We may be living in the age of information, and the internet has almost everything at our fingertips, but sometimes finding the answers to our most burning questions can be harder than a simple Google search would first seem. We have trawled through the internet and found the answers to some of the most common questions where people wonder… is it possible? Can you actually cry blood? Is it possible to catch up on sleep? Join us below as we answer these and other questions that the internet has been wondering about.
10. Is it Possible to be Addicted to Weed?
This is a tricky question, as there have not been many studies yet on marijuana and its effects in terms of addiction, partially because the illegality has made it difficult for researchers to do much of any testing whatsoever. However, what we do know is that a good 30% of people who try marijuana end up with marijuana use disorder. This disorder is characterized by symptoms where the individual can have lack of desire to eat, loss of sleep, irritability and other symptoms, which reach their worst after being off the drug for a week, and usually start to fall off after two weeks.
Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that these people are addicted, though. To meet the requirements for addiction, you have to be more than dependent on the drug. Those who are addicted to drugs are dependent on them, but not all people who are dependent on drugs are addicted. A much smaller portion of people with marijuana use disorder are addicted, but it can occur, and you can be addicted even to eating chocolate. While it is not common, addiction to marijuana occurs when someone is so dependent on it that they simply cannot get through their day without it, and cannot manage to function as a normal member of society without their drug. Like any addiction, it comes down to whether the individual can manage to live their life without the drug ruining it. While some may think marijuana is not dangerous, you can become dependent on, or become addicted to, literally almost anything.
9. Is it Possible to Change Your Eye Color?
Have you ever wished you could change your eye color? Then you may be in luck! That is, if you have brown eyes, and you wish them to be blue. A company called Stroma Medical has developed a procedure to turn brown eyes permanently blue. This may seem like an oddly specific procedure, but there is an explanation for all of it. To begin with, blue eyes are the most sought after in the world. Despite only 17% of the population of the world having blue eyes, many people consider them to most attractive eye color, and prize them above all.
The procedure only works to turn brown eyes blue, because of the strange way it works. Essentially every brown eye has the potential to be a blue eye; it just comes down to how light enters and reflects off of it. In a brown eye, there is a brown melanin pigment that ensures the eye will be seen as brown. The procedure designed by Stroma Medical uses very low power lasers in order to disperse the brown pigment, dissolving it so it will eventually drain out of the eye and leave behind a permanently blue eye. However, clinical trials are not finished in the United States, so the procedure is not yet available here. Also, some ophthalmologists are concerned that since the pigment particles are only dissolved, and not removed, that there could be potential drainage issues that could lead to glaucoma over time. While Stroma Medical insists their procedure is perfectly safe, it will be several years before we know if it will pass the regulatory authorities in the United States of America.
8. Is it Possible to Cry Blood?
We have seen it in horror movies, and it haunts many of our imaginings in the darkest hours of the night. Can people actually be in such bad straits that they can actually cry tears of blood? The answers is yes; however, it is generally nothing at all to actually be alarmed about, despite the fact that blood is literally pouring out of someone’s eyes. The condition is known as haemolacria and has been reported as far back as the 16th century, where doctors first noted the condition in young women who were menstruating.
In general, studies have shown that most of the time, people who have haemolacria are menstruating women, and it usually goes away after a period of time. It also tends to exhibit itself less in people as they get older and older, and mostly starts affecting people when they are young. However, while doctors believe most cases are caused by hormones due to menstruation, men can also get the condition, and sometimes there is no explanation at all. In several cases in the last few years, there has been no explanation doctors can come up with, and several of these cases occurred in Tennessee. No one has yet figured out why Tennessee has been such a hotspot for unexplained cases of haemolacria — perhaps it is something in the water.
7. Is it Possible to Drink Too Much Water?
Speaking of water, one of the most common things that people ask when they are feeling particularly curious is, apart from drowning, can you actually have too much water? When most people ask this they think they are joking, and most consider it to be a very, very silly question. Very few people Google this with any kind of serious expectation of danger, or they think you would have to have an incredible amount of water that most people couldn’t manage to consume in a short enough amount of time to be dangerous.
However, while most people dismiss this as nonsense, it is actually quite easy to have too much water, and make yourself sick or even die. Especially during the summer, or even if you perform a lot of strenuous activity the rest of the year, guzzling too much water can put you in danger. The problem is that when you are active and hot, you sweat and you lose salt. When you lose too much salt while already drinking water you lose salt even more rapidly. This loss of electrolytes can lead to seizures and even brain death, so it is best to drink sports drinks, and eat foods that keep up your electrolyte balance.
6. Is it Possible to Improve Memory?
Some people complain that they do not have very good memories to start with. Perhaps they struggle with names, faces, dates or any number of other things. Many have wondered if there is a way to improve your memory over time, so you won’t have these problems to such a degree anymore. The good news is that there are tricks to improve your memory in almost every way. Memory tricks are known as mnemonics and there are tricks for any type of learning style. Some memory tricks are better for those who learn visually, or by reading, or any other method.
On top of that, you can not only teach yourself to be better at remembering things, but you can also permanently improve the power and functioning of your brain. Research has shown that due to something called neuroplasticity, our brains actually create new neural pathways and strengthen old ones when we make our brains work, especially when we deliberately put them through mental exercises. If you use mnemonics to help you remember, you are not only improving your short term memory, you are permanently increasing your brainpower.
5. Is it Possible to Overdose on Vitamin C?
Vitamin C is one of the things that most people consider better for you than almost anything else. Despite it making no sense, and there being literally zero evidence for it — and plenty against — many people start guzzling Vitamin C-containing products whenever the first sign of a cold appears. Doctors have told people this doesn’t really do anything, but many people persist in downing massive amounts of Vitamin C if they feel sick.
Many people, when confronted with the evidence that it isn’t doing much to help, will argue that it at least doesn’t cause them any harm — it’s just vitamins, and vitamins are good for you. However, the truth is that you can have too much of almost anything. If you have way too much Vitamin C in the short term, it won’t kill you, but it can make you feel sick, giving you symptoms like nausea, diarrhea, bloating, cramps, heartburn and other digestive issues. However, if you have too much over time, you can put yourself at risk for much more serious issues. Taking too much Vitamin C over time has been linked to the formation of kidney stones.
4. Is it Possible to Quit the Army?
Joining the army is seen as a way out for many people, whether it is a way out of a bad situation, or a way to get a good paying job with employment opportunities when you feel you don’t have a lot of other options. After you get out of the army, you can use the GI Bill to go back to school, so there are certainly many advantages to joining. However, some recruiters can be shady and tell interested young men and women almost anything to get them to join, so some people are confused about whether you can leave the army (or the military in general) once you have already signed up.
And generally, the answer is going to be a solid no. When you sign up for the military, you sign an employment contract, for several years at a time — higher ranks tend to have longer contracts when they sign to stay on for longer. Once you have signed this contract, you have to see it through until the end. When it comes to civilian employment contracts, if you renege your employer can only take civil action against you and ruin your reputation. If you try to leave the military before the end of your contract, you will be thrown in jail. Your only way out is if you get discharged for medical reasons of some kind, but that is always decided by your superiors for serious reasons — you cannot just say you are sick or mentally unhealthy and then leave.
3. Is it Possible to Swallow Your Tongue?
One of the most recurring myths involving people who have epilepsy is what you need to do when they are having a seizure. Some people get confused and think they need CPR, but some well-meaning people get even more confused and think the individual is at risk of swallowing their own tongue while going through a seizure. This has led people to stick objects in the mouth of someone suffering an epileptic attack, which can actually make things much worse.
The truth is that these well-meaning individuals could be putting the person with epilepsy in danger, because they are putting objects in the mouth of someone who is thrashing around. They could get cut on the object in their mouth, or even choke on it. On the other hand, you cannot swallow your tongue, and doctors say it is not possible for an epileptic to bite off their own tongue during a seizure in the first place. The best thing you can do if someone is having a seizure is to guide them gently to the floor, and give them room if possible — if you can, turn them on their side, but don’t do so if you are worried you will have to manhandle them to do it.
2. Is it Possible to Text 9-1-1?
This is something you see asked more and more these days online — it is the age of hyper fast communication, and basically everyone can text, so people naturally wonder if emergency services have managed to evolve their methods to this new technology. It seems like it would be simple enough — text your emergency, which can be safer in some situations, and the first responders will be there in no time. However, the problem is that for this to work, you need emergency numbers set up to receive texts, and then people trained and paid to receive and respond to those messages. This is quite an expense that most departments simply have not had the time or money to implement.
However, this does not mean that the service does not exist at all. There are some localities within the United States who do have the required infrastructure to take 9-1-1 messages through text. This does not mean you should take it for granted though, as far fewer places can take text messages than can’t. If you are interested in being able to text 9-1-1 in an emergency, you should call up your local police non-emergency hotline and find out first if they have the service. If you are not 100% sure the service is provided in your area, you should always err on the side of caution in an emergency and just call 9-1-1 directly, as long as it is safe to do so.
1. Is it Possible to Catch Up On Sleep?
We’ve all been there at one point in our life or another. Whether it’s a student trying to work a full time job while studying full time, a single parent working multiple jobs, or whatever the situation, many Americans find themselves chronically deprived of sleep. To make matters worse, some people get into situations where they feel like they will never have a chance to properly catch up. For this reason, on the weekends, or when they find a moment, these people try to binge on sleep and catch up on all they have lost. The question becomes, is it even possible to catch up so quickly on lost sleep, and get ourselves back to a state of natural equilibrium?
Unfortunately, the answer is a little complicated, and like many things involving your health, if you want to make a difference, you will have to make a change to your long-term habits. Scientists who study sleep have advised that trying to binge on a bunch of sleep at once, or on the weekend, is not going to properly catch you up. Rather, the best way to catch up on sleep is to add a little more sleep per night, every night, until your body starts to recover and you start to realize you need to sleep less. Eventually you can repay your sleep debt, and go back to sleeping a regular amount of hours every night.