Human Body

While many diseases and conditions such as influenza or psoriasis come with obvious symptoms, plenty come with seemingly innocent&nbsp;warning signs people end up wishing they hadn&#39;t ignored. No one wants to live life as a hypochondriac, which&nbsp;means people sometimes&nbsp;ignore symptoms they don&#39;t think are&nbsp;life-threatening. <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/horrible-rare-genetic-diseases/eric-vega" target="_blank">And particularly rare diseases</a> can come without warning, making it difficult for a person to know they&#39;re in danger during the early stages.

To help others not make the same mistakes, Redditors came together to share health issues they&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8eagsm/redditors_who_have_had_major_health_issues_what/?sort=top" target="_blank">should have looked into sooner</a>. Unfortunately, a lot of these symptoms simply resembled other <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/medical-conditions-everyone-has/laura-allan" target="_blank">conditions basically everyone has</a>&nbsp;or were misdiagnosed as something else. Either way, these neglected symptoms ended up demonstrating how important it is to pay&nbsp;attention to changes in your body. You may find your body just needs <a href="http://www.anrdoezrs.net/a866biroiq5A76687F576A97AAA" target="_blank">vitamins and supplements</a>, but it could be something more serious.

(Comments have been edited lightly for clarity.)

People With Major Health Issues Share The Warning Signs They Wish They Hadn't Ignored

General

Mick Jacobs

Lists about the pre-historic, ancient, medieval, olden, and not-that-long-ago days of medicine, when doctors made bizarre assumptions and prescribed totally insane treatments that made sense at the time...

We Didn't Know Any Better

Interesting

Throughout the history of medicine, there have been few&nbsp;surgical practices more barbaric and cruel&nbsp;yet sometimes surprisingly&nbsp;helpful than&nbsp;the <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/lobotomy1.htm" target="_blank">lobotomy</a>. Famous lobotomy patients range from children of politicians and English lords&nbsp;to singers who were on their way to stardom before finding themselves waylaid by mental illness. The personality, memory, and IQ of lobotomy patients before and after surgery varies wildly, and doctors were not able to fully understand what was happening and why. These true stories about lobotomy patients are at times emotionally draining, but a few of them also reveal an unexpected beacon of light.

When you think about the worst things that happened to lobotomy patients, it&rsquo;s hard to decide which nightmare scenario is worse. When it comes to reading true stories&nbsp;about people that received a lobotomy, it&#39;s a bit like playing a twisted game of &quot;would you rather?&quot;&nbsp;So, while you read this <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-collections-of-short-stories/ranker-books?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">collection of stories</a> about people who went under the knife to have their brains fiddled with, consider all of the possible outcomes of this strange and dangerous surgery.

12 Twisted Before & After Stories Of Lobotomy Victims

Person

12 Twisted Before & After Stories of Lobotomy Victims

Jacob Shelton

Lists of fascinating facts about the most dangerous creatures on Planet Earth.

Predators and Eating Machines

Animals

For a long time, primatologists thought chimpanzees were the nicer, gentler version of humankind. In reality, chimpanzees are violent, brutal and dangerous - much like humans.&nbsp;With more than 98 percent&nbsp;of our DNA matching, humans see many of our own societal traits and features reflected back&nbsp;through this sister species. Like humans, these <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/the-15-smartest-animals-on-earth/analise.dubner">extremely intelligent animals</a> exhibit brutal character traits and behavior that are&nbsp;similar to&nbsp;humans.&nbsp;There are many similarities between humans and chimpanzees, and some of the human things chimpanzees do are brutal. Scientists look to these creatures to try to decipher some of the roots of human behavior, like warfare and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mysterious-chimpanzee-behaviour-could-be-sacred-rituals-and-show-that-chimps-believe-in-god-a6911301.html">religion</a>. Chimps&nbsp;engage in long, protracted, bloody wars,&nbsp;they kill and consume infants,&nbsp;and they send out raiding parties in order to protect and maintain their territories. This list examines in detail some of the worst things&nbsp;chimpanzee do, from their propensity for baby slaughter to their likelihood of attacking humans when in captivity.

Ways Chimpanzees Are Just as Brutal (and Sometimes Even Moreso) as Humans

Animal/Plant

12 Ways Chimpanzees Are Just as Brutal as Humans

Ryleigh Nucilli

Interesting tidbits and things you should know about everything from the US Constitution to the modern banana industry.

Wow! That's Fascinating

Part of the fun of traveling is stuffing your face with the cuisines and treats of the locals. These lists rank the most delicious, must-try foods wherever you'll be.

Food Around the World

As anyone who has ever endured a stay in the surgery ward knows, there are plenty of reasons that hospital visits don&#39;t exactly qualify as destination vacations. Of course, there are always the upsides - like the big window you can peek through to see newborn babies, or the time off from work, or, you know, the pain-relieving&nbsp;pump. But what about the food? As you&#39;ll see in these photos of hospital food around the world, whether or not you get edible meals largely depends on where you stay.

Below you&rsquo;ll get a glimpse into the many different incarnations of hospital food in different countries, ranging from the good to the just plain wrong. Believe it or not, some of the food in hospitals in countries like Japan and Estonia actually looks pretty delicious. Getting your appendix removed might be your ticket to the best meal you&rsquo;ll eat all year.

...Unless you&#39;re in Penarth, UK. Or Poland. Or Hungary. At these unfortunate hospitals, you could be subjected to &quot;appetizing entrees&quot; like minced bologna or mystery meat that looks alarmingly like skinned rodent. So if you&rsquo;re curious to see which countries treat patients with culinary care, and which ones you really want to avoid, these hospital food pictures are for you.

Here's What Hospital Food Looks Like Around the World

City/Town

Ashley Reign

The podcasts you absolutely must download and/or stream and listen to during your commute, workouts, study breaks, and whenever.

Must-Hear Podcasts

Podcasts

Finding a short podcast under 30 minutes that fits perfectly into your commute or spare time can be difficult. This list of the best short podcasts with episodes that average under 30 minutes can help you get ahead of the news, learn a bit about your favorite things, or even <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/the-best-self-help-podcasts/dad-of-the-year" target="_blank">practice mindfulness</a> in half-hour episodes.

Even when a podcast has &quot;20&quot; or &quot;30&quot; in their title, they rarely live within that limit, some of them stretching well over an hour.&nbsp; 30 Minute Runner and 30 Minute Italian both keep perfectly under 30 minutes. The 20/20 Meditate For Peace podcast also stays under 20 minutes for the most part, but for a different reason - each 20 episode course of daily meditation begins with a one-minute meditation and adds a minute a day until it finishes with a 20-minute meditation. There&#39;s a lot you can learn in a half hour, from how a song came together with Song Exploder, cool language facts from The Allusionist, and even the state of the economy on Planet Money.

Thirty minutes is also plenty of time for fun and fiction. There are several podcasts that examine popular movies a minute at a time, such as the Die Hard Minute Podcast or the Tarantino Minute Podcast, and even several scripted and short story podcasts, including Alice Isn&#39;t Dead, The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian, and Getting On With James Urbaniak.

Even though once in a while these podcasts have an episode that slips a touch over the half-hour limit, the majority of their episodes come in comfortably under 30 minutes. Which of these short podcasts are the best? If we forgot a great short podcast, be sure to add it to the list!

The Best Podcasts With Episodes That Are 30 Minutes Or Less

The 40+ Best Podcasts That Are Under 30 Minutes Long

Ranker Podcast

Fun and horrifying facts many weird, gross, and excruciatingly painful things that can happen to you & your body in your final moments.

Terrible Ways to Go

Science

Thanks to some of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-horror-movies-about-airplanes/ranker-film">best horror movies about airplanes</a>&nbsp;and some horrifying <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-air-disaster-movies-list/all-genre-movies-lists" target="_blank">plane crash movies</a>, plummeting to your death in a fiery plane crash is a terrifying thought&nbsp;that crosses everybody&#39;s minds at one time or another. Here&#39;s a somewhat comforting statistic:&nbsp;the chances of being in a fatal crash are <a href="https://curiosity.com/topics/how-do-people-survive-plane-crashes-o53cN3Xy/">one in eleven million</a>. Plus,&nbsp;the&nbsp;majority of plane crash victims survive.&nbsp;In fact, over 95% of people who crash on a plane make it out alive.

The next time your aircraft shakes you senseless, remember the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/what-causes-airplane-turbulence/kellen-perry">facts about air turbulence</a> that will calm you down and recall&nbsp;that plane crashes mostly happen to older, poorly-made&nbsp;aircrafts.&nbsp;But on the (slim) off-chance that your plane crashes in a horrific manner that kills you, what happens to your body? Well, if you&#39;re curious, buckle your seatbelts before reading ahead&nbsp;because it&#39;s going to be a bumpy ride.

What Happens To Your Body When You Die In A Plane Crash

Laura Allan

There are more than 8 million species walking, swimming, and flying around Planet Earth. Here are lists about a few worthy of your attention. 

Unbelievable Animals

History

Hidden deep underground are some of the rarest treasures in all of science. Formed from immense pressure over millions of years, fossils tell us the story of our long-lost ancestors and the strange creatures that populated their world. <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-fossils/alby-thompson" target="_blank">Bizarre fossil discoveries</a> are becoming more common as we develop new digging techniques and open our minds to the otherworldly phenomenon that is prehistoric life. Many of these insane fossils changed our understanding of the world forever, and we&#39;re still just beginning to understand the importance of these <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-state-fossils/mallory-weiler" target="_blank">bony artifacts</a>.

While dinosaurs are some of the most famous of all extinct species, not all of the strangest fossils ever discovered came from those lizards. Some of the most bizarre fossils came from creatures so alien, you have to see them to believe they&#39;re real. These are the last remnants of the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/the-top-10-oldest-living-things-on-earth/analise.dubner" target="_blank">oldest lifeforms on the planet</a>, preserved in time and rock for future generations to marvel at.

The Most Bizarre Fossils Ever Discovered

The 21 Most Bizarre Fossils Ever Discovered

Eric Luis

People have been living all around the world for literally thousands of years. Here are some of the most interesting things human beings have ever done (that we know about).

Fascinating Ancient History

Ancient History

Googling&nbsp;&quot;mysterious ancient discoveries&quot; or &quot;unexplained ancient inventions&quot; leads to dozens of sites listing artifacts supposedly so baffling the only possible answer could be aliens, time travel, the paranormal, the Iluminati, or aliens. Wait - did we already mention aliens? Sorry: they&#39;re a go-to explanation for anything apparently too sophisticated, weird, or &quot;out-of-place&quot; for &quot;humans figured it out, okay?&quot; to be a satisfying explanation.

It&#39;s a disheartening discovery, because once you separate the hoaxes and nonsense from the finds of actual archeological interest, there are still cool mysteries to explore. The list below features mysterious ancient inventions, unexplained ancient discoveries, and some slightly more recent finds still baffling to scientists in the 21st century - but not because they&#39;re a sign of alien tech. Give <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/oldest-known-civilization/jonathan-kantor" target="_blank">ancient humanity</a> a little more credit, y&#39;know?&nbsp; &nbsp;

10 Mysterious Ancient Inventions Science Still Can't Explain

Kellen Perry

The fascinating, sometimes tragic lives of identical twins joined in utero who beat the odds, survived infancy, and became people of interest around the world.

Conjoined for Life

Twins

Conjoined twins have long been the subject of great&nbsp;curiosity&nbsp;due in part&nbsp;to the rarity of the&nbsp;condition. Not to mention,&nbsp;many different ways exist&nbsp;for siblings to become <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/real-answers-to-questions-you_ve-always-had-about-conjoined-twins/katia-kleyman" target="_blank">anatomically connected</a> to one another.&nbsp;Fueled by that curiosity, a Soviet physiologist named Pyotr Anokhin&nbsp;- who&nbsp;studied&nbsp;the development and structure of human circulatory and nervous systems - made&nbsp;Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova&nbsp;the focus of many of his science experiments -&nbsp;experiments that were conducted&nbsp;for the majority&nbsp;of their lives.

These USSR-approved&nbsp;experiments on <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/conjoined-twins-daisy-and-violet-hilton-facts/nicky-benson" target="_blank">conjoined twins</a> subjected the sisters to torture, isolation, and a life greatly lacking in typical human interactions. Adding to the complexity of&nbsp;Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova&#39;s situation, the sisters had diametrically clashing personalities - one showing the traits of a psychopath and the other an empath.

One Was A Psychopath, One Was An Empath: Conjoined Twins Trapped In The Same Body

One Was A Psychopath, And One Was An Empath, But These Conjoined Twins Were Trapped In The Same Body

Jodi Smith

Did dinosaurs have feathers? Scales? Deep voices or shrill, piercing squawks? Australian accents? Sarcastic tones? Check out these lists about the many bird-like reptiles that roamed and ruled over Planet Earth between 66 and 230 million years ago.

Raaaarrr!!

Explainer

People have searched for the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-dinosaur-facts/alby-thompson" target="_blank">truth about dinosaurs</a> for centuries. While previous generations may have considered them dragon remnants or fossils placed into the ground by God to test humanity&#39;s faith, the real picture has become clearer with <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/crazy-weird-real-dinosaurs/eric-vega" target="_blank">each new dinosaur discovery</a>. Research has also&nbsp;illuminated the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/birds-are-just-dinosaurs/bruce-maisy" target="_blank">similarities between dinosaurs and birds</a>&nbsp;- namely, dinosaurs had feathers, among other bird-like traits.

Several of the most important questions, like learning how dinosaurs behaved or what they looked and sounded like, have ambiguous answers&nbsp;at best. Dino researchers have&nbsp;dug up fossils and examined them for generations, but now some question the validity of&nbsp;a few&nbsp;widely believed conclusions. This is happening across the field, with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/modern-archaeological-facts/zach-seemayer" target="_blank">new archaeological discoveries</a> constantly challenging our long-held notions about the ancient, and prehistoric, world.&nbsp;

Along with the discovery of many new dinosaur species, our knowledge about dinosaurs has completely changed. Check out the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/things-we-used-to-believe-about-dinosaurs/anna-lindwasser" target="_blank">most shocking&nbsp;facts&nbsp;about these giants</a>.

Here Are All The Craziest Dinosaur Facts That Have Been Discovered Since You Were In School

Stephan Roget

Lists about the beautiful, fascinating, sometimes terrifying features and living things that naturally developed on this spinning rock we all call home.

Our Amazing Planet Earth

Learning a few amazing facts about Earth can remind humanity how lucky we are to call this planet home. One of the biggest of these mind blowing things about Earth is the fact that it's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth" target="_blank">more than 4.5 billion years old</a>. Then about 3.8 billion years ago, single cell organisms were born. About 230 million years ago, dinosaurs roamed the earth until they died and were replaced by early humans about 200,000 years ago. That's a lot of history.Discovering things you didn't know about our planet can be an eye opening experience and could possibly bring about several <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/life-changing-realizations/candice-darden" target="_blank">life changing realizations that blow your mind</a>. Understanding exactly how Earth works and came to be has inspired people for years. However, many humans don't stop to think about the ground they stand on or the water they drink since life is just too busy. Take a minute out of your day to embrace these interesting facts about Earth. They just might blow your mind.

Mind-Blowing Facts About Planet Earth That Will Make You Question Everything

23 Mind-Blowing Facts About Planet Earth

Erin McCann

Biology

The human body is capable of amazing things. It can also be an absolute nightmare. The diseases, maladies, and even natural processes that can occur to us sound like they were scripted by someone looking to make a gross-out horror movie.

In a case of truth being stranger than fiction, real examples, real cases, and real symptoms are sometimes too strange to be believed. Getting sick and treating our illnesses is a part of life, but these items make clear that not all afflictions are even in the same ballpark.

Some of these names we may have heard before, but when we break down the nitty-gritty processes behind them, the squeamish may want to step aside. From before we&#39;re even born, to getting a burn on the beach, to having brains eaten by lake-dwelling amoebae, these are some not-so-fun facts we learned about our bodies, diseases, and maladies that maybe we should have left unknown.

Un-Fun Facts About Diseases, Maladies, And Our Bodies We Wish We Didn't Just Learn

Will Morgan

Medicine

Have you ever wondered exactly how we know what we do about medicine? Ever thought about what&nbsp;medical experiments people did to&nbsp;themselves to learn the things we take for granted today? Well, try as you might, history is here to prove that truth really is stranger than fiction, and life in the past could be a painful and horrifying experience for those striving to make significant medical advances. Kudos to the brave men and women who experimented on themselves to give us medical insights and treatments.

<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/horrifying-medical-procedures/amandasedlakhevener" target="_blank">Past medical treatments</a> were so terrifying&nbsp;that it makes sense that people would do anything to find better ones, including pursuing some &quot;miracle cures&quot; that proved far more harmful&mdash;like <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/quack-medical-devices-that-contained-radium/amandasedlakhevener" target="_blank">radium-laced everything</a>, which was all the rage at the turn of the 20th century&mdash;than they were helpful. Thankfully for the human race, not all these trailblazing experimenters used patients as guinea pigs;&nbsp;some of them went above and beyond, using their own bodies as living petri dishes and contracting self-inflicted medical conditions&nbsp;for the good of all humankind.&nbsp;

These People Did Shockingly Disgusting Things In The Name Of Medical Science

The Worst Things People Did To Themselves In The Name Of Medical Science:

Rhiannon Bruce

Lists about common mental illnesses and disorders and the many people around the world and throughout history who have lived with them.

A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

There are some cases that doctors just can&#39;t get to the bottom of, including&nbsp;strange psychological conditions that have stumped psychiatrists and psychologists for many years. From puzzling mental illnesses, like schizophrenia,&nbsp;to the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/bizarre-deaths-in-history/christopher-shultz" target="_blank">most bizarre demises</a>,&nbsp;doctors have faced cases so confounding that all they can do is throw their hands up.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The truth is, much is still unknown about medicine and the human body. There are so many complications when it comes to the brain alone. This list explores the strangest cases that patients have brought to&nbsp;psychiatrists and psychologists. It&#39;s not just regular people, either -&nbsp;even <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/famous-people-with-bipolar-disorder/celebrity-lists" target="_blank">celebrities suffer from&nbsp;bipolar disorder</a> and various mental conditions. Read on to discover cases that are serious head-scratchers.&nbsp;

15 Bizarre Psychological Cases From History That Left Scientists Speechless

15 Truly Bizarre Cases That Baffled Psychiatrists and Psychologists

Lea Rose Emery

Zombies are coming after your sweet, delicious brain meat.

Braaaaaaaaaains!

The modern-day zombie was formalized in 1968 upon the release of George Romero's seminal Night of the Living Dead. The film featured all the typical characteristics of these supernatural ghouls: reanimated, mindless, and shuffling human corpses who eat the flesh and organs of the living. While they are slow, they are vicious in their hunger, and when they amass into a horde, they will tear you to pieces.&nbsp;Often, a zombie apocalypse in films and literature signals the end of days.Since that time, we've seen numerous other variations on the same basic zombie characteristics. But in fact, the concept of a zombie predates Romero's film, specifically in the concept of a zombie in Haitian culture, which is effectively a person &quot;risen&quot; from the dead and brainwashed into a mindless automaton. While many insist these incidents are nothing but folklore, others insist such beings were successfully fashioned.&nbsp;Whether the Haitian zombies actually existed or not, there have been numerous cases of real zombies, though such incidents do not exactly involve things that have come back from the dead. Nature has given us both zombie ants and zombie spiders, and there have been several high-profile cases of people going berserk and feasting on the flesh of fellow humans for wholly unknown reasons. (And yes, some of them are examples of the &quot;living dead.&quot;) &nbsp;&nbsp;Let's take a look at 15 times there were zombies actually roaming (or simply occupying) the earth.

Real "Zombie Attacks" That Actually Happened

15 Real Instances of Actual Zombies 

Christopher Shultz

Lists about real men and women who have achieved everyone's childhood dreams to become astronauts, fly through outer space, and even walk on the freaking moon.

Men on the Moon

The Space Page

NASA is not lying to you about the Moon landings; the Apollo missions <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/how-the-moon-landing-changed-history/kellen-perry" target="_blank">really did land on the lunar surface</a>, and there is an abundance of proof out there for anyone interested in facts instead of fiction. While debunking Moon landing conspiracies could be a full-time job for those who know the facts, one can only marvel at the tenacity of conspiracy theorists&nbsp;in their endless quest to perpetuate the lie that NASA never landed on the Moon. Interestingly enough, the most significant piece of evidence to support NASA's claim isn't really evidence, per se; at least not in the physical sense so much as in good ol' everyday common sense.&nbsp;The single greatest proof that&nbsp;NASA's Apollo Mission landed on the Moon just as they claimed lies in the simple, undeniable fact that if it had&nbsp;been a hoax, there is no shortage of people out there who are qualified to expose the lie. Not only qualified, but extremely motivated to do so if doing so were possible in the first place. Do not forget,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/all-manned-apollo-missions/amylindorff" target="_blank">NASA accomplished this feat</a> during the height of the&nbsp;Space Race with the former Soviet Union, and nothing would have pleased the Communist State more than exposing <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/nixon-speech-for-moon-landing-failure/stephanroget" target="_blank">President Nixon</a> and&nbsp;the United States of America as frauds. They did not, simply because&nbsp;they could not. That in itself is&nbsp;pretty substantial evidence the Moon landing wasn't fake. But if you still need a little more convincing in the form of fact-based science, there's a wealth of that to go around as well.

Yes, We Really Landed On The Moon And Simple Science Debunks All The &quot;Evidence&quot; Of A Conspiracy

15 Simple Facts Debunking Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories

Jessika M. Thomas 

Science and Medicine lists at Ranker provide the best rankings of interesting scientific facts, topics, and cool science news voted on by 1000s of science fans.