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Scary facts have a way of sticking with you, long after you’ve read them. The world we live in is a mysterious place. It is filled with wonder, beauty, and greatness. At the same time, it’s equally filled with oddities, weirdness, and, sometimes, a lot of ugliness. If you’d like to dive deep into some of the unfortunate things you didn’t know about the world and everything that exists in it, read on. According to these message board users, these are the scariest facts you wish you didn’t know.
Consciousness While Receiving CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, commonly known as CPR, is an emergency procedure done for patients who stop breathing or whose hearts stop beating. This is done by doing chest compressions, often causing pain to the patient and sometimes leading to fractured ribs because of the force needed. Imagine the horror of waking up to this being done to you! Unfortunately, it does happen, albeit rarely. Patients who became conscious while receiving CPR remember feeling pain, but all’s well in the name of staying alive.
Brain-Eating Amoeba That Enters Through the Nose
You read that right. There really is a brain-eating amoeba that enters through the nose and swims up to your noggin, often leading to fatality. This single-celled organism is called Naegleria fowleri, and it is so tiny that you’ll only see it under a microscope. It is usually found in warm freshwater bodies, such as lakes and rivers, and also rarely in swimming pools that don’t have enough chlorine or aren’t maintained properly. You can even get it from the tap, so make sure your water is treated or purified!
Surgery Existed Before Anesthesia
We take a lot of things for granted in this world, and anesthesia is one of them. Can you imagine getting amputated or going into labor while being completely aware and feeling every jolt of pain? Well, that’s how people did it before the creation of anesthetics in 1846. Accounts from people who underwent operations before anesthesia wrote about excruciating pain and using alcohol or whiskey to dull their suffering. In fact, the metaphor “bite the bullet,” which refers to enduring pain silently, was inspired by this era’s method of having patients bite down on bullets to help them cope with the agony.
We Fight Potentially Cancerous Dna Errors All the Time
Cancer is the bane of everyone’s existence. This tragic disease has taken loved ones, friends, co-workers, and pets. However, it’s not just cancer patients with potential cancer cells. Did you know that our bodies fight DNA errors that can lead to cancer all the time? These potentially cancerous cells often repair themselves or go through apoptosis, a programmed cell death. As one comment aptly puts it, “We are all getting cancer all the time. It’s just that our immune systems keep curing it. Until they don’t.”
Bears Eat Their Prey Alive
As if there weren’t enough reasons to fear bears out in the wild, now we find out that they eat their prey alive, too. Bears will often pin down their victim and maul it; then, the bear will get right to feasting, regardless of whether the victim is dead or alive. Of course, bears aren’t the only animals known to do this. Whales, hyenas, and even some insects eat their prey alive. This is your friendly reminder to bring sprays, noisemakers, and a handy weapon when visiting a place with wild animals. Better safe than sorry!
Brain Aneurysms Can Happen to Anyone at Any Time
Brain aneurysms, which is when a weakened blood vessel bulges due to blood passing through it, is the cause of many unexpected deaths. Once a brain aneurysm ruptures and hemorrhages, it can cause brain damage and, eventually, death. This can all happen very quickly, and often, the symptoms are too quick to catch or even non-existent, but here are some signs that you or a loved one might need to visit the ER as soon as possible: an unbearable headache, stiff neck, nausea or vomiting, and light sensitivity.
Humsters
A humster is when human DNA successfully fertilizes a hamster egg because the two are apparently compatible. While it sounds like a Frankenstein experiment gone wrong, creating humsters is quite useful in the scientific field. Though not widely accepted (yet?), this process assesses male fertility. Worry not, these humsters are usually destroyed, and even if left alone, they cannot grow into mature, fully grown humsters. Thank goodness.
Plastic Particles Are Everywhere
When you read that plastic particles are everywhere, they’re actually everywhere. They’re not just in the trash or the sea; they’re inside our bodies, too. According to Harvard Medicine Magazine, because microplastics are everywhere in our environment, we eat, breathe, and inhale them into our bodies, so much so that they are found in our saliva, blood, and even some organs. Technology to determine whether these microplastics can harm us is in the works, and there aren’t sufficient studies to decide this just yet.
Stone Man Disease
Stone man disease, officially known as fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) or Münchmeyer disease, gets its name from the nature of its progression in the human body. It is a rare disease where fibrous tissue such as muscles and tendons turns into bone tissue—the only disease of its kind. Caused by a mutation in the ACVR1 gene, symptoms or early signs include malformed toes, missing joints, or lumps. Unfortunately, there’s no cure for this yet, and the bones join together to form some sort of secondary skeleton.
Egyptian Corpses Were Turned Into Tea
There’s no lack of questionable practices from the olden days, and this is no exception. From the 12th century until the 18th century, give or take, Europeans would crush up mummies from Egyptian tombs brought back by voyagers. They believed consuming such could nurse ill patients back to health, whether they have a simple headache or the plague. However, when the number of Egyptian corpses being brought to Europe couldn’t keep up with the demand anymore, some scammers would use the corpses of peasants instead. The worst part? There’s no scientific evidence to back this up. You’re better off drinking your green tea!
Insects in Mass-Produced Food
If you’re eating while reading this, you might want to put your meal down. There’s no easy way to say this, but yes, there are insects in most of the mass-produced foods we consume. Before you reach for the phone to call the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), this information is actually from them. According to their website, the FDA has a maximum level of unavoidable defects in food, and experiments show that these defects include insects. As gross as it sounds, you don’t have to worry much since the FDA ensures that the number of foreign objects contaminating our food won’t be a hazard to our health.
Chainsaws Were Invented for Childbirth
Childbirth is hard enough in modern times, but it was even more difficult in a time before we had medical technology to help us out. Many practices from centuries ago are odd to us now. One tool that we primarily use for carpentry these days was created to aid doctors in childbirth—the chainsaw! The first ever chainsaw was invented by two Scottish doctors who thought fellow doctors could use a handy tool to help them cut the pelvic bone to make for a wide space for the baby to enter the world.
Prions Exist
As if brain aneurysms, nose-entering amoeba, and cancer aren’t enough to make us anxious about our health, we have to worry about prions, too. Prions, derived from the phrase proteinaceous infectious particle, are deformed proteins that can create a chain effect of deformed proteins in the body, causing degenerative diseases in humans and animals. You can get them from your genetics, but they’re also transmissible. Unfortunately, they are so stable that they’re resistant to the usual methods of disposal and containment.
Pacemakers Can Keep a Dead Person’s Heart Beating
“A magnet doesn’t deactivate a pacemaker. It just defaults it to an asynchronous mode. So yeah… Sometimes [the person’s] heart just continues beating when they are dead. For a long time. It’s quite awkward,” says one Reddit user. Pacemakers, which are devices that keep your heartbeat from becoming too slow, can indeed keep a dead person’s heart beating. Though some pacemakers can be deactivated, sometimes they stay in a dead person’s body and are left there to run out of battery.
Dogs’ Squeaky Toys Connect Them to Their Prey Drive
Ever wonder why your furry best friends love their squeaky toys so much? It could be because they provide a motivational boost. It could also be because it’s a noisy way to get your attention. Or it could be because they’re pretending it’s their prey. Yep, your little fur baby dressed in cute clothes and sleeping in a fluffy bed is descended from wolves; hence, they have the instinct to hunt for prey. At least getting them a squeaky toy means they won’t bring you back a terrified squirrels!
A Tick Can Make You Allergic to Red Meat
When we think about the effects of a tick bite, we usually think about rashes or an annoying, itchy lump on our skin. What makes the lone star tick, scientifically known as Amblyomma americanum, stand out is its ability to give its host a meat allergy. This tick is often found in the wooded areas of the United States and Mexico, and it can feed on a host for up to seven days, leaving the host with an anaphylaxis-triggering aversion to mammalian meat. So, if you love your steak and red wine dinners, you better hope you never come across this tick!
Disneyland Used Real Skeletons
Unsurprisingly, big enterprises occasionally cut corners and opt for cheaper alternatives whenever possible. That’s definitely what Disneyland was thinking when they bought real skeletons for their rides instead of fake skeletons. This information comes from former Disney producer Jason Surrell, who admits in his book that fake skeletons were too unconvincing, inaccessible, and expensive. Even more surprising, this isn’t the only case of productions using real skeletons since this is also observed in some horror movies. Perhaps the scarier fact is that real skeletons are so cheap.
Dinner-Plate-Sized Spiders
The scariest fact on this list for anyone who’s arachnophobic is that we share the Earth with spiders the size of dinner plates. There are many types of large spiders, including the Goliath birdeater and Giant huntsman spider, as well as different types of tarantula. Still, fear not, as most spiders are actually harmless and don’t bite unless provoked. As one Reddit user says, “Aussie here. I like them. They are completely harmless. And fuzzy! I’ll take 8 legs over 0 legs any day of the week. No legs, no good.”
Source: Reddit
