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By David Crocker

Diet & Exercise

 

I thought we’d just have some fun today and explore amazing facts about our bodies.

1. Babies are born with 300 bones; adults have 206. Some of our bones fuse as we age. The smallest bone in your body is in your ears (the “stapes”, found in the inner ear). A quarter of all your bones, are in your feet.
2. Your blood has the same amount of salt, as ocean water. If they were laid end to end, all the blood vessels in the human body would encircle the earth four times. Every day, your heart pumps 1,800 gallons of blood through your blood vessels. Over the course of a lifetime, this extensive system carries about a million barrels of blood throughout the body. Women’s hearts beat faster than men.
3. As you breath, most of the air is going in and out of just one nostril. Every few hours, the workload shifts to the other nostril. The nose can detect about 1 trillion scents. The brain region for processing smell is up to 50% larger in women.
4. The tongue has between 2,000 and 4,000 taste buds. Your tongue is not one muscle, but rather is made up of eight interwoven muscles, similar in structure to an elephant’s trunk, or an octopus’s tentacle. It’s been said “the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body”. That’s not true. While it is very strong, the “masseter”, is the body’s strongest muscle. It connects the mandible (lower jawbone), and the cheekbone. With all the muscles of the jaw working together, it can close the teeth with a force as great as 55 pounds on the incisors, and 200 pounds on the molars.
5. Your eyes are the same size from birth, but your nose and ears keep growing. The eye can distinguish approximately 10 million different colors. Eye color depends on how much of a pigment called “melanin” is stored in the front layers of the iris, the structure surrounding the pupil. Melanin is stored in intracellular compartments called “melanosomes”. In folks with blue eyes, a minimal amount of melanin is found within melanosomes. Those with green eyes, a moderate amount of melanin, while individuals with brown eyes have a high amount of melanin within melanosomes.

The eye is the fastest muscle in the body-hence why when something happens quickly, we say “in the blink of an eye”. The eye can blink in 1/3 of a second. The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea, the clear outer layer at the front of the eye. It receives oxygen directly from the air. If the cornea were fed by blood supply, you’d always see pink. The cornea is also the fastest healing tissue in the body. The only organ more complex than the eye is the brain.

6. An adult brain weighs about three pounds. 75% of the brain is made up of water. This means dehydration, even in small amounts, can have a negative effect on brain function. The human brain will grow three times its size in the first year of life. It continues to grow until you’re about 18 years old. The brain of a human contains approximately one hundred billion neurons (a specialized cell that transmits nerve impulses). It’s a myth that humans use only 10% of their brains. We actually use all of it. We’re even using more than 10% while we sleep.

The three things pregnant women dream most about during their first trimester are frogs, worms, and potted plants. Dreams are believed to be a combination of imagination, psychological factors and neurological factors. They prove your brain is working, even when you sleep.

7. A kiss increases a person’s pulse to 100 beats per minute, or more. About two thirds of people tilt their heads to the right when kissing.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these interesting, but true facts about the human body. As the Bible teaches “We are fearfully, and wonderfully made”.

Questions? Email David at dwcrocker77@gmail.com.