What Happens If Our Internal Organs Get Rearranged?

Tomato_On_Uranus: As long as nothing is damaged or twisted up, it’ll basically go right back where it was. Your organs don’t flop around loose in your torso, they’re attached all over the place to the inside of your thoracic cavity. If an organ is permanently removed from the torso, the others just kinda shift around to fill the space. A kidney specifically is different because it’s in a separate “pocket” than the rest, but end result is similar. There’s not an empty hole or anything.

SS: We know the person asking the question was asking it specifically in reference to c-sections. When you have one, it is true that surgeons will need to remove your organs to take out the child. For many, they are actually awake during this but are incredibly numbed up. Naturally, removing organs to get a child out is dangerous. Of course, this is why surgeons and nurses are so well trained. They know where to put them back. But even if they put them back in the wrong place, it’s not exactly a bad thing. Some people are born with their organs on the opposite side, it’s called Situs Inversus.

How Does The Anatomy Of Conjoined Twins Work?

Straight-faced_solo: It’s different depending on each case. Usually, they have separate organs but share a circulatory system. It’s not uncommon for them to only have one heart and liver shared between the two.

SS: This is true, and the human anatomy of conjoined twins can be wildly different depending on the case. In fact, many conjoined twins are able to be separated without it causing an issue these days. The ones that cannot be “detached” are those who share an important organ such as a brain or heart. Other stuff can be cut in half and grow back or they can live with just half. This includes both having one lung, one kidney, or half a liver. Regarding those sharing a heart, they’ll be added to a transplant list. But this can take years and there is no guarantee a new heart will work. So splitting is very risky.

Why, After a Good Long Cry, Can’t We Take A Big Deep Breath Without That Huh-Huh-Huh Tracheal Contraction?

Gynoceros: Those “tracheal contractions” are probably either diaphragmatic or congressional intra-abdominal muscle spasms, due to the strain that had been placed on them during the crying jag. Do you know how your legs get wobbly after doing a bunch of squats? Your breathing muscles get wobbly after being worked hard too.

SS: It essentially works exactly like this. A great example was given here. Yes, your diaphragm or other areas of your throat are working overtime when you cry a lot. On top of this, so are your lungs and even your sinuses. This is why when you cry, you might see a lot of “green stuff” come out. The human anatomy is interesting in this area, as we do not all cry the same but we ALL have an affected sinus or breathing issue. The same sort of thing can occur when we laugh very hard too. You’ve likely seen people who laugh so hard they cry or cough before. It’s the same principle involved.

Why Does It Hurt When You Can’t Start/Finish a Sneeze?

AtlasTradeM: When you sneeze, it’s because your body detected bad stuff that it wants to remove from the body. This could be something irritating or something you’re allergic to. Sometimes your body tries to sneeze but fails because bodies aren’t perfect. When this happens, that sneezing feeling stays and can be painful because the allergen never left.

SS: This is mostly true. Basically, and your human anatomy textbooks will tell you this too, your sinus cavity affects a ton of things. As a result, if you feel you have to sneeze then you will very well end up sneezing usually. Some people like to stop themselves from doing so and that stoppage will hurt pretty bad. If you hurt when you’re about to sneeze but stop, it is all down to the nerves you have throughout your face and sinus cavity. These will be activated and that sends pain signals to the brain.

Before We Had a Basic Concept Of Human Anatomy, Did We Use To Think That “Thought” Came From Our Heads?

[deleted-user] No. According to my psych book, across history, different cultures have thought that the “mind” existed in the liver or the heart. I would say that yes it is just placebo (to your 2nd question). I have no idea why we think love comes from the heart, maybe someone else can help?

SS: Human Anatomy assumptions were pretty wild. Socrates notably claimed the heart was the center of thought. We wrote a big article about how the human heart works and killed off some assumptions. In that, we referenced how Hippocrates was genius with his original assumptions of the heart and never believed it held thought. That said, we did not really believe the brain was the center of thought until after 100 AD. Yet people like Pythagorean Alcmaeon of Croton claimed in the 5th Century BCE that the brain was the center of thought. It just took a while for the rest of us to catch on.

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

https://www.spine-health.com/conditions/neck-pain/what-causing-my-neck-pain-and-headache

sciencesensei.com/the-human-heart-explained-so-that-even-a-5-year-old-can-understand

healthline.com/health/situs-inversus

c-sections

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3926130