Recently, Reddit user u/jo_exotic asked r/AskReddit, "What is a disturbing fact you wish you could unlearn?" Here are some of the most, well...utterly disturbing facts.
1. Parrots often bond with a keeper, from their perspective, as a lifelong romantic partner.
"If the person dies, or the parrot is displaced, they can go into massive depression and pluck out their own feathers."
2. It's possible to be allergic to your own blood.
"My biology teacher had a Q&A session before Christmas and one student asked if it's possible to be allergic to your own blood. Unfortunately, you can. Just imagine your own immune system destroying your red blood cells, constant hemorrhaging, and constantly feeling cold and out of breath."
3. There are corpses on Mount Everest that are now used as waypoints.
4. "Parmesan cheese and vomit contain butyric acid, which is responsible for the most distinct aspects of their smells."
5. There is a type of insomnia that will kill you.
"It's called fatal familial insomnia, or FFI. Life expectancy is around a year after onset."
6. Dogs like squeaky toys because they sound like prey crying out in pain.
7. Beaver anal glands secrete goo that's used to make vanilla flavoring.
8. Surgeons used to operate on infants without anesthesia, including open heart surgery.
"They have stopped this, but only in the 1980s."
9. "Every time you walk into a stinky public bathroom, you are inhaling tiny bits of strangers' poop."
10. Every single fig has had at least one wasp die inside it.
"These are known as fig wasps. Fig wasps are necessary for pollination, nutrients, and wasp power."
11. There is a phenomenon known as “stone baby” where a fetus dies and doesn’t get absorbed by the body.
"Instead, the fetus calcifies inside the mother’s abdomen. People have been known to carry around these mummified fetuses for 40 years, totally unaware."
12. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, allegedly lost her virginity right on her mother's grave.
13. We consume about five grams of microplastics every week.
"This is roughly the equivalent to eating an entire credit card."
14. Nosebleeds can bleed out of your eye sockets.
"Since the eyes and nose are connected, blood from a nose bleed can travel to your tear ducts and start draining from there."
15. There are fish that live inside sea cucumbers' buttholes.
16. If you have an intestinal blockage, you can burp up farts.
"It's called feculent vomiting, and it's basically just throwing up your own poop."
17. And lastly, George Washington had a set of dentures that were most likely made from the teeth of enslaved people, not wood.
Reddit answers have been edited for length and/or clarity.