65 Amazing Facts About Human Body
1. The nose has specialized smell - detecting cells with nerves taking information to the brain. Each nerve has up to 25 tiny micro - hairs that respond to minute odour particles.2. The average 25 year old has up to 10,000 taste buds. After the age of 50, however, taste buds gradually die and a 70 - year - old may only have 5,000 taste buds left.
3. The average adult human being consumes 550 kilograms of food in a year.
4. At rest people breathe in and out 10 to 15 times each minute or an average of 20,000 each day.
5. More than 300 million alveoli in the lungs provide a huge surface area for taking in oxygen.
6. The human heart beats some 30 million times a year!
7. At rest, each heartbeat pumps out around 80 millilitres of blood.
8. A tiny pinhead-sized drop of blood contains 5,000,000 red cells, 5,000 white cells, as well as 300,000 platelets.
9. The body has more than 640 skeletal muscles.
10. There is no link between brain size and intelligence - Einstein’s brain weighed just 1.2 kilograms.
11. Americans eat about 700 million pounds of peanut butter.
12. Americans eat over 2 billion pounds of chocolate a year.
13. In your lifetime, your digestive system may handle about 50 tons!!
14. Your lungs contain almost 1500 miles of airways and over 300 million alveoli.
15. Every minute you breathe in 13 pints of air.
16. Plants are our partners in breathing. We breathe in air, use the oxygen in it, and release carbon dioxide. Plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Thank goodness!
17. People tend to get more colds in the winter because we're indoors more often and in close proximity to other people. When people sneeze, cough and even breathe -germs go flying!
18. The body of an adult contains over 60,000 miles of blood vessels!
19. An adult's heart pumps nearly 4000 gallons of blood each day!
20. The average three-year-old has two pints of blood in their body; the average adult at least five times more!
21. A "heartbeat" is really the sound of the valves in the heart closing as they push blood through its chambers.
22. You have over 30 facial muscles which create looks like surprise, happiness, sadness, and frowning.
23. Eye muscles are the busiest muscles in the body. Scientists estimate they may move more than 100,000 times a day!
24. The largest muscle in the body is the gluteus maximus muscle in the buttocks.
25. The human hand has 27 bones; your face has 14!
26. The longest bone in your body? Your thigh bone, the femur- it's about 1/4 of your height.
27. The smallest is the stirrup bone in the ear which can measure 1/10 of an inch.
28. Did you know that humans and giraffes have the same number of bones in their necks? Giraffe neck vertebrae are just much, much longer!
29. You have over 230 moveable and semi-moveable joints in your body. 30. The endocrine system is under the control of the nervous system
31. You've got over 30 of these amazing hormones busily orchestrating and regulating such things as:
-when you feel hungry or full
-how you sleepy
-our body temperature
-how you break down and utilize the food you eat and whether you are fat or thin
-when you start puberty and how long it take
-show you handle stress-how much adrenaline you have in an emergency situation
-even how and when you grow
-It also makes you smelly, greasy, and gives you the ability to mother or father a child
32. A weakened immune system is NOT a cause of the common cold.
33. The No. 1 way to boost your immune system is reducing stress
34. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.
35. Vitamin C helps, too, if you don’t pee it out.
36. Over 90% of diseases are caused or complicated by stress.
37. People with higher number of moles tend to live longer than people with lesser number of moles.
38. The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger. And the nail on the middle finger of your dominant hand will grow the fastest of all. Why is not entirely known, but nail growth is related to the length of the finger, with the longest fingers growing nails the fastest and shortest the slowest.
39. Human hair is virtually indestructible. Aside from it’s flammability, human hair decays at such a slow rate that it is practically non-disintegrative. Hair cannot be destroyed by cold, change of climate, water, or other natural forces and it is resistant to many kinds of acids and corrosive chemicals.
40. The brain itself cannot feel pain. While the brain might be the pain center when you cut your finger or burn yourself, the brain itself does not have pain receptors and cannot feel pain.
41. The brain is much more active at night than during the day.
42. The brain operates on the same amount of power as 10-watt light bulb. The cartoon image of a light bulb over your head when a great thought occurs isn’t too far off the mark. Your brain generates as much energy as a small light bulb even when you’re sleeping.
43. Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
44. Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood the number is reduced to 206.
45. A woman never runs out of eggs. At birth she has between 1 and 2 million potential eggs (follicles) and by puberty has 300,000 to 400,000 viable eggs (follicles) that can be fertilized.
46. The male scrotum hangs outside the body since the internal body temperature is too high and will kill the sperm.
47. About 500 million sperm mature every day in a healthy male.
48. Approximately 75% of human waste is made of water.
49. Earwax production is necessary for good ear health. While many people find earwax to be disgusting, it’s actually a very important part of your ear’s defense system. It protects the delicate inner ear from bacteria, fungus, dirt and even insects. It also cleans and lubricates the ear canal.
50. Tears and mucus contain an enzyme (lysozyme) that breaks down the cell wall of many bacteria.
51. There are 29 bones altogether in the skull and jaw. They make a box to protect the brain, eyes and ears.
52. The spine is made up of 24 individual small bones (called vertebrae). Your spine supports your head and body. Each of the bones are linked by small joints which can move a little. Lots of small movements add up and let your spine bend a lot.
53. The nerve network allows the brain to communicate with your body. Nerves help transport information from different areas of the body. Some nerves give information to the brain and the others allow us to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.
54. You should always get lots of rest so your eyes aren’t groggy. To keep your nose clean you should blow it often. If you are listening to music you shouldn’t have it too loud.
55. If you put your right knee on your left knee then hit your right knee cap with the side of your hand, your foot will jump.
56. Your brain is made of nerves and tissue. Your brain weighs 1,400 grams, that’s exactly 3 pounds. Your brain is made of your spinal cord and a huge network of nerves. Nerves are made of thin threads of nerve cells. Your nerves pass along messages to your brain.
57. At rest, the body takes in and breathes out about 10 liters of air each minute.
58. The right lung is slightly larger than the left.
59. The highest recorded "sneeze speed" is 165 km per hour.
60. The surface area of the lungs is roughly the same size as a tennis court.
61. The capillaries in the lungs would extend 1,600 kilometers if placed end to end.
62. We lose half a liter of water a day through breathing. This is the water vapor we see when we breathe onto glass.
63. A person at rest usually breathes between 12 and 15 times a minute.
64. The breathing rate is faster in children and women than in men.
65. A a typical male elephant’s rumble is around an average minimum of 12 Hz, a female's rumble around 13 Hz and a calf's around 22 Hz.