While there’s no denying the tons of progress humans have made in the fields of medicine and health, there are still many things that remain a mystery. Recently, Redditor u/Immediate_Hair_3393 asked the doctors of the Reddit community to share the things we still don’t know about the human body, and it’s incredibly insightful. Here are some of the responses that might just make your jaw drop in wonder:
1.“I’m a derm. We don’t exactly know what causes itching, like the molecular pathways for it. That’s why it can be so hard to find a good treatment when a patient comes in for itchy skin.”
Person in a white shirt scratching their irritated and inflamed elbow skin, possibly due to a skin condition
—criduchat1-
2.“I’m an anesthesiologist. We still don’t really know why inhaled volatile anesthetics like sevoflurane, the principal anesthetic agent used to maintain general anesthesia, work. We kind of have an idea of maybe how it happens, but we really don’t know. It’s commonly said in my field that whoever figures this out will win the next Nobel Prize in medicine.”
—SignificanceMost8826
3.“The gut microbiome. While it’s well-known that the gut plays a huge role in digestion, researchers are discovering just how much our gut bacteria affect other parts of our health, like mood, immunity, and even brain function.”
—VictoriaFaith14
4.“We haven’t figured out autoimmune diseases (e.g., MS, lupus). We know that for whatever reason, something flips a switch in people. We just haven’t fully figured it out yet.”
—lemonbiatch
5.“Doctor here. Psychiatry is still shockingly infantile in our understanding of human disorders. It’s constantly in a state of flux; we don’t understand a lot about the meds we currently use, and the diagnostic criteria for disorders still change as we realize, ‘Hey, maybe all these behaviors aren’t the same source disorder.’ It’s incredibly hard to diagnose when the criteria is largely based on self-report and subjective observations.”
Group of medical professionals in lab coats analyze brain scans on multiple monitors in a research lab setting
—YoungSerious
6.“We don’t know why, but one of the few ABSOLUTES in medical science is that nobody born blind has ever developed schizophrenia.”
—beboleche
7.“For many medicines, it’s unclear how they work, or even if they do work. For example, look at the actual efficacy trails of name-brand antidepressants. When you look at them in aggregate, they look like they barely work. Yet, basically, everybody knows somebody whose life was saved by a specific antidepressant.”
—DowntownBugSoup
8.“Why our brain doesn’t use its stem cells to heal itself.”
—P-L63
9.“One of the most frustrating but not-so-secret things in medicine is that racial differences exist, and they can’t be discussed in today’s climate. There are differences in drug efficacy, growth, disease, susceptibility, immunity, and just about everything. It’s preventing personalized treatments. AI can now pretty accurately guess someone’s race and sex from a single-view chest X-ray, so things may change. People always think of this as negative, but in reality, it should be approached like family history being super relevant for cancer or heart disease surveillance.”
—raka_defocus
10.“We don’t know the precise mechanism by which B12 deficiency causes nerve damage. We know that it happens, but not why. “
A healthcare professional prepares to draw blood from a seated person, using a tourniquet and syringe in a medical setting
—Yglorba
11.“I have a very niche answer: we still don’t know what is supposed to naturally bind to the area that benzodiazepines work at. Benzodiazepines (BZD) are medications like Xanax and Valium. They produce anti-anxiety effects and have a very distinct chemical shape that fits into the BZD site in a group of five proteins. But we don’t know what is supposed to go there. Many medications are analogs of naturally-binding molecules that we copy and then use to create an effect. The BZD site is for something — we just don’t know what.”
—Mrzahn
12.“The role of our DNA. We’ve sequences the human genome, but a large part of it remains unexplained.”
—BellaSmiless7
13.“We don’t fully understand the omentum’s function. For years, it was thought to just be connective tissues in the gut, but now, we’ve learned it’s a whole organ affecting the gut-brain axis that we have very little understanding of.”
—Angiebio
14.“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
15.“We don’t know much about women’s bodies. Historically, the research and testing has been done on male bodies, always keeping men in mind.”
A medical professional assists a patient into an MRI machine, ensuring comfort and care during the scan
—StewartConan
16.“We apparently don’t precisely know 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
17.“OB-GYN here. 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
18.“I’m a sleep specialist. While we do have some good theories about some of the functions of REM and how it affects the brain and health, we still don’t fully understand the purpose of dreaming. Like, why do we dream at all, and why do dreams have a narrative instead of random incomprehensible imagery? Unfortunately, this is unlikely to be solved.”
Person peacefully sleeping on a pillow, wrapped in soft bedding, conveying a serene and restful atmosphere
—3Magic_Beans
19.“There’s still a lot unknown about hunger and satiation. Nobody really knows what causes eating disorders, especially anorexia. It’s scary how much hunger cues impact all of us.”
—scarmbledeggs
20.“Right now, we are working on the connection between our intestinal microbiome and neuropsychiatric disease with brain aging. For instance, people with inflammatory bowel disease are more likely to develop dementia and experience co-morbid anxiety and depression, but we don’t know why.”
—uncle-chewie
21.“What kind of ramifications menopause really has on the female body.”
A woman sits on a doctor’s examination table, engaged in conversation with a doctor holding a tablet in a medical office
—FedUp0000
22.“We still don’t know much about the mechanisms of schizophrenia or bipolar. We know some things about them, but a lot is very confusing.”
—ishka_uisce
23.Lastly: “Cellular memory. Humans have already discovered that memories are not only stored in the brain. I wonder how we can use this to cure actual existences.”
—bluire
I don’t know about you guys, but my mind is blown, and now I can’t stop thinking about all of the things we simply don’t understand. If you’re a health professional, what are some things we actually *don’t* know about the human body? Let us know in the comments, or you can anonymously share your knowledge using this form!
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
