Amazing Bone Facts

Amazing Bone Facts

Image source: "Human skeleton front en" by LadyofHats Mariana Ruiz Villarreal - Own work. Image renamed from File:Human skeleton front.svg. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Human_skeleton_front_en.svg#/media/File:Human_skeleton_front_en.svg

What would happen if humans didn't have bones?
You'd be floppy like a beanbag. Could you stand up? Forget it. Could you walk? No way. Without bones you'd be just a puddle of skin and guts on the floor.

Bones have two purposes. Some, like your backbone, provide the structure which enables you to stand erect instead of lying like a puddle on the floor. Other bones protect the delicate, and sometimes soft, insides of your body. Your skull, a series of fused bones, acts like a hard protective helmet for your brain. The bones, or vertebrae, of your spinal column surround your spinal cord, a complex bundle of nerves. Imagine what could happen to your heart and lungs without the protective armor of your rib cage!

How many bones do humans have?
When you were born you had over 300 bones. As you grew, some of these bones began to fuse together. The result? An adult has only 206 bones!

How do my bones move?
With a lot of help. You need muscles to pull on bones so that you can move. Along with muscles and joints, bones are responsible for you being able to move. Your muscles are attached to bones. When muscles contract, the bones to which they are attached act as levers and cause various body parts to move.

You also need joints which provide flexible connections between these bones. Your body has different kinds of joints. Some, such as those in your knees, work like door hinges, enabling you to move back and forth. Those in your neck enable bones to pivot so you can turn your head. Still other joints like the shoulder enable you to move your arms 360 degrees like a shower head.

Are your bones alive?
Absolutely. Bones are made of a mix of hard stuff that gives them strength and tons of living cells which help them grow and repair themselves. Like other cells in your body, the bone cells rely on blood to keep them alive. Blood brings them food and oxygen and takes away waste.

If bones weren't made of living cells, things like broken toes or arms would never mend. But don't worry, they do. That's because your bone cells are busy growing and multiplying to repair the break! How? When you break your toe, blood clots form to close up the space between the broken segments. Then your body mobilizes bone cells to deposit more of the hard stuff to bridge the break.

What's bone marrow?
Many bones are hollow. Their hollowness makes bones strong and light. It' s in the center of many bones that bone marrow makes new red and white blood cells. Red blood cells ensure that oxygen is distributed to all parts of your body and white blood cells ensure you are able to fight germs and disease. Who would have thought that bones make blood!?!

Do all critters have a backbone?
Nope. In fact, some 97% of critters on earth don' t have a backbone or spine.Remarkably enough, of those that do have a backbone, there are lots of similarities: a skull surrounding a brain, a rib cage surrounding a heart, and a jawbone or mouth opening.

Factoids
1. The human hand has 27 bones; your face has 14!

2. The longest bone in your body? Your thigh bone, the femur- it' s about 1/4 of your height. The smallest is the stirrup bone in the ear which can measure 1/10 of an inch.

3. Did you know that humans and giraffes have the same number of bones in their necks? Giraffe neck vertebrae are just much, much longer!

4. You have over 230 moveable and semi-moveable joints in your body.

5. When you lift a glass of milk and take a sip, more than 30 joints move in your fingers, wrist, arm and shoulder.

6. Joints are where bones meet.

7. Throughout life, our bones are being remolded; old bone is broken down (resorption) and new born is formed (formation).

8. During childhood and teenage years, new bone is developed faster then old bone is removed, as a result, bones grow longer and denser.

9. Maximum bone density and strength is reached around age 30.

10. Maximum bone density and strength may never be reached if there is an inadequate amount of calcium in the body.

11. Calcium is not only needed for bone growth, calcium is also needed for other things such as nerve impulses, blood clotting, and muscle contraction.

12. Osteoporosis is a disease of the bones. If maximum bone density is not reached during the bone-building years, osteoporosis is more likely to develop later in life.

13. Osteoporosis can cause bones to become fragile, weak, and prone to fracture.

14. Environmental factors of osteoporosis are: Getting enough calcium, exercising, not smoking, and avoiding excessive alcohol consumption. These factors can be controlled and can help lessen the risk osteoporosis.

15. Genetic factors such as being female, small-boned, and having a family history of osteoporosis, cannot be controlled.

16. The most effective way to build bone mass is weight bearing exercises. Weight bearing exercises are exercises that cause muscles to work against gravity. Examples are: walking, running, dancing, racquet sports, basketball, and soccer.

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Amazing Super Food-Maca

Amazing Super Food-Maca

Maca is a hardy perennial plant cultivated high in the Andean Mountain at altitudes from 11,000-14,500 feet. Maca was domesticated about 2000 years ago by the Inca Indians. To the Andean Indians, Maca is a valuable commodity. Because so little else grows in the region, Maca is often traded with communities at lower elevations for other staples like rice, corn, and beans. The dried roots can be stored for up to seven years. Native Peruvians have traditionally utilized Maca since before the time of the Incas for both nutritional and medicinal purposes.

Maca is a member of the Brassica family of plants (cabbage, cauliflower, turnip, watercress) and consists of an above ground leafy component and a below ground root component. It is the root component that is primarily used and studied.

An adaptogen is a substance which helps the body adapt to a variety of situations. Some 
adaptogens, like Ginseng, have an ability to promote energy. Maca is such an adaptogen.  It’s truly a buried treasure, though. The edible root, which looks like a turnip or radish, comes in a range of colors, including cream, gray, yellow, purple, yellow-and-purple, red, and black. It smells faintly of butterscotch, and can have a sharp taste that packs a zing like mustard or wasabi-which is why locals prefer to boil, roast, or dry and/or grind it into flour before including it in their daily dishes. 

Many factors can affect libido, including hormone levels, stress, and mood. Well-designed research has shown, however, that within 8 weeks of taking 1,500 mg of maca daily, men have an average 180 percent increase in their libido. Furthermore, the effect is independent of whether they have depression or anxiety, and it doesn’t cause changes in their levels of testosterone or estrogen.

1. Many  holistic  practitioners  recommend  Maca  to  help relieve unpleasant symptoms of 
menopause.

2. Maca has a balancing effect on the hypothalamus, the master switch of the body,which regulates the endocrine glands, including the pituitary, the adrenals, the ovaries, the  testes, the thyroid and the pancreas.

3. Maca nourishes your body and the natural production of hormones by encouraging the optimal functioning of the endocrine system.

4. Maca improves physical and emotional well-being and lowers stress, improves athletic 
performance without harmful side effects, increases energy and promotes mental clarity and concentration.


Benefits of Maca in Women 
Nourishes the endocrine system, stimulating the natural production of estrogen and  n progesterone. 

Increases energy, improves physical and emotional well-being, and lowers stress. 

Promotes mental clarity and concentration. 

Maca increases stamina and athletic performance without harmful side effects. 

Alleviates the symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes, insomnia, vaginal dryness, night sweats, chills, irritability, incontinence, sore muscles and joints. 


Benefits of Maca in Men 
Nourishes the endocrine system, encouraging it naturally to produce higher testosterone levels which in turn boosts sexual energy. 

Improves physical and emotional well-being and lowers stress. 

Maca increases stamina and athletic performance without harmful side effects. 

Promotes mental clarity and concentration. 

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Amazing Facts - Human Body

Amazing Facts - Human Body

1. A human being loses an average of 40 to 100 strands of hair a day. 

2. A cough releases an explosive charge of air that moves at speeds up to 60 mph. 

3. Every time you lick a stamp, you consume 1/10 of a calorie. 

4. A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months. 

5. A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 mph. 

6. Every person has a unique tongue print. 

7. According to German researchers, the risk of heart attack is higher on Monday than any other day of the week. 

8. After spending hours working at a computer display, look at a blank piece of white paper. It will probably appear pink. 

9. An average human drinks about 16,000 gallons of water in a lifetime. 

10. A fingernail or toenail takes about 6 months to grow from base to tip. 

11. An average human scalp has 100,000 hairs. 

12. It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 to frown. 

13. Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood, we only have 206 in our bodies. 

14. Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime. 

15. By age sixty, most people have lost half of their taste buds. 

16. By the time you turn 70, your heart will have beat some two-and-a-half billion times (figuring on an average of 70 beats per minute). 

17. Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels. 

18. Every human spent half an hour as a single cell. 

19. Every square inch of the human body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it. 

20. Fingernails grow faster than toenails. 

21. Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour-about 1.5 pounds a year. By 70 years of age, an average person will have lost 105 pounds of skin. 

22. At rest, a person breathes about 14 to 16 times per minute. After exercise it could increase to over 60 times per minute. 

23. New babies at rest breathe between 40 and 50 times per minute. By age five it decreases to around 25 times per minute. 

24. The total surface area of the alveoli (tiny air sacs in the lungs) is the size of a tennis court. 

25. The lungs are the only organ in the body that can float on water. 

26. The lungs produce a detergent-like substance which reduces the surface tension of the fluid lining, allowing air in. 

27. Your heart is about the same size as your fist. 

28. An average adult body contains about five quarts of blood. 

29. All the blood vessels in the body joined end to end would stretch 62,000 miles or two and a half times around the earth. 

30. The heart circulates the body's blood supply about 1,000 times each day.

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65 Amazing Facts About Human Body

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. 

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Amazing Power of Amino Acids

Amazing Power of Amino Acids

In 1838, a Dutch chemist, G.J. Mulder, described a certain organic material as "unqestionably the most important of all known substances in the organic kingdom. Without it, no life appears possible on our planet. Through its means the chief phenomena of life are produced. " This complex nitrogen-bearing substance was called protein from the Greek word meaning " take the first place." Protein in now a group name signifying the principal nitrogenous constituents of the protoplasm of all plant and animal tissues.

Proteins are extremely complex organic compounds of the elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and,with some exceptions, sulphur. Most proteins also contain phosphorous, and some specialised proteins contain iron, iodine, copper and other inorganic elements. The presence of nitrogen distinguishes proteins from carbohydrates and fats.

Proteins are thus vital substances, which form important constituent of muscles, tissues, and the blood. Proteins supply the building material for the body and make good the wear and tear of tissues. Several substances concerned with vital life processes such as enzymes, which help in digestion of food, are chiefly protein in nature. 

There are several varieties of protein. Each type contains a specific number of "building blocks " known as amino-acids. Before they can be absorbed by the body, all proteins must first be broken down into amino-acids. When food stuffs are ingested, the nutrients and amino-acids do not immediately diffuse into all the different tissues. There are a series of biochemical reactions in the digestive tract which collect these proteins, break them down and then utilise them as needed. Any interference with the normal digestive process causes in-complete protein digestion resulting in gas, bloating etc.

There are about 22 amino acids needed for the normal functioning of the body. The body can manufacture many amino acids if it has no adequate nitrogen source, but it cannot produce certain others in sufficient amounts to meet its needs. The amino acids that the body cannot synthesis is in adequate amounts are called essential or indispensable because they must be supplied by the diet in proper proportions and amounts to meet the requirements for maintenance of growth of Non-essential or dispensable amino acids are those thatissue. the body can synthesize in sufficient amounts to meet its needs if the total amount of nitrogen supplied by protein is adequate. 

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