Listed below are 15 fun facts about the human body.
15- I’m sorry, but your hair is dead
The hair is only alive while it is still inside the epidermis. In chemical terms, the hair is 50% made of carbon, 21% oxygen, 17% nitrogen, 6% hydrogen and 1% sulfur the adequate amount of heat to blood circulation and consequently hair growth. But hair air color influences the number of strands: Blonds are the ones with the most hair, while redheads are in the last position. Although dead, his hair is stiff: it contains information about everything that passed through his blood, including drugs. That is why it is used in anti-doping tests.
14- The fingernails grow faster than the toenails.
Nail growth varies according to age, sex, health and genetics. In fact, the fingernails grow faster than the toenails because our hands are physically closer to our heart. They end up receiving a better supply of oxygen and nutrients, transported through small capillaries located just below our nails. Regardless of the growth rate, the nails of the hands and feet have the same growth mechanism, being composed mainly of keratin, a substance also found in the skin and hair, as well as in the horns and hooves of animals.
13- The tongue is one of the strongest muscles in the body
Muscle size is not synonymous with strength, the human body has more than 600 muscles. The tongue is one of the strongest and most flexible muscles in the human body. It is also one of the regions of our body with the highest amount of microorganisms: 1 ml of saliva has about 1 million bacteria. If the language did not exist, we would not be able to speak, eat, swallow or even sing properly! The tongue helps to produce certain sounds, allows people to taste food and can give clues about people’s general health.
12- Déjà vu is real
Déjà vu has a supernatural reputation. But the feeling of having already experienced a situation of the present while it is occurring occurs when the brain sends signals to see if there was any type of “memory error”. In other words, the phenomenon is our brain checking if there was any inconsistency between what we really live and what we think we live. Have déjà-vu can be a good sign because it shows that the “memory check” system is working well and you are less likely to confuse past situations with present ones
11- Butterflies in the stomach
The stomach is stimulated by a nerve. Falling in love or being interested in someone awakens the pleasure system that causes responses in the body. The feeling of butterflies in your stomach is just a sign of bodily stress. Dopamine is the first neurotransmitter to manifest itself when you see someone attractive. The release of different hormones causes the heart rate to accelerate, the temperature of the face to rise and cause the color change in the cheeks. See also; 10 Misconceptions About Female Body.
10- Children have more bones in their bodies than adults
The bones fuse throughout human growth, and as a result, the skeleton of an adult human has 206 bones of varying shapes and sizes. In the baby’s skull, for example, we consider that there are six bones, which then fit together and become one. The vast majority of bones will only come together after the end of the growth phase. The femur, the thigh bone, is the longest in the human body and the strongest bone. Despite being hollow, it supports more weight than concrete. The smallest bone in the human body is the stirrup, one of the three bones we have in our ears.
9- You have 160 thousand km of blood vessels
The extent of the circulatory system is unbelievable. The blood vessels of an adult are more than 160 thousand kilometers long, this is enough to go around the land four times.
The aorta is considered the largest artery in the body, it leaves the heart, passes through the chest and goes towards the abdomen, where it divides to bring blood to the legs.On the other hand, capillaries are extremely small and are about 5 micrometers, although capillaries are the smallest blood tubes, they make up about 80% of this entire length.
8- You can identify the umami taste
Besides the four basic tastes we learned at school: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Researchers recognized the umami flavor, which means delicious, as the fifth taste that can be distinguished by humans. An adult’s tongue has about 10,000 taste buds, which develop throughout life. Children have a natural preference for sweet because they have fewer taste buds than an adult, throughout life the palate changes with activation of the taste buds. So, when you grow up you no longer like the same foods you liked when you were a child
7- The brain is not able to feel pain
There are no pain sensors attached directly to the brain. But there are sensors in the membranes and skin that cover the skull and the brain. The pains we feel when we are hit or during a simple headache are emitted by these sensors. The mechanism of pain production in the body works through nociceptors, nerve endings that are pain receptors that are on the skin, joints and some internal organs. Its function is to detect physical, chemical or thermal variations that could destroy our tissues. The headache associated with a hangover is usually the result of dehydration caused by alcohol consumption, which causes pain in the blood vessels in the head
6- The skin is the largest organ in the human body
An adult human being carries about 3.6 kilos of skin, and in this phase the organ is approximately two square meters long. The skin is constantly renewed and serves as protection. The skin on the fingertips has a special mark: fingerprints, they are unique for each human being and help us to hold objects more easily. Patients with Nagali syndrome have no fingerprints. See also; 10 Useless Human Body Parts.
5- We are water
The body is made up of 70% water, which corresponds to half of our weight. In a newborn the number is even higher: 78%. Every part of the body has water, including our bones. Lungs and liver are the organs with the most water, even more than the blood itself. Water plays important roles in transporting nutrients and regulating body temperature. Despite this, our body is not able to store water, after consumption, water is distributed throughout our body. A glass of water takes about 30 to 60 minutes to travel all the way, some of it remains in the blood and then is disseminated to all organs and muscles.
4- You have 2 meters of DNA in each cell
The intensity of DNA compaction is extreme. So extreme that if all the pieces of DNA from each human chromosome were linked to each other from end to end and then stretched we would have 2 meters of genetic material. This quantity corresponds to the genetic material of a single cell. Another curious fact is that bonobo monkeys and humans share 98.7% of the same genetic map, the same percentage shared by humans with chimpanzees. Bonobos, chimpanzees and humans shared a single common ancestor about 6 million years ago, but that common ancestor remains unknown.
3- The heart beats, on average, 100 thousand times a day
An adult’s heart beats 60 to 100 times a minute. That is, there are about 100 thousand times a day, 35 million hits in one year and, at the age of 70, the heart will have beaten about 2.5 billion times;- and in children, this number is even higher. The heart has its own electrical system, which allows the organ to function outside the body, as long as you have an adequate supply of oxygen. The human heart is so strong that its contractions have enough pressure to squirt blood over a distance of almost 10 meters. See also 10 Shocking Things Found Inside Human Body.
2- The human eye can distinguish up to 10 million different colors
The retina has 120 million cells specialized in detecting colors and light intensities, which are the cones and rods. Color blindness is a disease in which the person has difficulty seeing colors like red or green. Besides it the images captured by the eyes are projected on the retina (bottom of the eye) upside down! However, the brain reverses them, so that we have the perception that they are in the normal position.
1- There are more bacteria in your mouth than people in the world
About 50 billion bacteria inhabit the mouth of every human being! These microorganisms live in a well-organized manner and not all of them are bad for your health. In fact, some are essential for maintaining good health. The role of bacteria in the environment also deserves mention: It is extremely important for the recycling of organic matter, that is, bacteria, together with fungi, carry out the decomposition process by transforming dead organic matter and returning it to the soil in the form of inorganic matter.
Source:
- Estructura y función del cuerpo humano : 15a ed.” / Gary A. Thibodeau, Kevin T. Patton.
- tuasaude.com