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TIL that for years a man deliberately infected himself with tape worms to help treat his ulcerative colitis, a common bowel disease. Doctors found that after infection areas of his colon started producing mucos again which is key to healing and IL-22 a molecule that promotes epithelial growth.

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via reddit.com

J8Vm TIL author George Burns wrote a book called “How to live to be 100”. He was born in 1896 and died in 1996.
YpY6B TIL that Anne Whitney, an American sculptor, won the blind contest to create a statue of Charles Sumner in Boston Public Garden in 1875. When they found out that she was a woman they declared it "inappropriate" for her to have sculpted a man and gave the commission to Thomas Ball instead.
4WAg TIL that before 1995, scientists believed that rogue waves were nothing more than sailors’ myths.
W51B TIL of Peter Skyllberg who was trapped for two months in his car after it became bogged down in snow drifts near the town of Umea in Sweden. He survived on just snow and snacks and went into a state of hibernation. This slowed his metabolism and left him emaciated, barely able to speak or move.
7GXx TIL that a stockbroker named Nicholas Winton brought 669 Czechoslovakian Jewish children to England, saving their lives. He refused to take credit for his deed until his wife found a scrapbook of the children that he saved and gave it to the BBC. He turns 104 this year.