body twitch so strong that I fear I’m having a seizure. Like an arm that’s resting at my side could fly up over my head.

When I was younger I often felt the ‘falling’ part of falling asleep, sometimes a leg kick here and there, but never something as intense as this.

#51

I get exhausted and genuinely need to lay down, been to the doctors blood tests all the stuff, everything comes back normal, I have no idea what it is, I’m not overweight and I work out but never over workout I know what I’m doing on that front and I look around at other people similar ages and I just don’t get it, even people older than me by 15-20 years don’t get tired like I do. I absolutely know something is up because it makes no sense to crash like I do but I just don’t know what it is.

#52

I'm a habitual joint cracker. Fingers, wrists, ankles, back, toes, neck, shoulders. I cracked my neck like a year and a half ago and I suddenly got really hot and tunnel visiony and ever since then, every time I turn my head to either side, like to look around, the base of my skull crackles a little bit.

I refuse to say anything because I just got a GP for the first time in nearly a decade and have already spent several grand in copays and stuff to investigate every other problem and now have several outstanding bills and zero answers for anything.

#53

I have partial seizures while at work, doing customer service and no one knows.

#54

When I have really bad period pains I can feel the pain travel down into my legs and feet. I guess it's nerve related?

Same during labour. That's how I knew labour was starting. Feet are tingling now just thinking about it.

#55

Earwax just drops out of my ears randomly, I could have cleaned them 10 minutes before but it still jumps.

#56

When I see someone get injured I feel it, usually in the back of my legs, like a little jolt of discomfort. It’s very quick, not painful, just a weird uneasiness.

#57

Sometimes I can hear my own eyeballs moving when the room is completely silent. It’s the weirdest squelching sound.

#58

I can crack my fingers anytime. My knuckles ones every few hours, but my fingers I can do anytime.

#59

I sometimes get something like an electric current go through my body, from my head down. It only seems to happened when I’m poorly.

#60

When I was younger than I am today I had a tendency to consume various street elixirs typically in powder form....these ...uh.... white lines would keep me up, sometimes for days.

during my longest stretch I knew I'd been up for over 100 hours. and since I had not been drinking much water i became extremely dehydrated.

like... extremely

so extreme was my dehydration that my ball sack hardened and became 'shell like'....a shell that eventually cracked and then peeled off like One of those nuts Marlon Brando peels and eats in Apocalypse now... near the end.

it was, as they say, quite the experience.

I'm not in the game anymore, and there's never happened to me again. however, since no one I've ever known has described quite such an experience I feel my physical response was somewhat unique. who knows?

life is strange.

#61

I have hidradentitis suppurativa. It’s embarrassing and hard to explain to people. So many people think it’s something else entirely and it’s been embarrassing to deal with. Lots of scarring and deep pitting around my arm pits, groin area and buttocks. It’s not pretty at all.

#62

I can’t burp. My mom swears I burped as a baby, but at some point I stopped because even as a kid I would get so uncomfortable after drinking soda or eating certain foods.
I didn’t even realize it was a whole thing until I was an adult and found a name for the condition on reddit of all places. My doctors never understand it.

#63

Sometimes if I haven’t eaten for a full day or more, when I finally eat something the roof of my mouth aches like hell, like a really bad muscle cramp on the roof of my mouth. But it also feels sensitive to touch. It’s like my mouth is freaking out that there’s food in it lol.

#64

#65

#66

#67

#68

#69

#70

#71

#72

#73

#74

#75

#76

Sometimes as i’m just standing somewhere i can feel my ears draining. like a fluttering wet noise. then it goes away. happens probably twice a week.

#77

When I’m cold, my heart shivers. Feels like it’s rattling around in my ribcage. No idea if this is normal or not

Also about 20 min after I eat a beyond burger, my hair starts to smell like burgers. Just my hair. And it’s pretty long so idk how tf

Lastly I can’t crack my knuckles, but I can crack my toes on command.

My body made a whole baby AFTER I had both of my fallopian tubes REMOVED. The same doctor who did the bilateral salpingectomy, also delivered the subsequent baby via c section, so he verified that they hadn't grown back, and there wasn't any obvious failure of the surgery. Pretty wild!When I drink really cold drinks (think slushy or slurpee) it will sometimes trigger a vasovagal syncope where my heart actually stops and I pass out. Heart monitor showed a pause of 13 seconds during one of these episodes.One of my daughters saliva is so acidic that it ate through her braces. We moved and I told the new orthodontist this and he rolled his eyes and said that wasn’t possible. A few weeks later he learned that it was. They had to use a special gage wire.I had perimenopause at age 24 and now I’m 31 postmenopausal and I haven’t had a period in 7 years and my doctors still doesn’t know why or how. On top of that, I’ve had a lot chronic pain for years and auto immune issues with no official diagnosis. So fun.I have fibromyalgia. The medical definition is practically pain no one can explain!Every single time I brush my teeth, my right nostril runs. Every. Single.Time.The most interesting is that after a partial nephrectomy (~75%), my kidney grew BACK. Not hypertrophy, regeneration. I was young so it was likely very lucky timing.When I blow my nose, sometimes it comes out of my right eye. I mentioned it once to my ENT and he said “huh, that’s weird” and moved on.My allergist laughed at me because he was surprised I was alive. It been 20 years and he’s still my doctor.When I pee I cry. It’s not painful and it’s fully involuntary. Google said the nerves in my brain grew too close together so when I pee sometimes the signal gets confused and makes me cryMy daughter used to have chronic hiccups. To make them stop immediately we found out if she held non carbonated liquid in her mouth and tilted her head back, to let the liquid slide down!(avoid swallowing until you absolutely have to) it works every time.I couldn’t burp my entire life until I had my first child. No one believed me.Lipidema. No cause, no cure, no knowledge sometimes so I get shamed for not hating myself enough to make it go away. It's delightful.My daily heart rhythm is such that when any doctor other than a Cardiologist sees my EKG, they think I’m actively having an heart attack and rush me to the ER. It is a TOTAL PITA. Desaturates at altitude for no reason my whole life, even though I was born in a state that has higher altitudes naturally.I get a sinus infection every 90 days like clockwork. But apparently I’m not allergic to anything according to the tests.

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