10 Amazing Things That Your Body Does Every Single Day

The world is a filthy old place and we come into contact with trillions of germs every day. In fact, there are more bacteria just in your mouth than there are people on the planet.

Not all germs are bad, but some of them can make us horrendously ill. Luckily, our bodies are armed to the teeth will disease-fighting tools.

Possibly the most famous are the white blood cells. These guys bomb around the body and slurp up harmful microbes before they get the chance to make us ill. Lymphocytes are a specialised type of white blood cell that will constantly "learn" about specific microbes as they come into contact with them, allowing them to fight them off even quicker next time.

The horrible symptoms that you experience when you have a horrible cold or a particularly nasty bought of food poisoning are not actually caused by the bacteria themselves, but are by and large a result of the body's immune system trying to flush them out.

It's a good job too, because if they didn't, the result would be far worse than a runny nose. If viruses were allowed to infect the body without the immune system intervening, they would take over the biochemistry in cells, meaning that they would stop functioning how they're supposed to. This could shut down whole bodily systems, and even affect the chromosomes in the cell, causing them to mutate abnormally and could even lead to diseases like cancer.

Before you reach for the bleach, however, it has been shown that living in an environment that is too clean can actually weaken the immune system and reduce the body's ability to fight off infection.

You can use that excuse next time you don't want to do your dishes. You're welcome.