The Human Body

The Human Body

RELATED LINKS:

Health/Medicine The Human Brain The Human Digestive System Science

PAGE CONTENTS:
Human Body Tidbits
Your Mouth Is a Jungle!
Mysteries of the Human Body

Human Body Tidbits
In the seventh month of fetal life the adrenal glands, located just above the kidneys, are about the same size as the kidneys. At birth they are slightly smaller, and they continue to shrink throughout life. By the time a person reaches old age, the adrenals are so small they can hardly be seen.

The average adult has around 10 pints (1.25 gal) of blood in their body. The Ketchua Indians of the Andes Mountains in South America have two to three more quarts of blood in their bodies than people who live a lower elevations.

The average human brain has about 100 billion nerve cells. The brain of Neanderthal man was larger than that of modern man.

An adult sitting in a relaxed position inhales approximately one pint of air with every breath.

Human lips have a reddish color because of the great concentration of tiny capillaries just below the skin. The blood in these capillaries is normally highly oxygenated and therefore quite red.

One square inch of skin on the human hand contains some 72 feet of nerve fiber. There is a total of 45 miles of nerves in the skin.
Copyright 2009 by NextEra Media. All rights reserved. Feel free to forward this, in its entirety, to others.

When identifying victims of disasters, such as plane and train crashes, approximately 93 percent of identifications are made on the basis of dental records. Teeth can withstand extreme temperatures (up to 1600 degrees Celcius), and therefore can still be used even when bodies are destroyed beyond recognition.

YOUR MOUTH IS A JUNGLE!

For the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses inhabiting our mouths, life is a piece of cake, or whatever else we have eaten. What we lunch on, they munch on.

In fact, our mouths are ecosystems for them, as the weather forecast remains the same at 95º F, unless we are ill, the level of humidity at 100%, and the guaranteed a free meal on, actually in, the mouth is unconditional. They select their own living quarters, with some preferring life between the teeth, others preferring the space between the gums and the teeth, others preferring the roof of the mouth, and yet others preferring the cracks in the front or in the back of the tongue. They do, however, work for this luxurious lifestyle, by performing such tasks as eating each other, fending off bad species of bacteria, etc., manufacturing different products, and eating the food that becomes lodged in parts of our mouths.

The only harmful species of bacteria inhabiting our mouths is Streptococcus mutants, the cavity causing bacteria. Microbiologists believe that initially, this bacteria was our friend, and played a useful role in our mouths, just as the other species of bacteria do. As man progressed down the evolutionary timeline and began refining raw sugar, Streptococcus mutants became the enemy. This species thrives upon refined sugar and, as a part of its digestive process, converts sugar into acid.

Before man began refining sugar, the bicarbonate ions in our saliva possessed the ability to counteract the acid it produced. With the arrival of refined sugar on the scene, and Streptococcus mutants' insatiable appetite for it, acid production increased to the point where the saliva could no longer counteract it. The excess acid produced erodes our teeth, causes cavities, and subsequent visits to the dentist.

The more than 100 species of bacteria, and hundreds of species of fungi, protozoa, and viruses that have taken up residence in our mouths is difficult to fathom. Microbiologists estimate that, in addition to these known species, there are up to 500 other living, breathing organisms inhabiting our mouths, although only 50 have been identified and named.

The sheer number of these creatures is astronomical, considering the fact that our mouths contain more bacteria than the entire world's population, and the fact that our bodies house approximately one trillion bacteria.

What is a person to do about these squatters? Nothing. Our bodies provide an ecosystem for them and, in return, they defend us from the invasion of bad bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa, with the exception of Streptococcus mutants and a couple of other undesirable species.

Our dentists' advice to brush and to floss our teeth on a regular basis should be taken, as doing so helps to maintain healthy levels of these creatures from between 1,000 to 100,000 per tooth.

Enjoy your next meal…they certainly will!

Mysteries of the Human Body

MISCELLANEOUS TRIVIA:

If laid out in a straight line, the average adult's circulatory system would be nearly 60,000 miles long - enough to circle the Earth 2 and a half times.

It takes your food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your stomach.

One human hair can support 3kg (6.6 lb).

The average man's penis is two times the length of his thumb.

Human thighbones are stronger than concrete.

A woman's heart beats faster than a man's.

There are about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.

Women blink twice as often as men.

The average person's skin weighs twice as much as the brain.

Your body uses 300 muscles to balance itself when you are standing still.

If saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it.

The average human body contains enough: iron to make a 3 inch nail, sulfur to kill all fleas on an average dog, carbon to make 900 pencils, potassium to fire a toy cannon, fat to make 7 bars of soap, phosphorous to make 2,200 match heads, and water to fill a ten-gallon tank.

Even if the stomach, the spleen, 75 percent of the liver, 80 percent of the intestines, one kidney, one lung, and virtually every organ from the pelvic and groin area are removed, the human body can still survive. Although, one would assume the quality of life would be severely impacted, and it wouldn't make you the best doubles partner for tennis.

The largest cell in the human body is the female ovum, or egg cell. It is about 1/180 inch in diameter. The smallest cell in the human body is the male sperm. It takes about 175,000 sperm cells to weigh as much as a single egg cell.

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

A 10 percent loss of bodyweight can relieve knee arthritis pain by up to 50 percent.

The average human bladder can hold about 13 ounces of liquid.

Dimples are hereditary and are a dominant trait.

During menstruation, the sensitivity of a woman's middle finger is reduced.

In the adult human body, there are 46 miles of nerves.

Over the many centuries of living in the Arctic, Eskimos' bodies have adapted to the cold. Eskimos tend to be short and squat, which brings their arms and legs closer to the heart, so there is less danger of freezing. Extra fat around the torso protects their internal organs from the cold. The metabolism of Eskimos is also set a little higher than other people's. As a result, they burn their food faster to stay warm. Their veins and arteries are also arranged to carry more warming blood to their hands.

It has been medically proven that pessimism raises blood pressure. The more pessimistic a person is, the more likely he or she is to die earlier than optimistic counterparts.

If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.

Is the appendix our body's only vestigial structure?
There are several apparently useless parts in the human body. Your nictating membrane is one. The nictating membrane is that small useless fold in the corner of your eye. But the most interesting vestigial part is the only bone in your body that does not appear to have been assigned a task. The coccyx begins as four small bones that fuse into one as you mature. But it has no more use as a solo act than it did as a quartet. The coccyx is what we commonly call our "tail bone." It may indeed be the remnant of the tail we once had, but in our time, it just sits there. Source: HOW A FLY WALKS UPSIDE DOWN by Martin M. Goldwyn

Why do people sometimes eat dirt?
In many societies all around the world it is considered not only normal but actually beneficial to consume certain kinds of earth. In Africa and other places, pregnant women regularly eat special kinds of earth, and in some cultures clay is mixed with bread or other foods as an extender. The practice of earth-eating, also called geophagy [jee-OFF-uh-jee] has been alive for millennia. There are three main reasons for it. First, certain kinds of clay can provide mineral nutrients not easily available elsewhere (which is why it is often eaten by pregnant women). Second, some types of mineral earth are able to absorb toxins that would otherwise poison us. Third, soft mineral clay is a harmless, bulky filler that can extend bread and other staple foods during times of famine.

Does eating chocolate make you break out?
It is a common myth that chocolate aggravates acne. Experiments conducted at the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Naval Academy found that consumption of chocolate - even frequent daily dietary intake - had no effect on the incidence of acne. Professional dermatologists no longer link acne with diet.

MUTATIONS IN MEN DRIVE EVOLUTION
A new study shows that men carry 5.25 times the number of genetic mutations as women, meaning that evolution is male-driven, according to a report in this week's edition of the journal Nature. The mutations appear to be caused mainly by random errors that occur during cell divisions rather than by environmental factors. "Mutation is the ultimate source of variation," said Wen-Hsiung Li, a professor in the department of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago. Male germ cells accumulate mutations as they go through cell divisions throughout a man's lifetime, whereas a woman's egg cells only go through 24 cell divisions, most before she is born. So is a man's biological clock ticking? Should he worry about accumulated mutations ruining his sperm? "The mutation rate is very low, so the increase in mutations in an individual male is not appreciable," Li said, "even if you were to double or triple the rate."

WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR BODY WHEN YOU SNEEZE?
All your bodily functions stop, even your heart.

What causes hiccups?
Hiccups happen when the diaphragm, the muscle that controls our breathing, becomes irritated and starts to spasm and contract uncontrollably. With each contraction, air is pulled into the lungs very quickly, passes through the voice box, and then the epiglottis closes behind the rush of air, shaking the vocal chords, causing the "hic" sound. The irritation can be caused by rapid eating, emotional stress and even some diseases. The best cure? Breathing into a paper bag. This calms the diaphragm by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in your bloodstream.

WHAT IS THE SOUND MADE WHEN YOU CRACK YOUR KNUCKLES CAUSED BY?
A bubble of gas bursting.

AGING

Age affects the growth of hair--the fastest growth is between ages 15 and 30, with a sharp decline between ages 50 and 60.

People lose more than hair as they grow old. By the age of 70, half of your taste buds will be gone.

A 25 year old earthling, if raised on the planet Mercury, would be approximately 103 years old. A year is 88 days on the red planet.

Why does hair turn gray?
You get older. Your body produces less melanin, the substance that gives hair its color. Without that color, your hair becomes transparent. Each hair is hollow, a shaft enclosing a column of air. Without the protective coloring, light can penetrate your hair and be refracted by that air column, producing the white/gray color we associate with aging.
Source: JUST CURIOUS JEEVES by Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett

BABIES

Baby feet exert a lot of energy when standing and balancing. This causes baby feet to get very hot. Baby feet can sweat up to twice the amount of adult feet.

When the female embryo is only six weeks old, it makes preparations for her motherhood by developing egg cells for future offspring. (When the baby girl is born, each of her ovaries carries about a million eggcells, all she will ever have.)

A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months.

A newborn baby's head accounts for about one-quarter of its entire weight.

Up to the age of six or seven months, a child can breathe and swallow at the same time. An adult cannot do this.

A fetus in the womb can hear. Tests have shown that fetuses respond to various sounds just as vigorously as they respond to pressures and internal sensations. So watch what you say about the little bugger!

Newborn babies are not blind. Studies have shown that newborns have approximately 20/50 vision and can easily discriminate between degrees of brightness.

BABIES HEAR DIFFERENTLY THAN ADULTS
The world sounds differently to babies than it does to adults, according to new research. Babies have trouble distinguishing specific sounds because they hear all frequencies simultaneously, which allows them to respond to unusual sounds, according to Lynne Werner, a University of Washington professor of speech and hearing science. In contrast, "in real life (adults) are confronted with a variety of sounds. Somehow the adult brain takes all sounds we hear and separates them into where they are coming from and then focuses on the one we want to hear," Werner told New Scientist. "If you are a baby it is sensible to listen broadband, and it was valuable for our ancient ancestors for survival in the Serengeti (the Serengeti Plain of Eastern Africa)," said Werner. "But in today's western culture a baby is at a great disadvantage. All the noise we expose people to makes it difficult for babies. The practical lesson from this research is, if you are talking to a baby or reading her a story, background noise can be a problem. Turn off the television or radio."

FIRST COUSINS CAN HAVE CHILDREN WITH LITTLE RISK
New research suggests that first cousins can marry and have children with only slightly higher risk of birth defects or genetic disease than unrelated partners, according to a report in the Journal of Genetic Counseling. The researchers say there is no biological reason to discourage first cousins from marrying. The chances of a child being born with a serious problem like cystic fibrosis is 3 to 4 percent, and that goes up by 1.7 to 2.8 percent if cousins are involved. "As genetic advisers, we give people all the various possibilities and risks and leave it up to them to make a decision. Some might decide a doubling of the risk is not something they want to face," Arno Motulsky, a professor emeritus of medicine and genome sciences at the University of Washington, told The New York Times.

WEEKEND BABIES SMALLER
Research indicates babies born on the weekends tend to be smaller and sicker than those born during the week. Researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and the Stanford School of Medicine say the finding casts doubt over claims higher death rates for newborns arriving on the weekend are due to inadequacies in hospital staffing or experience. "We've found that weekends are not an inherently more dangerous time to be born," said senior author and neonatologist Dr. Jeffrey Gould. "Instead, the fact that there is a proportionally higher percentage of very tiny babies -- who are more likely to die -- born on weekends than during the week inflates the observed mortality." The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, should allay the fears of women with uncomplicated, full-term pregnancies who begin labor on the weekend, researchers say.

FETUSES CAN RECOGNIZE MOM'S VOICE
Canadian researchers at Queen's University suggest experiences in the womb help shape newborn preferences and behavior. The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, found fetuses are capable of learning in the womb and can remember and recognize their mother's voice before they are even born. The findings provide evidence that inutero experience has an impact on newborn/infant behavior and development and that voice recognition may play a role in mother-infant attachment. The precocious language processing abilities observed in newborns and young infants may not be due to a hardwired speech-processing module in the brain as has been assumed, but instead stems from the interaction of the fetus with its environment, according to the researchers.

BLOOD

The most common blood type in the world is Type O. The rarest, Type A-H, has been found in less than a dozen people since the type was discovered.

The first blood transfusion was performed by Cornish physician Richard Lower in 1665. Using hollow quills, Dr. Lower pumped blood from one dog into another. Years later another physician, Jean-Babtiste Denis, became the first to transfer blood from an animal to a human.

Blood is red only in the arteries after it has left the heart and is full of oxygen. Blood is a purplish, blue color in the veins as it returns to the heart, thanks to having picked up carbon dioxide and other wastes from the body's cells. In fact, your blood is red throughout only half your body. When cut, of course, the blood always appears red because it is instantly exposed to oxygen outside the body.

The fact that blood circulates was discovered by the British physician William Harvey. (Source: Encarta.com)

The Ketchua Indians of the Andes Mountains in South America have 2 to 3 more quarts of blood in their bodies than people who live at lower elevations.

Men have more blood than women. Men have 1.5 gallons as compared to 0.875 gallons for women.

Blood is a mixture of two things: cells and plasma. The heart pumps blood through the arteries, capillaries and veins to provide oxygen and nutrients to every cell of the body. The blood also carries away waste products. The adult human body contains approximately 5 liters (5.3 quarts) of blood; it makes up 7 to 8 percent of a person's body weight. Approximately 2.75 to 3 liters of blood is plasma and the rest is the cellular portion.

Sixty thousand miles of vessels carry blood to every part of your body.

If all the blood vessel in your body were laid end to end they would span the globe. But were this done, I doubt that you would be in the mood to appreciate it.

On average, it takes about 45 seconds for blood to circulate from the heart, all around the body, and back to the heart again. An average adult's heart beats more than 100,000 times a day.

In the second it takes to turn the page of a book, you will lose about 3 million red blood cells. During that same second, your bone marrow will have produced the same number of new ones.

BONES

Human arms have 32 bones each, while human legs only have 30

Your bones act as a calcium store - if you don't get enough in your diet your body will extract what it needs from your bones leaving your bones brittle!

Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete!

One quarter of the bones in your body are in your feet. The human foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, 19 muscles and tendons. The 52 bones in your feet make up about 25 percent of all the bones in your body.

HOW MUCH OF THE BODY IS MADE UP OF BONES?
Strong and light, the skeleton of the average person accounts for less than 20 percent of body weight.

HOW STRONG ARE HUMAN BONES?
Human bones can stand to be squeezed twice as hard as granite and stretched four times as hard a concrete. Weight for weight, bone is five times as strong as steel.

WHAT IS THE STRONGEST BONE IN THE HUMAN BODY?
The strongest, largest, and longest bone in the human body is the femur or thighbone, and it is hollow. Ounce for ounce, it has a greater pressure tolerance and bearing strength than a rod of equivalent size in cast steel.

HOW MANY BONES ARE THERE IN THE HUMAN SKULL?
29 - the cranium has 8; the face, 15 (including the lower jaw); the ears, 6.

HOW MANY BONES ARE THERE IN THE HUMAN WRIST?
Eight.

Vanishing Bones
Kids have about 100 more bones in their bodies than adults do. (Adults have 206 bones; kids have about 300.) What happens to the extra bones as you grow up? They join together, to make bigger, stronger - but fewer - adult bones. Having more but smaller bones helps kids be more flexible than adults - which is one reason why tumbles, jumps, and flips are easier for kids than for grown-ups.

WHAT IS THE ONLY BONE IN THE HUMAN BODY NOT CONNECTED TO ANOTHER BONE?
The only bone in the human body not connected to another is the hyoid, a V-shaped bone located at the base of the tongue between the mandible and the voice box. Its function is to support the tongue and its muscles.

THE BRAIN

Pain from any injury or illness is always registered by the brain. Yet, curiously, the brain tissue itself is immune to pain; it contains none of the specialized receptor cells that sense pain in other parts of the body. The pain associated with brain tumors does not arise from brain cells but from the pressure created by a growing tumor or tissues outside the brain.

The brain of Neanderthal man was larger than that of modern man.

The average brain comprises 2 percent of a person's total body weight. Yet it requires 25 percent of all oxygen used by the body, as opposed to 12 percent used by the kidneys and 7 percent by the heart.

The brain reaches its maximum weight at age 20 - about 3 pounds. Over the next 60 years, as billions of nerve cells die within the brain, it loses about 3 ounces. The brain begins to lose cells at a rate of 50,000 per day by the age of 30.

The brain is surrounded by a membrane laced with nerves that transmit sensations to the organ. However, the brain itself has no feeling; if it is cut into, the person feels no pain. (Source: UselessKnowledge.com)

Ancient Egyptians believed the heart was the center of intelligence and emotion. They also thought so little of the brain that during mummification, they removed the brain entirely from bodies.

Your brain is more active sleeping than it is watching TV.

Eighty percent of the average human brain is water.

In one day, the human brain generates more electrical impulses than all the telephones in the world put together. The nerve impulses can travel as fast as 170 miles per hour.

The left hemisphere of the brain controls language in 95 percent of right-handed people. The right hemisphere of the brain controls language in 70 percent of left-handed people.

The human brain is insensitive to pain. The suffering of a headache comes from nerves and the muscles lining them - not the brain itself.

The sperm whale has the largest brain of any animal. The brain weighs around 9 kilograms (about 20 pounds). The human brain reaches its maximum weight at age 20: about 3 pounds.

The left side of the brain controls the faculty of speech in most people. Doctors can determine if that's the case for any individual by giving that person a barbiturate injection and observing which arm goes limp first. This is called the Wada test. Source: READER'S DIGEST BOOK OF FACTS

How big is a person's brain?
The average brain comprises 2 percent of a person's total body weight. Yet it requires 25 percent of all oxygen used by the body, as opposed to 12 percent used by the kidneys and 7 percent by the heart.

HOW GENES AFFECT BRAIN STRUCTURE
UCLA brain mapping researchers in California have created the first images to show how an individual's genes can influence brain structure and intelligence. Published in Nature Neuroscience, the findings offer new insight on how parents pass on personality traits and cognitive abilities, and how brain diseases run in families. The team found that the amount of gray matter in the frontal parts of the brain is determined by the genetic make-up of an individual's parents. Brain regions controlling language and reading skills were virtually identical in identical twins, who share exactly the same genes, while siblings showed only 60 percent of the normal brain differences. "This tight structural similarity in the brains of family members helps explain why brain diseases, including schizophrenia and some types of dementia, run in families," says Paul Thompson. "We were stunned to see that the amount of gray matter in frontal brain regions was strongly inherited, and also predicted an individual's IQ score."

Is it true that our eyes don't see?
We actually do not see with our eyes - we see with our brains. The eyes basically are the cameras of the brain. One-quarter of the brain is used to control the eyes.

HOW MANY NEURONS DOES THE HUMAN BRAIN CONTAIN?
The brain contains more than 100 billion neurons--as many as there are stars in the Milky Way.

BY WHAT AGE HAS THE HUMAN BRAIN GROWN TO ITS FULL SIZE?
By age four, the brain has grown to its full size. After that, learning is merely making connections between neurons.

Is a headache really a brainache?
The human brain is insensitive to pain. The suffering of a headache come not from the organ itself but from the nerve and muscles lining it

Do the holidays cause more headaches?
According to some reasearch they do - Nearly one in four people said they have more headaches during the Christmas season than any other time of the year. Of those surveyed, 75 percent said that not having enough time caused them to have headaches; 73 percent said crowds and traffic created their headaches; and 51 percent said skipping meals gave them headaches.

BRAIN IS DIFFERENT LYING VS. TELLING THE TRUTH
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that telling a lie and telling the truth require different activities in the human brain. The findings will be presented Tuesday at the national meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego. "Sections of the brain that exercise a significant role in how humans pay attention, and monitor and control errors, were on average more active in the volunteers when they were lying than when they were telling the truth," says Daniel Langleben, M.D. "If truth was the brain's normal 'default' response, then lying would require increased brain activity in the regions involved in inhibition and control." By identifying the brain activity associated with deception and denial, the research paves the way for improvements in lie-detection techniques.

BREATHING

A person breathes almost 7 quarts of air every minute.

If water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen, why can't we breathe underwater?
Humans cannot breathe underwater because our lungs don't have the surface area to absorb enough oxygen from water, and the lining in our lungs is adapted to handle air rather than water. The thing about chemicals is that, once they react in certain ways, they form compounds that are nothing like the original elements. In the case of hydrogen and oxygen gas, if you react them together you get liquid water (H2O). The reason we can't breathe liquid water is because the oxygen used to make the water is bound to two hydrogen atoms, and we can't breathe the resulting liquid. The oxygen is completely useless to our lungs in this form. The oxygen that fish breathe is not the oxygen in H2O. Instead, the fish are breathing O2 (oxygen gas) that is dissolved in the water using their gills. Evidently, it's not easy - the air around us has 20 times more oxygen in it than the same volume of water. And water is heavier and thicker than air, so it takes a lot more work to move it around. The only real reason gills work for fish is that fish are cold-blooded, with radically reduced oxygen demands. Warm blooded critters that live underwater, like whales and dolphins, don't have gills - they breathe oxygen like us. So we'll probably never see anything like an artificial human gill in the near future.

THE EARS

Earwax--called cerumen by doctors--is a normal secretion of special glands in the outer ear. The wax coats the outer part of the ear canal, trapping germs and debris and preventing them from reaching the eardrum. If you didn't have any your ears would, at a minimum, be very itchy. By the way, never use a Q-tip to remove excess wax, you'll likely pack it in tighter. Better you should try an over-the-counter preparation such as Debrox or ordinary mineral oil. You put in a dropper-full and pack your ear with cotton; the earwax softens and comes out.

Does the human body have any mechanical parts?
Your ears -- They pick up all the sounds around you and then translate this information into a form your brain can understand. This process is that it is completely mechanical. Your sense of smell, taste and vision all involve chemical reactions, but your hearing system is based solely on physical movement.

THE EYES

Our eyes don't freeze in very cold weather because of the salt in our tears.

The transparent cornea of the eye is the only living tissue in the human body that contains no blood vessels.

Because the eyes work harder when viewing objects up close, particularly on a computer monitor, it is the proximity of the VDT screen to the eyes that causes eyestrain, not "radiation" emitted from the screen. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, using a computer or video display terminal will not harm your eyes.

You blink every 2-10 seconds. As you focus on each word in this sentence, your eyes swing back and forth 100 times a second, and every second, the retina performs 10 billion computer-like calculations.

How often do you blink?
You blink every 2-10 seconds. As you focus on each word in this sentence, your eyes swing back and forth 100 times a second, and every second, the retina performs 10 billion computer-like calculations.

How well can the eye see?
The sensitivity of the human eye is so keen that on a clear, moonless night, a person standing on a mountain can see a match being struck as far as 50 miles away. Much to their amazement, astronauts in orbit were able to see the wakes of ships.

How would we look with bird's eyes?
A bird's eye takes up about 50 percent of its head, while our eyes take up about 5 percent of our head. To be comparable to a bird's eyes, our eyes would have to be the size of baseballs.

FEET

Baby feet exert a lot of energy when standing and balancing. This causes baby feet to get very hot. Baby feet can sweat up to twice the amount of adult feet.

The foot consists of 26 bones ranging in size from half the size of your little finger to half the size of your fist. The bones are divided into 3 main groups: Toes (phalanges) 14 tiny bones used for gripping Mid-foot (metatarsus) 5 slender bones to absorb shock Rear-foot (tarsus) 7 large bones to keep the foot stabilized.

Your foot is the same size as the distance between your wrist and elbow. You can put your foot in that area and it will fit.

FINGERPRINTS

AT WHAT AGE DOES A FETUS ACQUIRE FINGERPRINTS?
At the age of three months.

DO FINGERPRINTS HAVE A FUNCTION?
They provide traction for your fingers, helping you to grasp things.

FINGERS & TOES

Your fingers and toes are the coldest parts of your body.

FLATULENCE

A healthy individual releases 3.5 oz. of gas in a single flatulent emission, or about 17 oz. in a day.

If a person 'passes wind' consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (Source: Bizzarro)

What is "gas," and why does it smell bad?
What is commonly referred to as gas, flatus or flatulence (or, somewhat more vulgarly, a fart) is a combination of gases (nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, methane, and hydrogen sulfide) that travels from a person's stomach to their hindquarters. When a person swallows too much air or eats foods that their digestive system can't digest easily gas becomes trapped in the stomach. The only way for this excess gas to exit the body is for you to "pass gas." The gas that makes these emissions stink is hydrogen sulfide, which contains sulfur. The more sulfur rich your diet, the more they stink. Foods that contribute to the bad odor include: beans, cabbage, cheese, soda, and eggs.

On the average, a healthy person will pass gas 16 times a day, male and female, mostly while they sleep. As anyone with a pet will tell you, many animals pass gas as well, and while elephants are some of the worst offenders, the family dog can be rather pungent as well. And, yes, emissions that contain a large amount of methane & hydrogen can be flammable. But such activities are definitely not recommended!

WHAT IS BORBORYGMI?
Borborygmus (plural borborygmi) is the rumbling sound made by gas and fluids moving through the intestines. The word was originally coined by the Ancient Greeks in an attempt to imitate the sounds their bellies made when they were hungry (making words that sound like what they describe is called onomatopoeia, of which borborygmus is an example). The reason we experience borborygmi when we are hungry is that our bodies respond to the desire for food by a reflex (like a doctor hitting your knee with a hammer) which prepares the stomach for food by moving the stuff in the intestines out of the way, i.e. down to the rectum. This increased activity in the intestines causes small pockets of water and gas to be squeezed through the intestines, making bubbling and gurgling noises as it goes. Some people experience borborygmus after meals, since the same reflex is for digestion.

How much flatulence does one release in a day?
It is estimated that a healthy individual releases 3.5 oz. of gas in a single flatulent emission, or about 17 oz. in a day.

HAIR

The average scalp has 100,000 hairs. Redheads have the least at 80,000; brown and black haired persons have about 100,000; and blondes have the most at 120,000.

Hair products (like shampoo, and conditioner) are mostly useless. The hair that is visible on the human body is dead hair – when hair is alive it is still beneath the surface of the skin. Nothing you add to the hair can make it healthier – it can merely add shine or color. Once the hair is out, there is nothing you can do to make it healthier. To improve the health of your hair, you should drink lots of water and eat plenty of nutrient rich foods.

Types of Hair
-African hair grows more slowly and is more fragile than European hair.
-Asian hair grows the fastest and has the greatest elasticity.
-Africans and Europeans are more prone than Asians to balding.

Women's hair on average is about half the diameter of men's hair. (Source: triviaworld.com)

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.

Age affects the growth of hair--the fastest growth is between ages 15 and 30, with a sharp decline between ages 50 and 60.

The hair of an adult man or woman can stretch 25 percent of its length without breaking. If it is less elastic, it is not healthy.

HOW LONG WOULD THE AVERAGE MAN'S BEARD GROW IF HE NEVER SHAVED IT?
27.5 feet.

How fast does hair grow?

Hair is the fastest growing tissue in the body, second only to bone marrow. Human hair grows at a pretty consistent rate of about one half of millimeter per day, or about half an inch every month. It may grow faster or slower depending on your age, your genetics and your hormonal state (pregnancy seems to have an affect on hair), but one half of a millimeter a day is a good average. What this means is that the maximum growth rate for hair is about 6 inches (15 cm) per year. Everything is relative, of course - a half-millimeter isn't very much when you're waiting to grow out your hair for a part in a play, but it's quite a bit if you've worked a long day at work and still have a meeting that you need to look good for and have to shave.

Why does our hair go gray?
Hair goes gray because pigment cells in the hair base at the roots of the hair stop producing melanin. It doesn't matter if you are fair-haired or dark-haired you have the same chances of getting gray hair. However, it is more noticeable in darker haired people. Graying of the hair generally starts at the age of around 30 for males and 35 for females however since the onset of this phenomena varies greatly from person to person, age is not the most accurate indicator. The graying of hair appears to be genetically determined but the connection isn't at all clear. So for now, your hair turning gray is just one of those mysteries of science that we have yet to solve. But salt and pepper hair always did look distinguished. Poliosis is the graying of the hair. It comes from polios, the Greek word for "gray." Hair color comes from cells located in the root of each hair and as people age the pigmentation begins to slow down. The process of going gray is genetically predetermined and this slow process stops at gray for some people but moves on to white for others. White hair basically signals that no pigment remains to color the hair.

How does men's and women's hair loss differ?
Male pattern baldness generally starts with a receding hairline at the front or thinning of the crown hair and gradually progresses until, in extreme cases, only a thin horseshoe-shaped rim of hair remains at the back and sides of the head. Female pattern baldness, which has received more attention in recent years, refers to general thinning of hair all over the scalp, usually beginning at around age 30 and becoming more noticeable after 40 and particularly after menopause.

Why do we have eyebrows?
Those tiny, little hairs above our eyes that many women either pluck, paint, pierce or tattoo play a very important role in keeping moisture out of our eyes. Just like an umbrella keeps our bodies dry from the rain, our hairy eyebrows keep our eyes dry from rain or sweat. When it's pouring rain outside or when sweat drips down from our foreheads, our eyebrows divert the flow of water or sweat away from our eyes.

Our arch-shaped eyebrows angle the rain or sweat around to the side of our faces--leaving our eyes fairly dry. By catching the water or sweat, our eyebrows not only allow us to see more clearly, but also keep salty sweat from burning or irritating our eyes.

Eyebrows have other roles also. As one of our most expressive facial features, eyebrows help us determine how people are feeling without ever really asking them. If a person's eyebrows are frowning, chances are they are mad or upset. In addition, eyebrows have an increasing impact on our beauty/fashion culture over the years. Thick, hairy and big eyebrows tend to be characterized as unattractive while thin and plucked eyebrows are said to be more attractive.

HANDS

According to a study published in the journal Psychological Science, you can think better if you gesture with your hands. One of the authors concluded: "These findings suggest that gesture reduces the cognitive load of explanation, freeing capacity that can be used on a memory task at the same time." Source: www.nytimes.com

The thumb is such a major player in the human body that it has a special section, separate from the area that controls the fingers, reserved for it in the brain.

HEARING

When a person dies, hearing is generally the last sense to go. The first sense lost is usually sight. Then follows taste, smell, and touch.

The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right next to your temple, is called a tragus.

WHY DON'T WE HEAR AS WELL TODAY?
Because it's a noisier world - According to a study for the University of Tennessee's Noise Laboratory, 60 percent of American college students suffer from some high-frequency hearing loss. The main cause of this premature deafness is noise. Hearing loss has long been linked to exposure to noise. Sustained loud noises - from vehicles, jet aircraft, stereos, food processors - destroys the ears' tiny hair cells.

THE HEART

The average adult heart beats 72 times a minute; 100,000 times a day; 3,600,000 times a year; and 2.5 billion times during a lifetime.

Every day, the heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back.

The “thump-thump” of a heartbeat is the sound made by the four valves of the heart closing.

The right atrium holds about 3.5 tablespoons of blood. The right ventricleholds slightly more than a quarter cup of blood. The left atrium holds the same amount of blood as the right, but its walls are three times thicker.

French physician Rene Laennec (1781-1826) invented the stethoscope when he felt it was inappropriate to place his ear on his large-buxomed female patients' chests.

A woman’s heart typically beats faster than a man’s. The heart of an average man beats approximately 70 times a minute, whereas the average woman has a heart rate of 78 per minute.

The heart comprises less than 0.5% of a person's total body weight. The average weight of the heart in a female is 9 ounces, while the average weight of a male heart is 10.5 ounces.

The heart is not located on the left side of the chest. It's about in the center with it's strongest portion on the left side, thus, it can be heard slightly better from the left.

About 100,000 -to pump 5 quarts of blood every minute.

At the age of three weeks, when the heart of the embryo looks like a tube. As it begins to beat, it starts the blood circulating through the few blood vessels that have formed around it.

If you're pumping iron, your heart is pumping blood, big time. Even walking fast stresses the old ticker. Likewise a little romantic activity. So why don't you wake up the next morning with aches and pains where it would really scare you? For one thing, your heart muscle is not like your other muscles. The part that turns food into energy is a greater percentage of cardiac muscle than of the rest of your muscles. Your heart also contracts more slowly than other muscles, with a smoother, less taxing motion. Each of these factors decreases the amount of stress on heart muscle, lessening fatigue.
Source: Why Things Are & Why They Aren't by Joel Achenbach

HUMAN CELLS

What are the largest and smallest cells in the human body?
The largest cell in the human body is the female ovum, or egg cell. It is about 1/180 inch in diameter. The smallest cell in the human body is the male sperm. It takes about 175,000 sperm cells to weigh as much as a single egg cell.

How many viruses are there in most human cells?
While you might expect that a healthy human cell would be free of viruses, it turns out that in every human cell there are thousands of them, in the form of dormant DNA embedded in the cell's own chromosomes. Called endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), many of them have been present in our cells for millions of years. Most ERVs are completely inactive, but some seem to play a vital role in human reproduction. Recent research shows that when an embryo begins to grow, certain ERVs are activated. These viruses actually reproduce and bud off the embryo's growing cells by the thousands. Retroviruses have a special talent that comes in handy during embryo growth: they can suppress the mother's immune system, so that the growing baby is not rejected by the mother's body. Through evolution these tiny passengers have become an important part of our earliest days.

BRAIN CELLS FROM CADAVERS
So-called progenitor cells have many potential applications in medicine because they are capable of developing into different kinds of new tissue. They could one day be used to grow new organs or replace damaged brain cells, for example. But there is a problem: Most such cells are isolated from fetal tissue, and their harvest is fraught with ethical dilemmas. In this week's issue of the journal Nature, Fred Gage of the Salk Institute (La Jolla, California) and his colleagues report the recovery of progenitor cells from cadavers that can go on to form brain neurons. The ages of the deceased ranged from a few weeks to adult, and functioning cells were obtained up to 20 hours after death. It isn't clear what medical applications the cells will have because they are not as powerful as cells taken from fetuses, but the results provide hope that neural progenitor cells could one day be taken from the dead and given to the living.

JOINTS

How does a “double joint” work?
No one truly has double joints. Contortionists are actually able to stretch the fibrous tissues known as ligaments. Ligaments hold organs in place and fasten bones together. Ligaments normally restrict the movements of certain joints, but some folks find that their ligaments are more flexible than others.

THE LIVER

If 80 percent of your liver were to be removed, the remaining part would continue to function. Within a few months, the liver would have reconstituted itself to its original size.

The liver is found only in vertebrates and is the body's largest gland. It is also the body's own chemical plant; carrying on a dozen important metabolic functions as well.

THE LUNGS

Because of their extreme elasticity, the lungs are 100 times easier to blow up than a child’s toy balloon.

The lungs of an average adult, unfolded and flattened out, would coveran area the size of a tennis court.

MUSCLES

The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

It is a long-held myth that cutting out exercise causes muscle to turn to fat. This is, of course, logically impossible, as one substance cannot change into another without the help of a miracle! When you stop exercising, your muscles do shrink, but you don’t lose any muscle cells (and they certainly aren’t replaced with fat cells).

The ability to firmly grip with your hand comes from the muscles in the forearm. The muscles pull on tendons in the hand, bending the fingers.

Your muscles do not grow during exercise. Exercise is only the stimulus. The body strengthens the muscles while you are resting.

Each pound of muscle (1 pound = 0.45 kilograms) burns 75-100 calories every day simply by being.

The facial muscles have a distinctive evolutionary path. Most of the muscles of expression in the human face originate from the platysma muscle of ancestral animals. No other animals have evolved as complex a set of facial muscles as have humans.

Fingers have no muscles. The muscles which bend the finger joints are located in the palm and up in the mid forearm, and are connected to the finger bones by tendons, which pull on and move the fingers like the strings of a marionette.

Much of muscle contraction occurs without conscious thought and is necessary for survival, like the contraction of the heart or peristalsis, which pushes food through the digestive system.

WHAT IS THE LONGEST MUSCLE IN THE HUMAN BODY?
The longest muscle in the human body is the sartorius. This narrow muscle of the thigh passes obliquely across the front of the thigh and helps rotate the leg to the position assumed in sitting cross-legged. Its name is a derivation of the adjective "sartorial," a reference to what was the traditional cross-legged position of tailors (or "sartors") at work.

Which muscle is the fastest?
The muscle that lets your eye blink is the fastest muscle in your body. It allows you to blink 5 times a second. On average, you blink 15,000 times a day. Women blink twice as much as men.

THE NOSE

HOW MUCH DOES YOUR NOSE KNOW?
The nose cleans, warms, and humidifies over 500 cubic feet of air every day.

ORGANS

Because of their extreme elasticity, the lungs are 100 times easier to blow up than a child’s toy balloon.

WHAT IS THE LARGEST ORGAN - BY WEIGHT?
The lungs. Together they weigh about 42 ounces. The right lung is two ounces heavier than the left, and the male's lungs are heavier than the female's.

HOW LONG ARE THE INTESTINES?
The small intestine, which is contained in the central and lower abdominal cavity, is 20 to 23 feet long. The large intestine is 5 feet long.

PERSONALITY

PERSONALITY NOT SET BY 30
A large study shows personality is not set by age 30, but keeps changing for life. As people grow older, they begin to care more about work and friends, and women become more emotionally stable and self-assured, the study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology indicates. Sanjay Srivastava and Oliver John of the University of California, Berkeley, surveyed 132,515 adults ages 21 to 60 on the "Big Five" personality traits: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness and extraversion. Conscientiousness -- being organized, "planful" and disciplined -- increased throughout the age range studied, with the biggest growth in a person's 20s. Agreeableness -- being warm, generous and helpful -- increased the most during the 30s. Neuroticism -- defined as worrying and being emotionally unstable -- declined with age for women but not for men. Openness took a hit in aging men and women. Extra-version declined for women but did not seem to change in men over the years. The study contradicts a common view that personality traits are genetically programmed to stop changing by early adulthood, the authors said.

THE PITUITARY GLAND

The pituitary gland - responsible for producing the hormone that regulates growth - is only the size of a pea and weighs little more than a small paper clip.

SEX / PREGNANCY

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (Source: Bizzarro)

During pregnancy, the uterus expands to 500 times its normal size.

The largest cell in the human body is the female ovum, or egg cell. It is about 1/180 inch in diameter.

Male Sperm
Male sperm (Y) swim faster and die sooner than female sperm (X), because female sperm contain heavier genetic material, which slows them down but allows them to live longer. THEREFORE: Males with longer penises tend to produce more male offspring because they deposit the sperm closer to the egg and Y sperm cells win the "sprint." Males with shorter penises tend to have more female offspring because sperm is deposited further from the egg, Y sperm die off thus allowing X sperm to win the "marathon." CONCLUSION: Look at your family. This tells you whether or not your father had a big one.

SKIN

How thick is skin?
The skin is only about as deep as the tip of a ball-point pen. First-degree burns affect only the very top layers of the skin; second-degree burns, midway through the skin's thickness. Third-degree burns penetrate and damage the entire thickness of the skin.

HOW MANY SQUARE FEET OF SKIN COVER THE HUMAN BODY?
The average human body has 14 to 18 square feet of skin.

HOW MANY PARTICLES OF SKIN DOES A HUMAN BEING SHED EVERY HOUR?
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. Humans shed and regrow outer skin cells about every 27 days--almost 1,000 new skins in a lifetime. The largest human organ is the skin, with a surface area of about 25 square feet.

WHAT PART OF THE HUMAN BODY HAS THE THINNEST SKIN?
The eyelid - it's less than 1/500 inch thick.

WHY IS HOUSEHOLD DUST GREY?
Grey household dust consists mostly of sloughed-off human skin cells. Although humans are of different color, the pigments are found below the layer that generates the outer layer of dead skin. Dry skin is a translucent grey color, and consequently, so is the dust. There is no other color in it because the blood vessels are much deeper down and
they are not lost as the skin grows.

SLEEP

Sleep is just about as basic as food to human beings. Your brain needs it to function. People who haven't slept for several days cannot reason very well or concentrate. They may even hallucinate, become schizophrenic and lose touch with reality. Sleep deprivation also impairs the brain's ability to connect to the nervous system. Without sleep, you can't walk, see or hear very well. Dream deprivation, scientists conjecture, may also impair our ability to think straight. Source: THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA

How much sleep do people need?
Most adult people seem to need seven to nine hours of sleep a night. This is an average, and it is also subjective. The amount of sleep you need decreases with age. A newborn baby might sleep 20 hours a day. By age four, the average is 12 hours a day. By age 10, the average falls to 10 hours a day. Senior citizens can often get by with six or seven hours a day.

What's the best way to get a good night's sleep?
Exercise regularly. Exercise helps tire and relax your body; Don't consume caffeine after 4:00 p.m. or so. Avoid other stimulants like cigarettes as well; Avoid alcohol before bedtime. Alcohol disrupts the brain's normal patterns during sleep; Try to stay in a pattern with a regular bedtime and wakeup time, even on weekends.

Do cows sleep standing up or lying down?
Both - Cows can sleep while standing up, but they only dream if they lie down. Interestingly, whales and dolphins are "conscious breathers," and they need to keep breathing while they sleep, so only one half of the brain sleeps at a time.

How often do people dream?
In your lifetime, you've probably spent about six years of dreaming. That's more than 2,100 days spent in a different world. People dream an average of five times a night, and each subsequent dream is longer than the one preceding it. The first dream of the evening is about 10 minutes long, and the last dream is about 45 minutes. If you wake up during a dream, five minutes after the end of the dream, half the content is forgotten. After ten minutes, 90% is lost. But if you don't wake up during your dream then you'll tend to forget it, causing many people to think they don't dream.

But everybody dreams. Dreams are indispensable. A lack of dream activity can mean protein deficiency or a personality disorder. Even blind people dream, although their dreams may not consist of vivid images, they can clearly recall and describe the sounds they hear or the textures they come in contact with in their dream.

Men tend to dream more about other men, while women dream equally about men and women. Physiologically speaking, researchers found that during dreaming REM sleep, males experience erections and females experience increased vaginal blood flow - no matter what the content of the dream. In fact, "wet dreams" may not necessarily coincide with overtly sexual dream content. Toddlers do not dream about themselves and do not appear in their own dreams until the age of 3 or 4.

Dreams have been here as long as mankind. Back in the Roman Era, striking and significant dreams were submitted to the Senate for analysis and interpretation. The word dream itself stems from the Middle English word, “dreme” which means "joy" and "music." Studies have shown that our brain waves are more active when we are dreaming than when we are awake. Dreamers who are awakened right after REM sleep, are able to recall their dreams more vividly than those who slept through the night until morning. And people who are giving up smoking have longer and more intense dreams.

Finally, if you are snoring, then you cannot be dreaming. Snoring and dreaming are two sleep related activities which have nothing to do with each other.

Do all animals sleep and dream?
Pretty much - Reptiles, birds and mammals all sleep. That is, they become unconscious to their surroundings for periods of time. Some fish and amphibians reduce their awareness but do not ever become unconscious like the higher vertebrates do. Insects do not appear to sleep, although they may become inactive in daylight or darkness. By studying brainwaves, it is known that reptiles do not dream. Birds dream a little. Mammals all dream during sleep.

THE STOMACH

Hanging in folds when empty, the stomach can stretch to accommodate more than a quart of food.

There are 35 million digestive glands in the human stomach.

How tough is stomach acid?
The hydrochloric acid of the human digestive process is so strong a corrosive that it easily can eat its way through a cotton handkerchief, and even through the iron of an automobile body. Yet, it doesn't endanger the stomach's sticky mucus walls.

SWEAT

There are about 2 million sweat glands in the average human body. The average adult loses 540 calories with every liter of sweat. Men sweat about 40% more than women.

Perspiration is odorless. It is the bacteria on the skin that creates an odor.

Certain chemicals in sweat seem to attract mosquitoes. People who don't sweat as much don't get nearly as many mosquito bites.

Perspiration is odorless. It is the bacteria on the skin that creates an odor.

How many sweat glands do people have?
The average person has 2.6 million sweat glands in their skin. Sweat glands are distributed over the entire body -- except for the lips, nipples and external genital organs. The sweat gland is in the layer of skin called the dermis along with other "equipment," such as nerve endings, hair follicles and so on.

Why does a sweaty person smell bad?
Sweat itself is odorless, only when combined with bacteria that are breaking down dead skin cells does it become smelly. Smelly sweat is called bromohidrosis. Sweat is composed of water, sodium chloride, potassium salts, urea, and lactic acid.

Why does anxiety make our palms sweat?
If your palms weren't so exposed to the surrounding air you would probably have to rub them with deodorant every morning. That's because you have more sweat glands there than anywhere else.

Why did sweat glands proliferate on our palms?
We can probably blame evolution. There was a time, say tens of thousands of years ago, when our ancestors didn't react to anxiety by reaching for a pill. Instead, they grabbed the limb of the nearest tree and started climbing for their lives. In those days stress meant a big, hungry animal, not car payments, corporate mergers, or choosing between a Merlot or Cabernet to accompany a meat dish. Tree climbing was a life-preserving skill enhanced by moist palms that helped one get a grip on things. EVER WONDER WHY? By Douglas B. Smith

TASTE BUDS

The average human has about 10,000 taste buds - however, they're not all on the tongue. Some are under the tongue; some are on the inside of the cheeks; some are on the roof of the mouth. Some can even be found on the lips - these are especially sensitive to salt.

TEETH

Tooth enamel is the hardest substance manufactured by the human body.

Before all-porcelain false teeth were perfected in the mid-19th century, dentures were commonly made with teeth pulled from the mouths of dead soldiers following a battle. (Source: coolquiz.com)

VIGOROUS BRUSHING CAN HARM TEETH
Brushing teeth longer and harder than necessary does not get them cleaner and can cause oral health problems. A University of Newcastle upon Tyne study using electric toothbrushes found increasing the duration of brushing and the pressure applied to teeth only increases bacterial removal to a point. Beyond that, researchers say, abrasion
of tooth enamel or gums becomes a problem. It's easy to time how long to brush but the study points out it is difficult for people to gauge how vigorously they should brush. The study found after two minutes of brushing, at a pressure higher than 150 grams, removal of additional plaque from teeth declined.

THYMUS

The thymus, a small organ in the center of the chest underneath the breastbone, gets smaller and smaller as a person ages. It attains its largest size at the time of puberty, when it ceases to grow, gradually dwindles, and almost disappears. At birth it weighs about 15 grams, at puberty, 35 grams; after this it gradually decreases to 25 grams at 25 years, less than 15 grams at 60, and about 6 grams at 70 years. When the thymus is removed from adult mammals, few effects are seen. However, when the thymus is removed at birth, dramatic effects are witnessed. Scientists believe it plays a critical role in immunity. They used to believe the thymus stopped functioning after puberty, but research has since suggested it does not, although its influence on the immune system decreases.

THE TONGUE

People lose more than hair as they grow old. By the age of 70, half of your taste buds will be gone.

Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.

The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. (Source: Bizzarro)

How are your taste buds organized?
The human tongue tastes bitter things with the taste buds toward the back. Salty and pungent flavors are detected at the middle of the tongue, sweet flavors at the tip.

VOCAL CHORDS

Are you better off whispering than shouting?
Neither - Whispering is more wearing on your voice than a normal speaking tone. Whispering and shouting stretch the vocal cords.

WATER

The average human needs 18,250 gallons of water to keep going in an 80- year lifetime. That's enough to fill 2 1/2 tanker trucks! (Source: Food Rules)

How long can you go without water?
The average person can live up to eleven days without water, assuming a mean temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The time is shortened considerably as the temperature rises.

Why doesn't drinking water cool your mouth after eating spicy food?
The spices in most of the hot foods that we eat are oily, and, like your elementary school science teacher taught you, oil and water don't mix. In this case, the water just rolls over the oily spices. So what can you do to calm your aching tongue? Try one of these three methods. Eat bread. The bread will absorb the oily spices. A second solution is to drink milk. Milk contains a substance called "casein" which will bind to the spices and carry them away. Finally, you could drink something alcoholic. Alcohol will dissolve the oily spices.

IF ALL THE WATER WERE DRAINED FROM THE BODY OF AN AVERAGE 160-POUND MAN, HOW MUCH WOULD THE BODY WEIGH?
64 pounds.

How much water is in our bodies?
Water makes up 60 percent of our body weight. Of the water, 8 percent is in the blood, 25 percent in the spaces between cells, and 67 percent inside the cells.

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF AMERICANS ARE CHRONICALLY DEHYDRATED?
75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger. Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue. Eight to ten glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers. Drinking five glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

To post your opinion regarding this page, please click on

A POINT OF VIEW, and post your opinion in my Forum.