My mother used to not be allowed to learn to roller skate because my grandfather was too afraid she would go blind if she fell on her tailbone. My mother secretly roller skated anyway, but fortunately can still see. Have you ever been warned not to fall on your tailbone? Is this a real fear? What is your tailbone anyway? And can a fall on it really cause blindness?
A useless body part?
Some body parts seem to have no function at all, and sometimes even just cause trouble. Just think of your appendix. It’s no good for anything, and can also become quite inflamed. Your tailbone, also called tailbone, is another useless body part. It consists of the bottom three to five fused vertebrae of the spine and contains no nerves or blood vessels. A fall on your tailbone can be very painful. Your tailbone can break or bruise and this can lead to major, even chronic, symptoms.
Can you go blind if you fall on your tailbone?
There are no nerve fibers in your tailbone that can be damaged by a fall.
No one has ever gone blind from falling on their tailbone and the origin of this myth is a mystery. After all, there are no nerve pathways in your tailbone that can be damaged by a fall, and certainly no nerve pathways related to your eyes. A theory that a so-called “shock wave” after the fall would damage upper spinal cord or the brain is not plausible. The spine is flexible enough to absorb a shock wave. And even if damage were to occur, it would be quite a coincidence if this damage were precisely what caused blindness.
Fall on the back of your head.
A fear of blindness that would be better explained is the fear of falling on the back of your head. This is because the part of your brain that you need for your vision is located in the back of your head. There have been cases of children who fell hard on the back of their head and became temporarily blind. Or children who went blind after getting a ball against their head like Andrea Bocelli.
So my mother had to secretly roller skate for nothing. But a helmet would have been wise.
Braille alphabet
Want to know what the Braille alphabet looks like? Then take a look at the image below.
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