10 Grossest Things in Your Body Right Now

By: Maria Trimarchi  | 
girl picking her nose
Your body is full of disgusting things, including boogers, mucus and of course, poop. Welcome to buy my photos/Getty Images

There are all kinds of gross things in your body right now, maybe even hard lumps of calcium oxalate (that's what kidney stones are made of). You're making sweat, and eye gunk and pus, and you also have undigested and partially digested food traveling through your gut. And did you know there are more bacteria living in your body than there are human cells? We'll get to that in a moment. First, let's talk about the mites having sex on your eyelashes.

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10: Eyelash Mites

eye mites
No need to call the exterminator. Eyelash mites are common and mostly harmless. David Spears FRPS FRMS/Getty Images

There are mites living in your eyelashes, and the older you are and the oilier your skin, the more likely that is true. It's estimated that mites, specifically Demodex mites (D. folliculorum, to be exact), have colonized the eyelashes of more than 80 percent of people older than 60.

Demodex mites are face mites, and if you could see them with the naked eye you'd see them living at the root of your eyelash and hair follicles. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising to find as many as 25 mites living a single eyelash follicle [source: Roque]. While there's no denying that discovering these follicle squatters is alarming, they're mostly harmless and only cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals.

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9: Ear Wax

ear wax
It may look nasty, but we need our ear wax. Without it, our ears wouldn't be protected from things like dust and debris. Andrii Spy_k/Shutterstock

In 2016, Medicare paid out more than $51 million for nearly 1.7 million earwax removal services, according to government records. That's a lot of ear wax being professionally removed by doctors. Today even spas and other practitioners offer methods to get the job done, despite our ear canals being, at least theoretically, one of the self-cleaning parts of the bodies.

Ear wax, which is also known as cerumen, is an oily, waxy substance produced by the glands inside your ear canal. It's used by the ear to protect itself. Wax stops intruders from getting into your ears, including dust and bugs, among other debris. Ear wax also helps lubricate the ears, protect your ear canals from irritation and has antibacterial properties.

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8: Fatty Deposits (Lipoma)

fatty lipoma
Lipomas are fatty deposits that appear as soft lumps just beneath the skin (left). Typically they can be removed safely without any issue (right.) HealthJade

Your body maintains an energy reserve in its fat cells as a part of normal operating procedure, but sometimes fat cells grow where they shouldn't. This results in fatty deposits, also called lipomas, and although some may find them gross, they're almost always harmless.

Fatty deposits are typically, but not always, small, round masses of fat cells below your skin, between your skin and muscle. These lumps feel kind of soft, and maybe doughy or rubbery, and if you poke at one you'll notice it moves around. They're usually painless. Most lipomas grow on the neck, shoulders, arms, upper back, upper thighs and buttocks [sources: WebMD, Salam].

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7: Mucus

mucus
Your body is constantly making mucus. We get rid of it in other gross ways like sneezes, boogers, snot and phlegm. Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

Boogers. Snot. Phlegm. Whatever you call it, there's a good reason it exists: mucus. Mucus is a stringy, sticky fluid that coats the inside of your nose, mouth, sinuses, throat, lungs and gastrointestinal tract, and it's there all the time, not just when you have a cold. In fact, your body makes between about one-quarter and half a gallon (1 and 2 liters, roughly) of mucus every day; and that includes the new batch your nose whips up every 20 minutes [source: Watson].

Mucus acts as a lubricant, and without it, our body tissues would dry out. Because it's sticky, it also acts as a trash collector, keeping bacteria and debris (such as pollen, dirt, fungi, smoke or whatever else you might breathe in) from invading your body as you breathe.

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6: Bacteria

bacteria
Lactobacillus acidophilus is part of the normal human flora and is also found in many food products. © VISUALS UNLIMITED/CORBIS

A healthy human body is actually less human than you might think. As an adult, your body is hosting at least 10 times as many microbial cells (that's bacteria, viruses and other types of microbes) as you have human cells — probably about 100 trillion bacteria in all [source: Zimmer]. And they live in every nook and cranny of your body.

Fewer than 1 percent of the bacteria in the human body can cause disease or illness, and others work with the body to help it do things it may not have been able to do on its own. For instance, Lactobacillus acidophilus, a popular active culture in yogurt, helps the body digest food and fight against that 1 percent of ill-willed microbes.

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5: Gas, Gas and More Gas

man farting
Right now your body is full of gas that you have to get rid of. The most common way you do that is farting and burping. Digital Vision/Getty Images

Everyone farts and everyone burps; there's no way around it. If you eat, you produce gas as the bacteria in your digestive system break down those foods. On average, you're passing gas anywhere between 14 and 23 times a day. Think about that; you could be farting or burping once every hour [source: Jaret].

The gas producing those farts and burps contains carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and sometimes methane and sulfur (only in farts, though). Certain foods will cause your body to produce more gas, and those include high-fiber and sugary foods, such as those notorious gas-encouragers: beans and broccoli. For some people, wheat or dairy — and products that contain wheat or dairy — can cause also contribute to gassiness, belching, farting and abdominal bloating because their bodies can't properly digest those foods. Often the cause, though, is nothing more than swallowed air.

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4: Vomit

baby spitting up
Babies are some of the worst offenders of spitting and throwing up. Why do they do it so much? Toshiro Shimada/Getty Images

The average stomach will hold about three-quarters of a gallon (that's 3 liters) of chewed food and beverages. You'll know when you've reached this limit by that post-feast queasy feeling that sets in. Some reports find that while the stomach will likely stretch to hold a little more than that, it will actually spontaneously rupture when it's expected to accommodate as much as 1.3 gallons (5 liters) [source: Dahl].

If your stomach and intestines decide to close the gate on what you've eaten, that food and drink won't pass normally through to your bowel. Instead, it's coming back up, and sometimes forcefully. Vomiting is actually controlled by a "vomiting center" in the brain, and can be caused by a number of things, including food-borne illness (you can thank bacteria, viruses and parasites for most food poisoning), infections, some illnesses and pregnancy, as well as side effects of some medications or certain medical treatments (such as chemotherapy). Babies also vomit, a lot, so new parents can look forward to that joy.

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If you don't or can't vomit, your body will still deal with the unwanted stomach contents. Leaks may develop in the stomach walls, allowing partially digested food to seep into your body. (Suddenly, vomiting doesn't sound so bad.)

3: Tonsil Stones

tonsil stones
Recurring bad breath can be a sure sign of tonsil stones. Ralf Geithe/Shutterstock

Tonsil stones, sometimes known as tonsilloliths, aren't food from last night's take-out; they're actually a combination of bacteria, dead cells and mucus that have gotten trapped in the pockets of your tonsils. Yes, you have pockets in your tonsils.

If you suffer from chronic tonsillitis, or have had chronic tonsil inflammation at some point in your life, you have an increased chance of having tonsil stones. People with dry mouth also seem to be more affected. Some people don't even notice, while others may feel discomfort when the debris hardens (which, if you can see it, looks like small white lumps of cauliflower in the back of your throat), including sore throat, swollen tonsils and ear pain. Because bacteria like to eat what tonsil stones are made up of, stones are also known to cause bad breath.

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While you can remove the stones yourself with a swab or oral water irrigator, or rinsing with an oxygenating or other non-alcohol-based mouthwash (it'll kill bacteria without contributing to dry mouth problems, like an alcohol-based product can), the only you can cure them is with a tonsillectomy.

2: Poop, and Kind of a Lot of It

dirty diaper
The other offense babies commit on a constant basis: pooping. How can these tiny people create so much mess? The Good Brigade/Getty Images

You can be full of beans. Full of yourself. Full of ... well, you know. Poop. And kind of a lot of it, as it turns out.

When you eat and drink, your body only needs a few hours to extract the vitamins and nutrients it needs from that food, and the leftovers are (you guessed it!) off to be excreted. Your body has both the small and large intestines, plus your rectum. Your small intestine is a tube that's about 20 feet (6 meters) long and 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) in diameter, and your large intestine is also longer than you might expect, too: It's a tube about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, and 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) in diameter. In total, that's about the length of a small, basic vinyl garden hose you'd use in your yard, and it's full of waste.

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Your stool is made up of undigested food, but that's not all. There's also mucus, bacteria and dead cells in there — and it's the combination of all these ingredients that gives poop its brown color. A normal bowel movement is mostly water (about 75 percent of it), and most of us get rid of about 3 to 8 ounces (85 to 226 grams) of waste every day [source: Britannica]. For comparison: The new iPhone 13 Pro weighs about 7 ounces (198 grams) [source: Apple].

1: Acid That's Strong Enough to Dissolve Metal

stomach acid
The acid in your stomach has to be strong enough to digest all of your food. Stocktrek Images/Getty Images/Stocktrek Images

Your digestive system is saturated with gastric juices that are key to digesting the foods you eat, and when hydrogen combines with chloride inside your stomach it creates hydrochloric acid (HCL). Yes, that's the same hydrochloric acid used in fertilizers, dyes and, as it turns out, in the fracking process.

If the acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve metal, which it is, why doesn't your stomach digest itself? You can thank mucus for that. Mucus coats the lining of your stomach, protecting it from being broken down along with everything in your stomach. Thanks, mucus!

Lots More Information

Author's Note: 10 Grossest Things in Your Body Right Now

I think my favorite fact from writing about all these gross things that are in our bodies was the idea that our bacteria:human cell ratio is 10:1 -- some are harmless, some are harmful, and some are just waiting around for you to die so they can finally have a good meal.

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