Latest / The Mind of a Man / 25 Creepy Life Forms Living On Your Body Right Now

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25 Creepy Life Forms Living On Your Body Right Now · The Mind of a Man

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  Speaker 1: Right now, you are in a walking apartment building for
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  Speaker 1: millions of microscopic monsters. They're crawling out of your pores,
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  Speaker 1: feasting on your skin, and building literal slime fortresses on
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  Speaker 1: your face. I'm Mike with List25, and if you thought
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  Speaker 1: you were clean, well, think again. Because these are 25
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  Speaker 1: creepy lifeforms living on your body right now. 25. Acinetobacter
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  Speaker 1: Let's start with a microbe that sounds like it mutated
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  Speaker 1: in a radioactive swamp. Acinodobacter is a bacteria quietly chilling
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  Speaker 1: on your forehead and between your toes right now. Usually,
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  Speaker 1: it just sits there minding its own business without causing
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  Speaker 1: so much as an itch. The creepy part happens if
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  Speaker 1: you end up in the hospital. Certain strains of this
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  Speaker 1: bacteria are notorious for mutating into aggressive superbugs. They can
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  Speaker 1: invade wounds and infect your lungs, and... They're incredibly resistant
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  Speaker 1: to our best antibiotics. So your harmless toe bacteria can
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  Speaker 1: suddenly become a lethal threat. 24. Micrococcus luteus Micrococcus luteus
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  Speaker 1: is a tiny bacteria that lives all over your skin
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  Speaker 1: and thrives in the air you breathe. When scientists grow
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  Speaker 1: it in a lab, it forms these striking mustard yellow colonies.
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  Speaker 1: That color isn't just for show. It acts as a
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  Speaker 1: microscopic layer of sunscreen. The yellow pigment actually protects the
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  Speaker 1: bacteria from ultraviolet radiation and environmental damage. So, while you're
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  Speaker 1: walking around outside, this little microbe is basically wearing its
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  Speaker 1: own custom SPF just to survive living on your face. 23.
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  Speaker 1: Staphylococcus capitis Scratch your head right now, and you just
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  Speaker 1: caused an earthquake for an entire bacterial neighborhood. Staphylococcus capitis
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  Speaker 1: is a friendly strain of staph that lives entirely on
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  Speaker 1: your scalp, face, and ears. The word staph usually triggers
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  Speaker 1: panic about medical emergencies, but this specific bug is completely harmless.
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  Speaker 1: It survives by quietly feasting on your dead skin cells
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  Speaker 1: and natural hair oils. Unless it somehow sneaks into an
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  Speaker 1: open wound or a surgical catheter, it's just up there
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  Speaker 1: giving you a microscopic scalp cleaning. As someone with psoriasis,
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  Speaker 1: You're doing a terrible job. Clean better, you little dudes. 22.
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  Speaker 1: Carinibacterium jeekium. This bacteria absolutely loves the moist, oily areas
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  Speaker 1: of your body. I'm talking about your armpits, your groin,
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  Speaker 1: and those little folds around your nose. Carinibacterium jeekium is
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  Speaker 1: a major contributor to that distinct human smell. They basically
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  Speaker 1: feast on your sweat and oils. And then they excrete waste.
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  Speaker 1: That means your body odor is quite literally just a
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  Speaker 1: cloud of bacterial farts. If you ever wonder why your
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  Speaker 1: deodorant stops working after a long day, it's because you're
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  Speaker 1: trying to silence an entire colony that's been living in
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  Speaker 1: your armpits since puberty. 21. Carinibacterium striatum Body odor is
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  Speaker 1: a team effort. Carinibacterium striatum is another insanely common bacteria
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  Speaker 1: that sets up camp in your dampest, warmest crevices. It
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  Speaker 1: partners up with the other microbes to break down organic
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  Speaker 1: material and create that horrible locker room smell. Your sweat
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  Speaker 1: doesn't actually smell bad on its own. It's the microscopic
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  Speaker 1: feeding frenzy happening on your skin that generates the stench.
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  Speaker 1: So you never just have one bug making you stink.
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  Speaker 1: You're hosting a whole orchestra of them. 20. Carinibacterium tuberculostericum.
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  Speaker 1: This one has a terrifying name, but... It has absolutely
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  Speaker 1: nothing to do with tuberculosis. It's actually one of the
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  Speaker 1: most widespread bugs on the human body, found on roughly
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  Speaker 1: 94% of people. Carinibacterium tuberculostericum is physically unable to make
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  Speaker 1: its own fatty acids from scratch. To survive, it has
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  Speaker 1: to steal them directly from you. It sets up shop
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  Speaker 1: in your nostrils and on your feet, sucking up the
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  Speaker 1: oily sebum your skin produces. Your face is essentially a
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  Speaker 1: free grocery store. 19. Cutibacterium avidum This bacteria hangs out
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  Speaker 1: in the sweaty regions of your groin, and it's a
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  Speaker 1: massive nightmare for surgeons. If Cutibacterium avidum gets inside your
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  Speaker 1: body during something like a hip replacement, it attaches to
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  Speaker 1: the artificial joint and builds a protective slime layer called
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  Speaker 1: a biofilm. That slime makes it almost invincible against your
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  Speaker 1: immune system and antibiotics. Worse? It grows so slowly that
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  Speaker 1: doctors might not realize you have a serious bone infection
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  Speaker 1: until three years after your surgery. It acts less like
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  Speaker 1: an infection and more like a toxic mold rotting behind
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  Speaker 1: a wall. And that wall just happens to be you.
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  Speaker 1: If you struggle with body breakouts, well, meet your supporting actor.
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  Speaker 1: Cutibacterium granulosum hangs around the oily parts of your chest back,
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  Speaker 1: and shoulders. It rarely gets blamed as the main cause
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  Speaker 1: of acne, but it absolutely helps set the stage. Skin
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  Speaker 1: problems depend heavily on the entire microscopic environment inside your
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  Speaker 1: hair follicles. This bug waits for the perfect mix of
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  Speaker 1: trapped dead skin and excess oils, jumping into the fray
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  Speaker 1: to make your inflammation so much worse. 17. Cutibacterium Acnes
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  Speaker 1: This is the main acne supervillain. Cutobacterium acnes doesn't just
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  Speaker 1: randomly cause pimples. These bugs actually communicate with each other
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  Speaker 1: using chemical signals. Once enough of them gather inside a
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  Speaker 1: trapped pore, they realize they have the numbers to launch
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  Speaker 1: a coordinated attack. They work together to build a microscopic
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  Speaker 1: slime fortress that makes your pimple highly resistant to face
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  Speaker 1: wash and acne cream. Your breakout is literally the result
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  Speaker 1: of an organized bacterial group chat. 16. Staphylococcus epidermidis You
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  Speaker 1: actually have staph bacteria protecting you from worse staph bacteria.
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  Speaker 1: Staphylococcus epidermidis is found on almost every human being on Earth.
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  Speaker 1: The cool part is that certain strains of this bug
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  Speaker 1: produce custom-made assassin chemicals. These molecules are specifically designed to
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  Speaker 1: hunt down and kill... Staphylococcus aureus, which is the nasty
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  Speaker 1: bug responsible for lethal MRSA infections. These molecules are specifically
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  Speaker 1: designed to hunt down and kill Staphylococcus aureus, which is
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  Speaker 1: the nasty bug responsible for lethal MRSA infections. It basically
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  Speaker 1: acts as a microscopic bouncer, wiping out the dangerous invaders
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  Speaker 1: while leaving itself perfectly intact. 15. Malassezia restricta Moving away
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  Speaker 1: from bacteria, let's talk about the fungi eating your face.
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  Speaker 1: Malassezia restricta is a yeast that's completely dependent on human
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  Speaker 1: fat to survive. It can't make its own lipids, so
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  Speaker 1: it swarms your scalp, ears, and upper chest to eat
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  Speaker 1: your natural oils. Under a microscope, they look like tiny
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  Speaker 1: little budding mushrooms. When their population explodes, their waste products
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  Speaker 1: mix with your skin, causing intense irritation. If you have
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  Speaker 1: severe dandruff or itchy, flaky skin, you're likely looking at
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  Speaker 1: a massive graveyard of fungal waste. For the record, psoriasis,
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  Speaker 1: not dandruff. It's all over. 14. Malassezia globosa This is
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  Speaker 1: the other major yeast responsible for ruining your black shirts.
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  Speaker 1: Malassezia globosa survives by raiding the oil on your scalp.
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  Speaker 1: It literally leaks enzymes out of its cell walls to
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  Speaker 1: break down your natural fats into smaller pieces. Those broken
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  Speaker 1: down fats severely irritate your skin barrier, which triggers the
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  Speaker 1: inflammation that causes your scalp to flake off in chunks.
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  Speaker 1: If you've ever used a heavy-duty dandruff shampoo, you have
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  Speaker 1: been trying to wage chemical warfare against this exact fungus. 13.
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  Speaker 1: Candida albicans This is the microbe behind yeast infections, and
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  Speaker 1: It's a literal shapeshifter. Normally, Candida albicans lives peacefully in
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  Speaker 1: your mouth and gut as harmless little round beads. But
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  Speaker 1: if your internal environment changes, it flips a switch. It
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  Speaker 1: grows long branching tentacles that stab directly into your tissue.
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  Speaker 1: It releases a toxin that damages your cell membranes and
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  Speaker 1: triggers intense pain. It can cause oral thrush, terrible rashes,
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  Speaker 1: and if it manages to breach your bloodstream, it becomes
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  Speaker 1: a lethal medical emergency. 12. Fusobacterium nucleatum This spindle-shaped bacteria
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  Speaker 1: lives in your mouth and acts like a biological glue.
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  Speaker 1: Fusobacterium nucleatum holds dental plaque together on your teeth. But
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  Speaker 1: if your gums bleed, this bug can enter your bloodstream
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  Speaker 1: and travel all the way down to your colon. Scientists
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  Speaker 1: have discovered it actively attaching itself to colon tumors. It
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  Speaker 1: actually acts as a shield, grabbing onto your immune cells
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  Speaker 1: and shutting down their attacks so the cancer can grow undetected. 11.
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  Speaker 1: Actinomyces If you accidentally bite the inside of your cheek,
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  Speaker 1: you might give this bacteria the exact opening it needs. needs.
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  Speaker 1: Actinomyces lives in your mouth without an issue until it
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  Speaker 1: gets deep into your tissues. Then it clumps together into
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  Speaker 1: dense yellow microscopic hairballs. It causes massive hard purple lumps
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  Speaker 1: in your jaw and neck that eventually split open. If
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  Speaker 1: you do not treat it, this infection will literally chew
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  Speaker 1: tunnels through your muscle and bone, leaving behind scar tissue
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  Speaker 1: so thick that doctors frequently mistake it for a tumor. 10.
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  Speaker 1: Commensal Neisseria You have an entire family of bacteria living
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  Speaker 1: in the back of your throat that belongs to the
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  Speaker 1: exact same genus as meningitis and gonorrhea. Thankfully, Neisseria mucosa
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  Speaker 1: and its peaceful cousins are totally chill. The dangerous versions
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  Speaker 1: use hook-like appendages to violently latch onto your cells and
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  Speaker 1: shred your antibodies. The versions hanging out in your mouth
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  Speaker 1: right now just sit there, quietly minding their own business. Still,
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  Speaker 1: knowing you're hosting the peaceful branch of a lethal bacteria
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  Speaker 1: family tree is incredibly unsettling. 9. Veonella This mouth bug
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  Speaker 1: is the ultimate accomplice for tooth decay. Vanilla gorges on
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  Speaker 1: the sugary waste left behind by other bacteria, turning your
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  Speaker 1: dental plaque into an active tooth-rotting machine. Worse, it actually
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  Speaker 1: cleans up toxic hydrogen peroxide to help protect the other
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  Speaker 1: dangerous bacteria destroying your gums. It's even been found clinging
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  Speaker 1: to dental implants, where it actively helps corrode the titanium
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  Speaker 1: hardware right inside your jawbone. 8. Streptococcus mitis This is
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  Speaker 1: where things take a massive turn for the worse. Streptococcus
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  Speaker 1: mitis is a polite mouth bacteria. Right up until it
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  Speaker 1: tastes your bloodstream. Then it becomes a cannibal. It actively
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  Speaker 1: punctures and digests your red blood cells. It hunts down
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  Speaker 1: nearby bacteria, explodes them, and rips their DNA straight out
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  Speaker 1: of their corpses to upgrade its own genetics. If it
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  Speaker 1: lands on your heart valves, it can grow giant fungal-like
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  Speaker 1: masses that break off and trigger a stroke. 7. Streptococcus
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  Speaker 1: salivarius Think back to your very first sloppy kiss. You
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  Speaker 1: were exchanging things we should probably never mention in polite conversation.
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  Speaker 1: Streptococcus salivarius is one of the first microbes to colonize
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  Speaker 1: your mouth as a baby. It locks arms with other
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  Speaker 1: bugs to build those thick, slimy biofilms that coat your teeth.
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  Speaker 1: We all pass it back and forth every day. But
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  Speaker 1: if it accidentally leaks into your spinal fluid during a
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  Speaker 1: medical procedure, it can cause severe pus-filled meningitis. Now, I'm
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  Speaker 1: genuinely curious. After hearing about what lives in our mouths,
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  Speaker 1: on a scale of 1 to 10, how much of
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  Speaker 1: a germaphobe are you when it comes to sharing drinks?
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  Speaker 1: Drop your number in the comments below, because... I'm not really,
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  Speaker 1: but I probably should be. Six. Escherichia coli. You already
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  Speaker 1: have billions of good E. coli digesting food in your
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  Speaker 1: gut right now. But the bad strains that hitch a
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  Speaker 1: ride on contaminated food are biological weapons. They pump out
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  Speaker 1: shiga toxins that literally shred your intestinal lining. In severe cases,
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  Speaker 1: the dying red blood cells completely clog your kidneys until
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  Speaker 1: they shut down. then you can't always just take antibiotics,
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  Speaker 1: because killing the bacteria triggers a massive surge of toxin
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  Speaker 1: release that can cross into your nervous system and cause
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  Speaker 1: permanent brain damage. 5. Enterococcus Fecalis This gut bug is
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  Speaker 1: practically unkillable. Enterococcus Fecalis can survive extreme heat, intense salt,
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  Speaker 1: and wild pH levels that would instantly melt other microbes.
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  Speaker 1: The scariest part is that it uses chemical pheromones to
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  Speaker 1: swap drug-resistant genes with nearby bacteria. It's basically running a
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  Speaker 1: microscopic dating app for superbugs. It regularly shrugs off common antibiotics,
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  Speaker 1: and if it escapes your lower intestine, it can cause
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  Speaker 1: lethal hospital-acquired infections in your bloodstream. 4. Bacteroides fragilis This
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  Speaker 1: little microbe is a minor player in your colon. but
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  Speaker 1: it basically carries its own DIY abscess kit. Bacteroides fragilis
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  Speaker 1: has a uniquely thick outer capsule. If it escapes your
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  Speaker 1: gut and gets in your abdominal cavity, that capsule immediately
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  Speaker 1: triggers your body to form painful, pus-filled abscesses. Certain versions
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  Speaker 1: of it also secrete a nasty toxin that's been directly
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  Speaker 1: linked to severe inflammatory bowel flare-ups and even colorectal cancer. 3.
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  Speaker 1: Fecalibacterium praunitzii. This is one of the most common bacteria
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  Speaker 1: in your gut, and it's highly allergic to oxygen. The
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  Speaker 1: funny thing is, it sets up camp right against your
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  Speaker 1: intestinal wall where oxygen constantly leaks out. To survive the
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  Speaker 1: danger zone, Fecalibacterium praunitzii builds a tiny electrical bridge to
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  Speaker 1: neutralize the oxygen molecules before they hit. In exchange for
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  Speaker 1: the prime real estate, it pumps out fatty acids that
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  Speaker 1: calm inflammation and keep your entire digestive tract healthy. 2.
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  Speaker 1: Methanobrevibacter smithii This isn't even a bacteria. It's an archaeon,
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  Speaker 1: an ancient extremophile that usually lives in deep-sea volcanic vents.
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  Speaker 1: But it happens to be running a miniature gas factory
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  Speaker 1: in your gut. Methanobrevibacter smithii eats leftover hydrogen from other
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  Speaker 1: microbes and turns it into pure methane gas. That methane
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  Speaker 1: actually paralyzes your gut muscles, freezing your food in place.
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  Speaker 1: By slowing down your digestion, it forces your body to
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  Speaker 1: extract extra calories and fat out of every single bite
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  Speaker 1: you take. 1. Demodex mites The absolute worst tenants on
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  Speaker 1: your body are demodex mites. Almost every adult on Earth
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  Speaker 1: has these microscopic eight-legged arachnids living deep inside their hair
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  Speaker 1: follicles and face pores. They spend the entire day hiding
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  Speaker 1: from the sunlight. When you fall asleep, they crawl out
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  Speaker 1: onto the surface of your face to mate, and then
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  Speaker 1: crawl back into your pores to lay eggs. The absolute
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  Speaker 1: grossest part? They don't have anuses. They hold their digestive
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  Speaker 1: waste inside their bodies for their entire lives. When they
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  Speaker 1: finally die, they explode a lifetime of poop directly into
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  Speaker 1: your pores right alongside their decomposing corpses. For more terrifying
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  Speaker 1: everyday facts, check out our video on 25 creepy everyday
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  Speaker 1: items right here. As always, I'm Mike Estrin. Stay curious,
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  Speaker 1: and I'll see you in the next one. And good
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  Speaker 1: luck sleeping tonight.