The human body remains a framework of wonder, consisting of biological systems that carry out specific functions while enabling daily living.
Did you know that these systems also add up to prove the body is a phenomenal marvel? If you didn’t then you will be amazed about a few fascinating facts you probably didn’t know about the human body.
#1. The Blood Vessels Can Run Round the Earth
The nature of human blood vessels is quite paradoxical. Because while each is really tiny, they cover so much ground together. There are between 60,000 – 100,000 miles of blood vessels in each human, where the former is the average in a child and the later, an adult’s average.
Theoretically, this implies that if each blood vessel was laid down one after another to form a straight line, the line would be so long, it would go round the world at least three times. And this would be from just one human body. Fascinating right?
#2. When You Blush, Your Stomach Also Turns Red
Adrenaline is the hormone that prepares the body from distressing situations by increasing the blood flow by dilating blood vessels as a reflex reaction to prevent sudden danger.
Blushing occurs when there is a surge of adrenaline is caused by anxiety or embarrassment makes generates blood vessels called capillaries to widen all over your body, increasing the blood flow. This happens especially in your cheeks area and stomach lining causing excessive redness.
#3. Your Liver Regenerates
If you damaged your liver, you can grow a whole new one. The liver is the only visceral human organ that possesses the ability to regenerate itself. If you lost a bulk of it, you only need about 25% of it to regenerate to the original size of a liver.
The liver is such a powerful organ it carries out over 500 different functions on the human body. However, permanent damages can be done to the liver so it’s important to protect it.
#4. The Brain Storage is Humongous
The brain has a storage capacity of about 2.5 petabytes, which is equivalent to a million gigabytes. Massive right? Unlike computers, your brain capacity cannot run out but gets renewed over and again. However, most humans use only about 10% of their brain capacity throughout their lifetime.
#5. You’ve Just Killed At least 70 Brain Cells
Yes, you read it right. About 70 brain cells die in the minute it takes you to read a page in a book. At birth, there are 14 billion cells in the human brain. This number doesn’t increase throughout one’s life.
As one gets older, however, the cells begin to die off and regenerate daily. After 40 years, the recline of the brain cells accelerates quickly. After 50, nerve cells shrink and the brain shrinks and gets smaller.
#6. You Are About 1cm Taller in the Morning Than in the Evening
The spine consists of 33 vertebras overlapping each other, creating a single structure that enables us to walk. At night, when the body is in a lying position, the spine is not affected by the pressure of body weight. Consequently, the vertebral discs relax and stretch, causing us to be slightly taller.
#7. The Brain Doesn’t Die When The Heart Stops Beating
Clinically, one can be confirmed dead because the heart stops beating and pumping blood to the brain. The brain in turn takes a while to process this and then slowly shuts down. This means that a person may be dead but still be aware of his surroundings.
#8. Your Eyes See Your Nose
That’s right. Your eyes see your nose. Your brain only ignores it. Each eye sees your nose from different angles and transmits the same image at different signals to the brain. The reflex of the brain to such transmission is to ignore it. This is also because the nose is a peripheral vision that is so close to our eyes. Since our eyes normally focus on farther images, the brain ignores it.
#9. The Acid in your Stomach can dissolve a metal
There is an acid present in the human stomach which is responsible for breaking down and digesting food. It is so powerful it can dissolve metal. The level of acidity is measured in pH. The pH scale goes from 0 – 14, with 0 being the highest form of acid and 14 being the most minimal. 7 is seen as neutral. The stomach acid’s pH level is between 1-3. This is very high. it is just below that of a battery.
#10. The Skin Replaces Itself Over 900 times In A Lifetime
You’re probably wondering why there are permanent scars if the skin replaces itself this much. This is because only the outer layer of the skin(the epidermis) goes through this process. The endodermis(outer layer) doesn’t. This is why the total healing process doesn’t occur. It’s like a cycle that doesn’t exactly get complete.
The Human body is a complex system that is quite fascinating. Learning new things about the human body helps us understand more about your nature and yur capabilities.
