Many iconic world records have been broken this year, and as always, the ones which drew the most attention around the globe were records related to the human body.
Here are five of the most astonishing ones, including the man with the smallest hands, the woman with the longest beard, the biggest kidney stone ever, an Indian lady with two-metre long hair, and another with 38 teeth. And be sure to scroll to the end to watch a video of the many others!
Largest kidney stone
The largest kidney stone ever recorded, measuring 3.37 cm (5.26 in) in length and 10.55 cm (4.15 in) in width, was removed from 62-year-old retired soldier Canistus Coonghe (Sri Lanka).
The colossal kidney stone was larger than Coonghe’s actual kidney, which has a bipolar length of 11.8cm (4.6 in).
It is also the heaviest kidney stone ever recorded, weighing 800 g (1.76 lb) – roughly the same weight as five baseballs.
According to Coonghe’s doctors, his kidney was still functioning normally, despite the blockage.
The superlative stone was surgically removed, and Coonghe was reported be recovering well afterwards.
Smallest hands
The world’s shortest man living, Afshin Ghaderzadeh (Iran), was awarded a second Guinness World Records title for the smallest hands (male).
Measured from the tip of the middle finger to the crease under the palm where the wrist begins, his left hand is 6.7 cm (2.63 in) and his right hand is 6.4 cm (2.51 in) – that’s almost three times shorter than the average adult man’s.
After being awarded this record, Afshin and his family joked that his hands may be the world’s smallest, but his nose definitely isn’t.
Afshin, 21, is the fourth-shortest man ever verified by Guinness World Records, standing at a height of 65.24 cm (2 ft 1.6 in).
Another of the world’s shortest people also earned a second record title this year: the shortest non-mobile woman living, Wildine Aumoithe (USA), was verified as the world’s shortest professional model after featuring in a runway show at New York Fashion Week.
Longest beard on a living woman
Erin Honeycutt (USA) was confirmed to have the longest beard on a living woman, measuring 30 cm (11.81 in).
Erin’s beard broke the previous record of 25.5 cm (10.04 in), which belonged to 75-year-old Vivian Wheeler (USA).
Erin, who has been growing her beard for over two years, has polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a condition that causes hormonal imbalance and can result in excess hair growth, irregular menstruation, weight gain, and infertility.
Her facial hair began noticeably growing when she was 13, leading Erin to shave up to three times per day.
She continued doing this during her teen years and into adulthood, but after partially losing her vision and becoming tired of shaving, Erin’s wife, Jen, encouraged her to let her beard grow out.
Speaking about her world record, Erin said: “It’s just kind of a nice thing to be recognized for, even though it’s just something that happens naturally for me.”
The record for the longest beard on a living man was also updated this year – Sarwan Singh (Canada) has held the title since 2008, and his beard was recently remeasured to be 2.54 m (8 ft 3 in), having grown 21 cm over the past 15 years.
Longest hair
Another hirsute woman who set a record this year is 46-year-old Smita Srivastava (India), who has the longest hair on a living person, measuring an incredible 236.22 cm (7 ft 9 in).
Smita has been growing her hair since she was 14. The process of washing, drying, detangling, and styling it typically takes her up to three hours each time.
“I will take care of my hair as long as I can,” she said. “I will never cut my hair because my life is in my hair.
“I want my hair to grow more and see how long I can manage it.”
Smita is from Uttar Pradesh, the same state as Sidakdeep Singh Chahal, who was awarded the record for the longest hair on a male teenager this year. Sidak’s hair measures 146 cm (4 ft 9.5 in).
Most teeth
26-year-old Kalpana Balan (India) set a record for the most teeth in a person’s mouth (female), with a total of 38 – that’s six more than the average adult.
She has four extra mandibular (lower jaw) teeth and two extra maxillary (upper jaw) teeth.
Kalpana’s supernumerary teeth began growing during her teenage years, and she feared getting them removed, so she decided to keep them.
They don’t cause her any pain, but she said they do cause her problems when she eats, as bits of food get stuck between them.
“I am so happy to get the Guinness World Records title,” she said.
“It’s my lifetime achievement.”
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