The human anatomy is interesting. We have two of certain parts and organs, one of some. We feel a certain way sometimes but just never understand why sometimes. Some parts of the body grow while others remain the same and the list is endless.
The truth is, there’s even more to our bodies than meets the eye and here are fifteen little known or mind blowing facts about the human body.
1.In a single lifetime, you produce enough saliva to fill a swimming pool
As gross as this sounds, 25,000 quarts of saliva are produced by the average human. While it sounds like a bad thing, this saliva helps keep our bodies clean.People who have lower levels of saliva are more susceptible to oral infections.
On that note, you might as well know that in just a day, you produce a whole litre of mucus.
2.Sleeping for less than 7 hours a day decreases life expectancy
Sounds scary right?
Well, getting less than seven hours of sleep consistently is said to lower your life expectancy.
It is sad that often times, life always seems to stand in the way of our getting the amount of sleep our bodies need. This is especially the case for people with full time jobs in busy cities that will often keep you on the road too long making you get home late and have you up too early if you are to get to work in time.It’s almost like we can’t exactly win on this one but it does increase your chances of dying prematurely.
At night when you sleep, your brain is more active as it starts to prepare for the next day. It gets rid of toxins and certain information to ensure you wake up revitalized.
The most ideal number of sleep hours is eight, although babies need even more sleep for healthy growth.
3. You are at a bigger risk of dying of a heart attack on a Monday
As if Mondays aren’t already bad enough, here comes more reason to not like them. A lot always seems to happen on Mondays come to think of it and most of all that is usually negative, which subsequently causes stress.
Apparently, 20% more people succumb to heart attacks on this dreaded first day of the week.
4. A Human being can distinguish between 1 trillion different smells
One trillion!
As shocking as that number seems, it is true. People often underestimate the nose but you, the average human can tell between this immense number of odors which compared to how many colors the eye can tell from, is impeccable.
The eye can only distinguish between 10 million colors.
5. A baby has 99 more bones than an adult
Yes, as crazy as that might sound, it is a fact.
It is said that a new born baby has around three hundred and five bones compared to a fully grown adult who has two hundred and six. The explanation for this is that a baby’s skeleton is mostly made up of cartilage and as the baby grows to the point of adulthood, through a process called ossification, the cartilage turns into adult bone.
6.You have as much hair as a chimpanzee
This one is funny. Chimps usually appear to be so hairy. In fact they just look like a ball of hair, so how can the amount of hair on the average human being be compared to the amount of hair on a chimp?
Well, it has an explanation.
The hair on a human being’s body is often incredibly fine and is also very light so it isn’t as easy to notice, while that on a chimpanzee is much thicker.
It is believed that that appearance of our hair is to actually make us sweat better but this is still unclear.
7. Your heart pumps enough blood to fill 200 train tanks
Well, in a single lifetime, your heart will keep pumping blood as long as it has oxygen supply. This blood pumped throughout this entire time is about 1.5 million barrels.
Did you know that as long as this same heart is supplied with oxygen continuously, it can keep pumping even if it is outside the body?
This is because of its own electrical impulse.
The amount of energy produced on a single day by your heart can also power a truck for, wait for it, 20 miles.
8. Music heals the body
I’m sure you’ve heard of cases where music is used by expectant ladies for the sake of keeping the unborn baby relaxed, among other things related to that entire period of expectancy, but the wonders of music surpass that.
Medical practitioners, mainly in cardiovascular units, are starting to incorporate music into treating of patients because it has been found to generally relax the body, lower their heart rate as well as their blood pressure.
Careful though with the kind of music for this purpose. It needs to be nice and slow in order to avoid sending the patients into a state of shock.
9. An unborn baby can actually save the mother
This is a very interesting fact. When a woman is expectant and has a malfunctioning organ, the foetus has a way of sending stem cells to save the mother.
It is a beautiful phenomenon because typically the mother’s body is what protects the foetus as it grows but it turns out, the mother can also count on her unborn baby in the event that she faces a health risk.
10. Your eyes actually never change in size ,butthenoseandearsdo
Yes, your eyes as an adult are the exact size they were when you were still a baby. In fact, that is why babies usually look so cute and adorable. It’s because their eyes , other than being so bright, appear bigger.
Contrary to this, your ears and nose will always keep growing for as long as you are alive.
11. You lose 600,000 particles of skin in every hour
Do you realize that this is an equivalent of 1.5 pounds lost every year? Sure it doesn’t look like much but for automatic skin particle shedding, it is quite the figure.
That is a lot of dead cells.
12. The fastest human sense is hearing and the most active muscle is the eye
The average brain can tell sound faster than the blink of an eye. How fast? Well, 10 times faster.
That is why it is obviously easier to get someone’s attention by yelling than it is to do a gesture.
The eye on the other hand is the most active among the body’s muscles as it moves a hundred thousand times in a single day.
13. Your body has enough acid to dissolve a razor blade and more chemicals
In just the stomach alone, a razor blade can dissolve in the acid present.
The sulphur in your body can finish off all the fleas on a dog.
About nine hundred pencils can be made from the carbon present in the body.
There is also enough fat to to make seven bars of soap. The fat part might be a little scary for some but it is a fact.
14. The feet contain 52 bones
Realize, this is approximately a quarter of all the bones contained in your entire body. This should not actually be a surprise seeing the amount of work the feet do . They literally support your entire body throughout the day.
In addition to the number of bones, they also contain thirty three joints, nineteen different muscles and more than a hundred ligaments.
15. When you wake up, you are actually taller than you were before you slept
Are you sure about that?
You may ask, because you probably never note the difference in your height.
Well it is not much of a difference but if it counts, then you will be glad to note that you wake up a centimeter taller, so maybe another reason not to underestimate the power of a good night sleep.
There will always be more to learn about the human body and knowledge of this is power because it could, to a great extent, shape how we look after ourselves and generally all our activities.
Understanding such facts should be interesting.
Fifteen is just a small number compared to how much more there is to human beings but certainly a good number to start with in learning.