DumpingSh1tandBeingKind2
44692
1239
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Jan 29, 2025 3:19 PM
DumpingSh1tandBeingKind2
44692
1239
29
MadamPuddifoot
Cool. My body hasn't been touched. I'm a virgin! A skilled one.
FollowTheBlueFrog
This just gave me so much comfort. Thank you for sharing.
JustAnotherCynicToo
Even the teeth?
SeenItDoneIt
This is a pleasant thought and with respect to skin and certain cells, yes the turnover is quite high. However, for muscle, organs and other tissues, it's more than 7 years.
jimmymcgoochie1
I don't think that's how brains work?
OmnesMundiLardum
Yeah no. This is just not true.
ShadeMeadowsArt
Weird flex but... okay?
symmetry7
Plot twist: It was the poetry professor.
NeutralNebula
Whatever helps you sleep at night
Imalwaysready
Just to rub it in, many old, dead cells accumulate in beds, so effectively your new cells are sleeping atop vast fields of the fallen every night.
ipscfuntime3
So you're saying I have no longer had sex with that cover girl I met at a bar 10 years ago?
Aww, maaaan... That encounter has carried me through so many bad times.
Snooj
Skin is replaced every couple of weeks so unless your ex has been touching your bones and muscles you're all set within a month. I can't say for sure about gettin' up in those guts but for massages or handholding (even with fingers interlaced) or regular intimacy you're getting refreshed constantly.
Glormax
Damn. I knew I shouldn't have let my ex grab my femur.
SeenItDoneIt
This is a pleasant thought and with respect to skin and certain cells, yes the turnover is quite high. However, for muscle, organs and other tissues, it's more than 7 years.
StarscreamAndHutch
gtollie
Except for the eyes iirc
peterbozeman
This is great. I am going to help so many people with this little factoid.
DaveSamsonite
Please do not repeat this as being factual unless you limit it to your SKIN cells.
billymaditsdone
*tag!
Not for another 7 years sucka!
Rubyboobs
What about tattoos then I wonder
AmericanDreamIsDead
from my understanding of biology; this is not true. Your skin cells… yes. Your organs and muscles… no. Bone? No.
t00tie
Teefs.
dxGGxb
Cells in the retina last a lifetime... so you'll always see through the same few millions cells.
JCDenton10
DaveSamsonite
The brain in particular does NOT and LOTS of things can permanently damage or kill brain cells including many prescribed medications.
Rogerwilco1974
And what about tattoos?
phuzz00
They'll gradually fade and go fuzzy, but they'll still be visible when you die.
Tsunako
As long as their ex never touches their bones, organs, or muscle tissue without skin... should be fine!
BopNiblets
My ex did touch my bone though....
whatsisname
It's true for organs, muscles, and bones yes. Not all at the same speed though. There are some things that don't get replaced, but by and large the majority of your body's mass does get swapped out Theseus style over the years.
CRTBOTF2
What about your brain? Because that's the bit that's actually 'you'.
Elhifel
Bones are like every twenty-some years I think, most of your nervous system, never.
Becker37
This doesn't help me.
doesntmattet4
Skin sheds way way way faster than that
NoisyEden
Just finished PTSD therapy for sexual abuse and rape by my ex husband. I love this though, and will carry it with me.
Bathion
https://youtu.be/ZCiuMomjVx0?si=zz0OK-_zxaGQGus5
Sorry in advance.
SteveMND
While technically correct in that the body itself does not fully replenish itself every seven years, for the purposes of this particular analogy, it works just fine. No apologies required.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
I'm afraid it doesn't work very well for the "victims of abuse" category since brain tissues typically last a lifetime (unless injured and forced to regenerate). Most neurogenesis occurs embryonically. Synaptic connections can be pruned and newly generated, but that's not the same as replacing cells. And there is no undoing something like an enlarged amygdala (exacerbates anxiety) due to trauma experienced early in life.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
At best you can learn to work and function around such brain-related, trauma-induced handicaps by developing coping mechanisms. If your brain could simply heal by replacing the affected tissues that wouldn't be necessary.
SkeksiLady
Ya know, a big part of healing from trauma is finding a way to process what happened to you and not let it cripple you. There is a common feeling when you've been abused that you are in some way dirty or damaged beyond repair. Victims will sometimes try to scrub the damage away. So if this analogy that physical tissue is actually replaced by completely new tissue helps someone, then that is beneficial. People heal in all sorts of ways.
Bathion
It is really important to keep this in mind. Healing is how you can do it to be a stronger person. My main point on this is not to allow false information to float about unchallenged.
gardenias
I hate to burst your bubble, but unfortunately some neurons that you're born with will be with you until you die.
Badgerbadgerson3
Cool. Scars are still there, though.
Clayman8
Yeah, if i could get a new brain every 7 years, that would be great. But no. Enjoy the trauma
imnotarealgiraffe
Teeth tho
amazigou
And heart
Imalwaysready
Most of the tooth is not made of cells. The nerves and blood vessels within the roots can replace, but the dentin and enamel is just a large shell, not a cell, and thus does not follow the cell replacement rule.
dixxienormus
It's easy to understand that skin is replaced completely around every 4 weeks or so, Bones over a longer time. But it's astounding that your childhood memories are transferred from brain cells that are long gone, several times over.
ronnyhugo
memories are transferred slightly wrong as some neurons are discarded and others take their place, so our recollection of past events change over time. And keep in mind our recollection of events was wrong in the first place because it would require way too many calories to do an accurate detailed memory.
treboresque
IhopeyougetstageIIIcoloncancer
I hope it's one of the captchas that refreshes the individual tiles you click as you're selecting them...
brandonblk
i hate those
AboutasSnappyasaZipper
Captcha is more interested in the movements of your mouse than the images you click (if using a mouse) recaptcha relies at least partially on your search history.
IhopeyougetstageIIIcoloncancer
Yes, but in this case, the images refreshing would better fit the joke and reinforce the uncertainty.
fitgirl1
Some tissues turn over at a higher rate, including anything that is exposed to the outside, including the whole digestive tract and vaginal cells are some of the fastest at 3-4 cellular turnover.
Cattbutt
What about teeth? I’ve had the same crack in that 20+ years..
dxGGxb
Teeth don't have cells (except in the core) , pretty similar to bones.
Idontneedrealfacts
Not like bones, because bones absolutely get broke. Down and completely rebuilt all the time. Scrapers and layers.
Imalwaysready
Like, you have to wait through 3-4 cellular contracts? That could be like 10 years!
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
Whereas adult neurogenesis greatly slows down. Most neurons have to last a lifetime. There is barely any ship-of-Theseus action in the adult brain and the rest of the nervous system (unless it is injured, in which case it has some limited regenerative capabilities)
Hexarcy00
Yikes, I was under the impression humans made new brain cells throughout life, and brain cells needing to last all your life was an old theory. An assessment of the existence of adult neurogenesis in 2022, changes it back to adults need to take care of their brains
lrateyourrig
braim good, be nice
whatsisname
You actually lose many in the first several years of life, as the brain figures its circuitry out it trims and prunes out a lot of them.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
That's just synaptic connections. The brain doesn't prune neurons, only the connections between them that are deemed unnecessary. (When this pruning process goes haywire we call it Alzheimer's or dementia). And yes, pretty much all memories formed in the first years of life are deleted again in this way. Permanent memories are formed starting at ca. 3-4 years of age.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
PS: A lot of this pruning process happens during sleep. Every time you dream, your brain sifts through everything you've learned and experienced recently and assesses its importance. Some synapses are potentiated to create lasting connections and memories while others are eliminated. And we have zero conscious control over this whatsoever. So much for free will. We don't even get to decide what we'd like to remember. Our consciousness is but a tool of our body, like a tooth or a fingernail.
MrSyth
That explains a lot about why I can barely remember anything but a few snapshots pre-15 yrs old. 27 now.
whatsisname
No, those first several are like 0-5 years old. You had something else going on.
DaveSamsonite
How on earth is that not something taught in schools? This meme is actually dangerous as it has an a lot of upvotes from people that don't know the truth. Damaged cells in the brain do not regrow as you get older - this is why degenerative brain disorders like dementia, Alzheimers, Parkinson's, ALS, Huntington's and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) - are all so incredibly tragic.
OhIfIMust
Theseus??
bl0ke
Trigger
smoopmeister
nuts
sfrinlan
OR IS IT???
Mooki
Trigger's Broom.
incendras
I hardly knew seus.
RealScienceMan
Fundamentally, you're not even allowed to ask that question, as you can't know if your protons are the same from moment to moment.
DaveSamsonite
@OP The professor in this meme lied to these students & that this post has over 1000 votes is terrifying. Take care of your brain cells, people. When brain cells are damaged or degraded or lost - they DO NOT magically regenerate, "grow back" or "get replaced."
This is why repeated concussions and shaking babies are so dangerous. Tobacco smoking is a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease & other forms of dementia - and lots of other drugs are proven to damage your brain. TAKE CARE OF IT!!
amglasgow
I ship it.
jayman0123
to this, uninitiated - https://youtu.be/51n-EBigXmg?t=7 or this for the long winded explanation - https://youtu.be/ldoh71uNZmk
MaybeIllDisappear
I was thinking the Axe paradox. At what time am I no longer me.
mikeatike
Sam Axe
StarSumiaki
You are always you. The axe is always the axe. Identity is not bound by physicality, only sentimentality.
Mxlespxles
Yup. And that's exactly why dementia scares me so goddamn much
StarSumiaki
Indeed. The cold hard truth behind the poetry... You (the physical object) persist but "you" (the sum of your life and feelings) die.
GentryFriedRichFillets
But the sum of your life experiences is constantly dying. We forget more than we remember. What we remember, we alter, in the act of recollection. We are neither the flesh nor the memory, but that which interacts with both while simultaneously being affected and defined by them. We are a transcience, a liminal thing.
(Deleted and edited for egregious typo)