Pierced or tattooed, hairy or smooth, sexy or ugly, stuck out or stuck in – the navel is an intriguing part of the human body. Often referred to as belly button, the navel has provoked thoughts, kicked started research and yes, it is something that can actually let you go down in her pants if explored properly. So, what makes this navel such an interesting thing on our body? Why is it there? What is its purpose? Let us try and find out the answers to these questions through this list of 20 interesting navel facts. 1. Medically or scientifically, the navel or the belly button is nothing but a scar on our body. There is a medical term for this scar – 'umbilicus'. So, what creates this scar? When a baby is inside its mother's womb, it is connected to the mother's body using the umbilical cord. The cord is attached to the baby's body exactly at the point where the navel sits. During birth, doctors tie up the cord and cut it to separate the baby from the mother. Some portion of the cord remains attached the baby and over time, it dries out and falls off, leaving the scar which we later call 'navel'. 2. Belly button can appear as sticking out and is known as outtie or it can actually stick in and is known as innie. Innies are more common than outies. Only 4% of total world wide population have outies. It is really scarce. 3. Whether you will have an outie or an innie depends on the way the doctors tie the umbilical cord during your birth. Actually, outie is faulty and is created only if the cord is not tied properly. 4. Belly button is one among the dirties places in our body. Honestly, it is very gross because it is the home to 67different types of bacteria. Out of these 67 types, 2 are very rare. 5. Navel is also the home for cloth lint. This happens because lint is collected by the hair around the belly button and the lint finds its way inside the scar. So, the main culprit is actually the body hair. Thus, women are less prone to navel lint compared to men. Also, people with outies generally do not have navel lint because the lint findsnowhere to go and rest. 6. Belly button is unique only to mammals. Non-mammals that lay egg don't possess belly buttons. When we say mammals we mean all of animal kingdom that includes creatures like lions and tigers,elephants and giraffes and even whales and sharks (As pointed out by one of our readers, sharks are not mammals. It was our mistake). So, humans are not the unique ones to possess this scar. 7. Traditional Indian medicine and even Chinese acupuncture uses belly button as a sight for treatment in alternative medicine. Guess what? It is actually true! Belly button is used to successfully treat many ailments including problems like snake bites and even roundworms. According to Indian traditional yoga, there are 7 major chakras or energy points in human body and navel is one of them. 8. Scientists are spending millions of dollars just to research on this unique scar on our body because the believe that the position of the navel can actually be advantageous in some types of sports like swimming and running. 9. In Indian mythology, the belly button is very sacred because it is believed that men (not women) are born from the navel of Lord Vishnu. Well, it is not just Hindu mythology that puts stress on navel. Even Bible has mentioned it as important stating that it actually linksheaven and earth, making it one of the most sacred places on earth. 10. Assuming the Adam and Eve were the first humans, logically theydidn't have navels. Why not? Because they were not born from the womb of a human. They were banished to earth because the ate the forbidden fruit. They just appeared! 11. Sexologist Yvonne Fullbright says that if a man manages to explore this particular scar on a woman properly, he might just unlock the doors to heaven that lies further south in her pants. For instance, nibbling around or tracing the borders of the navel with an ice cube are fantastic methods that men can use. The better the men do, more willing the women are to let their men explore further south. 12. University of Helsinki researchers have found out that women with symmetrical belly buttons that are located centrally on their body are more likely to give birth to healthy babies. 13. Two humans will never have identical belly buttons because the germs residing inside the scar are unique to each human. Shaking hands transfers germs between people but they are less likely to use their hands to mess with their own belly buttons immediately after shaking hands and hence, possibility of new germs finding home inside the scar is scarce. 14. Different people havedifferent shapes for their navel. Some have T-shape and some may have horizontal shape or something different. Researchers have found out that T-shaped navels are the sexiest of all with horizontal ones taking the second spot. T navels have an average score of 5.24 on the scale of 1 to 10 with 1 depicting least attractive and 10 depicting most attractive. Horizontal navels have 4.20 average score. 15. Karolina Kurkova who was voted as world's sexiest woman in year 2008 did not have a belly button. How is that possible? As a child she was born with a special type of hernia in which her intestines protruded out from the navel. She was surgically fixed and the bellybutton was reconstructed, leaving behind only a dimple which was neither an innie or an outie. 16. Belly buttons are capable of changing shape but this usually happens in women especially during pregnancy. When a woman gets pregnant, the innie can simply pop out and become and outie and stay that way for the rest of her life. 17. Navels can get infections. Despite the fact that there are many different types of bacteria that live in the navels, the belly buttons are perfectly fine. Funny is the fact that navel infections are not bacterial infections. They are rather fungal infections and are usually found in fat people who have large skin folds. These skin folds can cover up the navel and make it hot and moist, eventually leading to fungal infections. 18. Using antibacterial product to wash the belly button is not suggested. These products can kill the bacteria that live in the navel. They are actually our first line of defense against external microbesand fight of germs and other bacteria. So, let them be there. 19. Not all people wash belly buttons daily. In fact most people simply don't care about the scar. Some people do wash it but it is always suggested to use a plain soap or simply water to wash the scar. 20. Navel piercing is not really suggested because once pierced, the navel takes up to 9 months to heal compared to 6 weeks in case of ears, nose, eyebrows and other places. Because 9 months is too long, the piercing leaves the scar vulnerable to severe infections and the risk increases for people who actually wear tight clothing after piercing their navels. Source
