10 Unusual human defense mechanisms

The human body - this is a very complex mix of many different systems, which, at times, very difficult for us to understand, or a full-fledged investigation. One of the main systems in my opinion, is that which protects our life with you from external threats, thus avoiding unwanted damage, injuries, and other not very pleasant consequences. Let's talk a little bit about some of the defense mechanisms that are involved in the human body.

11 photos + text source.





1. Yawning

How nice it is sometimes good to yawn in the morning at work. But why we yawn? The mechanism of yawning today investigated very poorly, but something scientists still managed to find out. One of the main reasons why people yawn, is overheating or overloading of the brain. If we are active, not only sleep, or enough sleep, experiencing psychological stress or stress - the body launches a special protective mechanism. Breathing in large amounts of air yawn, we slightly cool the brain through the upper palate, as well as reveal the airways, increasing the flow of oxygen into the blood and relaxes your muscles. In general, yawning is very useful for our body, so try to yawn as often as possible - it is nice and helpful.



2. Sneezing

Mechanism sneezing starts in the body at a time when in the nasal cavity accumulates too many allergens, germs, dust, or you just overdo with black pepper in the kitchen. At this point, the stimulation of nerve endings and special person sneezes, getting rid of all the excess that was in his nose and throat. What matters is that in front of you at this moment there was no one, and it is inconvenient to work, because the speed of exhaled air by sneezing reaches 160 kilometers per hour, and in one chihe average may contain more than 100 thousand of harmful bacteria. In other words, try to hide behind a handkerchief while sneezing, well, or at least hand - all the bacteria you certainly will not catch, but at least reduce their spread. If a person sneezes continuously for a long time, it may be that next to him is a strong allergen to which he alludes to the body, they say, find and emissions, and the whole apartment with their mucous secretions splattered. By the way, did you know that some people are allergic to sunlight? Imagine a man woke up in the morning and come to sneeze until sunset. Well, that is not found very often.



3. Sipping

Sipping - is also a kind of defense mechanism, although we almost completely controlled and stretch on their own. However, this process is very important for the normal functioning of our body. During stretching the body prepares to physical activities that await him during the day, warm up the muscles after a dream, restores blood circulation, improves mood, and so on. Scientists argue that stretching even improves your taste and tactile sensations, so until you reached out to breakfast even do not touch!



4. Hiccups

Hiccups - a kind of signal to the body that something is wrong with our digestive system. Of course, it encountered a hiccup and without any good reason, or as a consequence of a serious illness, but more often it is a sign that the body tells us: "Enough to eat!". When a person has hastily swallowing large chunks of food or overeating elementary - at this moment there is irritation of the vagus nerve, which is closely related to our stomach and diaphragm. In everything you need to know the measure and carefully chew food before swallowing it. Universal means of dealing with hiccups to this day does not exist. One helps the breath-holding, another - a glass of water, and the third - nothing helps. They just lie and humbly forward to when this is all over.



5. Myoclonic seizures

You know the feeling when you're lying in bed, you start to fall into a nice sleep envelops you, and at this very moment your whole body seemed to beat current. All the muscles in an instant reduced so much that you already throws on the bed, on which you will immediately wake up and look around helplessly in the dark. This phenomenon is also a part of the protective complex of our organism, and you called it "myoclonic jerks." The fact is that when you start to fall asleep, your breathing rate drops sharply, and the pulse is slowed down slightly, the muscles are relaxed, and together the similar condition your brain misinterprets as dying. That's why he sends the strongest impulse to save his master. You could say that the brain is trying to revive you with the built-in stun your body. Of course, after it becomes clear that you do not even die, the brain calms down a little bit and allows you to sleep normally. But you must admit, it's nice to know that he constantly monitors our security.



6. Swelling of the skin from moisture

I think all experienced from the water swollen fingertips and toes, after will lie in the bathroom longer than usual. Funny image obtained on the skin of children is especially amusing. It would seem that this may be useful in this phenomenon for our body? As researchers have found, swelling of the skin does not happen by accident. Our body feels faced with high humidity and where the humidity - it can be slippery. Therefore, the skin on our fingertips immediately begins to transform to enhance its grip on smooth surfaces. In other words, the body is doing everything that we did not slip on a wet floor and were able to catch their new "superpaltsami" for anything before falling and hit hard on something solid. Who said that we are not a little superhero after that?



7. Memory loss

Memory loss in some cases - is not the result of a meeting of the head with a heavy blunt object, but a very smart way to protect our fragile psyche of not the most pleasant memories. There are numerous cases in which victims of violence, different or natural disasters forgets about the most terrible moments. And, on the one hand, our body can in this figure. Why write to the permanent memory that does not bring a man no joy and good feeling? Better to permanently remove it from the internal drive and deliver a host of extra experience. By the way, do you know why after the adoption of a certain dose of alcohol, we stop to remember anything? When a person is much overdoing with alcohol and causes most of its motor function to the full disability, the body begins to seem that the body is exposed to a huge overload and multiple threats from the outside, which means it is unlikely that a person is experiencing its "best of times." Therefore, recording of memoirs simply shuts down to play it safe and do not let you in the morning to remember almost nothing. That torments then thought: 'What have I done this yesterday, today woke up in the attic among the pigeons, so even with the accordion in his hands? ".



8. Goosebumps

Funny pimples that occur on our skin at times when we are cold, or when we are extremely emotionally excited, too, are part of the defense complex of the body. First and foremost, their function - reduction of heat through the pores in our skin, due to which the body is much easier to keep warm in adverse climatic conditions. A second emotional reaction to the appearance of "goose bumps" has not been investigated to the end, but scientists suspect that all this has come to us from the distant past, from our prehistoric ancestors. While they may not have been so bald as we are now. Their bodies were covered with thick hair, and it was a sin not to use to their advantage. When the tiny muscles close to the hair bulb tense from any emotional outburst (and at that time often occurs naturally fear), they lift each hair in a vertical position. All this, in turn, leads to the fact that the hair on the body of our ancestors immediately fluffs, due to which they are visually became a little more and looked far more intimidating to their enemies (now this mechanism actively using domestic cats and many other mammals). Went millennium, evolution did not spare anyone. We are bald, and defense mechanism is preserved to this day. And when we are experiencing a particularly emotional moment - our body is trying to fluff the fur, which we almost gone. Because of this, we become like a strange perevozbuzhdёnnogo goose, not the majestic furry manul. It is a pity, it would be useful at times be a bit bigger and fluffier to impress someone.



9. Tears

In addition to the protective function of the mucous membrane, in contact with foreign bodies in the eye tears are also a tool of emotional defense. Scientists believe that in stressful situations, the body creates a new, very powerful center of irritation, which is designed to distract people from the pain that he experienced before. When a child is hit or cut myself, he barks his brain enhances a variety of body functions: breathing, movement, function of endocrine and exocrine. But the main outward sign that a person experiences physical or emotional pain, of course, are the tears. Increased slёzootdelenie to reduce arousal of the cerebral cortex caused by injury or cuts. And it happens because while crying tears fall even in the nasal cavity, where the richly irrigated mucous membrane and the shell, this, in turn, is full of receptors of the trigeminal and olfactory nerves that transmit signals directly to the brain, distracting him from the main source irritations, i.e. pain. So, when a person cries, it really kind of dulls the pain. Incidentally, in the mid-80s in the Soviet Union it held a special study, in which scientists have found that the wounds on animals heal much faster if the cause slёzootdelenie. But those animals, lacrimal gland were removed, the wounds healed much longer than usual. How can you not cry when it is so useful?



10. Additional sense

Despite the fact that more often we hear about the five senses, which is endowed with people these feelings are much more. List them all, I can hardly take it, because it is a subject for much more developed material, however a couple of examples I will still give. Imagine that in one hand you hold the glowing iron, and the other arm is brought close to its heated surface. You feel warm and you know that if you touch the iron now - you will experience pain, although none of your five senses, you can not tell that. You do not see the heat, do not hear it, do not feel its taste, do not touch it physically, do not feel its smell. Yet you feel warm and a potential threat to its security. This feeling is provided by the heat sensor located in your skin. And what a feeling helps us to feel the pain and realize that we hung upside down? Another very simple example: Try to close your eyes and touch your finger to the tip of the nose. You are not using any of its five basic senses. This feeling is called "proprioception" - it allows us to know exactly where our limbs and even parts of the body, through the knowledge of the size and shape of their bodies, as well as with the information support of the brain that monitors the status and position of each of our muscles in space. All these, and many other additional feelings are perhaps the main defense mechanism of the human body, which is almost every point in time does not allow us to be in trouble.

P.S. I hope my story about the mysterious and sometimes not entirely explicable humans fell to you to taste. I'm sure our readers sure there are medical professionals who in some ways correct me. I am always open to criticism and will gladly listen to all your comments. Of course, as part of his stuff I said is not everything, so if you can talk about other interesting defense mechanisms of the human body - please share this information with others. Personally, I would be very interested to hear about it. ©



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