Our body is our temporary home throughout the journey represented by our life span. But we know so little about it. The worst thing we do is that we take it for granted and accuse it of malfunctioning when something goes wrong. But the forget that we’re provided with this perfect mechanism that never stops working until we die. For instance, the human heart will beat an average of 3 billion times during a person’s lifetime. So in other words, this post is meant to make you remember the 10+1 most amazing facts about our body that will just make you want to give it a hug.
Fact #1. If you could remove the stomach, the spleen, one kidney, 80% of the intestines and 75% of the liver, you’ll still be able to survive. And because the human liver is responsible for more than 500 distinct processes in the body, if a person had two-thirds of their liver removed as a result of trauma or surgery, it would eventually grow back to its original size in as little as four weeks.
Fact #2. Every atom in your body is billions of years old. Hydrogen, the most common element in the universe and a major feature of your body, was produced in the big bang 13.7bn years ago. Heavier atoms such as carbon and oxygen were forged in stars between 7bn and 12bn years ago, and blasted across space when the stars exploded.
Fact #3. It is hard to grasp just how small the atoms that make up your body are until you take a look at the sheer number of them. An adult is made up of around 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (7 octillion) atoms.
Fact #4. Goosebumps are a remnant of our evolutionary predecessors. They occur when tiny muscles around the base of each hair tense, pulling the hair more erect. With a decent covering of fur, this would fluff up the coat, getting more air into it, making it a better insulator. But with a human’s thin body hair, it just makes our skin look strange.
Fact #5. Approximately 50,000 cells in your body will die and be replaced with new cells during the time it takes you to read this sentence. We make a new skeleton every three months and a new layer of skin every month.
Fact #6. You have a second brain in your gut. You have around 100 million neurons, more than in your spinal cord, which draw a line from your gut, your esophagus to your anus. Scientists know this as the enteric nervous system. This second brain is incapable of conscious thought and is largely responsible for digestion, but it does more than that. If you’ve ever felt “butterflies” in your stomach or felt as if you’ve been punched in the gut when receiving bad news that was caused by your enteric nervous system. This also plays a roll in your overall mood, why certain foods can alter your mood and why bad situations or feelings often cause you to lose your appetite. This second brain is believed to have everything to do with intuition. That’s what the gut feeling is all about.
Fact #7. Just like a chicken, your life started off with an egg. However, there is a significant difference between a human egg and a chicken egg that has a surprising effect on your age. Human eggs are tiny. They are, after all, just a single cell and are typically around 0.2mm across (about the size of a printed full stop). Your egg was formed in your mother. But the surprising thing however is that it was formed when she was an embryo. The formation of your egg, and the half of your DNA that came from your mother, could be considered as the very first moment of your existence. And this happened before your mother was even born.
Fact #8. Every pound of fat gained causes your body to make 7 new miles of blood vessels. This means if you are “only” 10 pounds overweight your heart has to pump blood through an extra 70 miles of blood vessels. The good news is that this also works in reverse. If you lose a pound of fat, your body will break down and reabsorb the no longer needed blood vessels.
Fact #9. When you blush, the lining of your stomach blushes too.
Fact #10. Humans are the best long-distance runners on the planet, better than any four-legged animal. In fact, thousands of years ago humans used to run after their prey until it died of exhaustion.
#10+1. There’s something unique about all of us, and it’s not just the fingerprint. Every human has a unique tongue print, as well.
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