People Reveal 12 Things We Still Don't Know About the Human Body, and Doctors Agree

For all the breakthroughs in medicine, our bodies still hold secrets that baffle even the most brilliant doctors. From the mystery of why labor begins to the enigma of why some people recover from trauma while others don’t—science is still searching for answers. Some of the biggest questions remain unanswered, proving that the human body is more complex than we ever imagined. Dive into these medical mysteries and see just how much we still don’t know!

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• Nobody born blind has ever developed schizophrenia. © beboleche / Reddit

• We apparently don't know precisely how our bodies can distinguish gas from poop. We have some ideas; we know there are a ton of nerve endings in the area, but the precise mechanism of our bodies telling our brains, "This is a fart; let loose," isn't really understood.
  What blows my mind is that it's distinct enough that we even pass gas while asleep. That difference must be wired DEEP! © BIGJFRIEDLI / Reddit

• Have you ever had a muscle knot? Well, apparently they’re undetectable by any test or machine, and medicine hasn’t yet figured out what’s going on in our bodies when we experience them. © beulahbeulah / Reddit

• In school, I learned that when in vitro fertilization was being pioneered, scientists were unable to create an embryo from the combination of sperm and egg. It wasn’t until they added female secretions that they were able to produce viable embryos, and they didn’t know what role those secretions played in the process. This was about 15 years ago. © harswv / Reddit

• "Unexplained Infertility"... is the actual name, of an actual diagnosis, given to my wife and me, because according to every test, based on what modern medical science knows about fertility, we're fine. We should be able to conceive, "All the numbers are right."
  We probably even would be able to conceive, either of us, with different partners. But no one knows why the two of us can't be together. And it happens to far more couples than anyone talks about. But the only diagnosis we all get is "unexplained infertility." © CarpeNivem / Reddit
  My closest childhood friend had this!!! But it wasn't the cancellation of pregnancy; it was the inability of her body to NOT reject the pregnancy. Her body attacked it like it was a bacterium. The baby could only fight so long and then just give up. © CarmenDeeJay / Reddit

• Allergy tests do not tell you what you are allergic to. A prick test can tell you what your skin is allergic to, and a blood test can tell you what your blood is allergic to, but there is no test that can tell you what your stomach (or your GI tract) is allergic to.
  You can do an elimination diet for an extended period to find some answers but, even then, it's not 100% conclusive if a particular food or group of foods causes inflammation or non-life-threatening allergic reactions. © dougc84 / Reddit

• I’m not a doctor, but when I found out I was having identical twins I started looking into the biological process that leads to identical twins, and it turns out nobody knows! There’s a lot of info on the type of identical twins you’ll get depending on when the zygote split (like whether a placenta is shared, if the sac is shared, or if they’re conjoined).
  But WHY??? There is also significant disagreement in the medical community on whether or not there’s a hereditary factor. © catsinbranches / Reddit

• We still don’t know exactly what makes labor start. We know all about the mechanics and physiology, but we don’t know what makes the average uterus say it’s “go time.” © _mcr / Reddit

• Yawns. Still guessing why that happens too. There are some theories, but that's the best we got. © YoungSerious / Reddit

• I'm a surgeon-scientist still in decades of training, but toward the end. I'm planning to subspecialize in trauma surgery and critical care, so that's where most of my interest is. Something I'm currently studying is understanding who lives and who dies after major trauma...
  Aka, why are some patients resilient and bounce back after trauma, while others never recover/die, even when it's the same injury pattern, severity of injury, age, comorbidities, etc. © Gold_Hearing85 / Reddit

• We still aren't exactly sure how anesthesia works. We just know it causes certain effects, and they are useful, so we use it. © YoungSerious / Reddit

• Had a pathologist tell me that the interesting part of his job wasn't finding out how someone died; it was seeing everything that can be wrong with someone—so many life-threatening or life-altering, horrible things that a person can have going on and still be alive.
  A good friend died of pneumonia (he was too busy at work, and couldn't afford to take time off), and he kept using OTC meds for the symptoms. He died unattended, so the coroner had to get involved; they did an autopsy. His body had cancer in three different places; he never stopped. © dr*****_ferret / Reddit

As we age, our bodies undergo countless transformations, some dramatic, others barely noticeable. One of the more unexpected changes? A subtle yet distinct scent often referred to as "old person smell."
Science has pinpointed some of the chemical culprits behind this phenomenon, but there’s still plenty we don’t fully understand. The good news? There are simple ways to stay feeling (and smelling) fresh at any age. Because while aging may be inevitable, embracing it with confidence is entirely in our hands.