5 Useful Mutations Some Lucky Humans Have

5 Dense Bones

This one’s straight out of the Marvel playbook, maybe more than anything else on this list. It was even discovered under the sort of circumstances that would send Charles Xavier on a home visit. There was a family in Connecticut, of which not a single member had ever broken a bone. Doctors found that the entire family had extremely high bone density, and learned that it was likely a result of a gene known as LRP5. 

There’s a bit of a coin-flip involved, with LRP5 also able to cause low bone density, but it turned out if it mutated in the right way, you’d be left with one hell of a sturdy skeleton.

4 High Altitude Tolerance

As someone who’s been to a wedding, with the attached alcohol consumption, 10,000 feet above sea level? I can tell you that altitude can well and truly mess you up. Most notably, due to the lack of oxygen. So what’s the deal with the sherpas on places like Everest who are casually trudging along while their filthy rich human cargo suck down oxygen like blue Gatorade the morning after a high-altitude wedding? 

Research found that Tibetan and Andean populations, who’ve lived at great heights for much of their history, have specific mutations that make them more tolerant of low oxygen levels. Namely, they both have differences related to the hemoglobin in their blood compared to us lowlanders. Andeans have higher levels of hemoglobin overall, while Tibetans use the hemoglobin they have extremely efficiently.

3 Malaria Resistance

Now, one unfortunate pattern even on a positively framed list is that mutations don’t have a whole lot of room for error. Sometimes these lucky mutations require threading the needle gene-wise to get all of the benefits without veering into “oh no” territory. This is the case, too, with a mutation known as sickle cell. Again, we’re looking at hemoglobin, and specifically the shape of red blood cells. 

Normal red blood cells are the disc-looking blobs you’ve probably seen, but this trait can cause some of them to have a sickle shape. If one of your two parents passes on the sickle cell gene, you’ll have both sickle-shaped and normal blood cells, which gives you resistance against severe malaria. Unfortunately, if you receive two copies of this recessive gene, you'll end up with sickle cell disease, which far outweighs any possible benefits. 

But the malaria resistance is seemingly enough for evolution to bear the risk, especially because sickle cell is far more likely in populations with high malaria risk, like African populations.

2 Short Sleepers

A mutation that’s come more into the spotlight recently because every grindset influencer worth their salt thinks they have it is one that produces what are known as “short sleepers.” The usual adult human needs seven to nine hours of sleep a night to operate at peak performance. Sure, you can squeeze in a couple short nights here and there, but it’ll have effects on your cognitive function. Unless you’re a bona fide, medically acknowledged “short sleeper,” people who seem to not only survive but thrive on only five hours of sleep a night. 

Imagine what you could do with all that extra time! You could watch so many more videos of cows getting their hooves cleaned on YouTube!

1 Holding Your Breath

More on the scale of David Blaine than Aquaman, but some people are designed to be able to hold their breath longer underwater than most. Specifically, the Bajau Laut population in Southeast Asia. It’s a mutation of necessity, seeing as their culture revolves around fishing, and they spend a remarkable amount of their lives underwater. 

When trying to see exactly what it is that makes them such consistently skilled divers, scientists found enlarged spleens and a variety of mutations affecting oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in blood. Given that the spleen is known better for comedy than its actual function, I’ll elaborate: a larger spleen can store more red blood cells, allowing the owner to carry more oxygen down with them from the surface.