NTERESTING
Facts You Didn’t Know About Your Body – Your body is many things: a mechanical
device, a walking chemistry set, a sustainable life form, and an ever-changing
biological phenomenon.
There’s a lot to know about the body. Were you aware of
these ten amazing facts?1. You are taller in the morning than in the evening.
When you
crawl out of the sack in the morning you are at your tallest. On average, you
are approximately one half inch taller when you wake in the morning, thanks to
excess fluid between within your spinal discs. While you are sleeping, these
fluids replenish. During the day your body has to deal with the stress of
standing, so the discs become compressed and the fluid seeps out. This results
in you losing a small amount of extra height.
2. Your body produces enough heat in only thirty minutes to boil a half-gallon of water.
2. Your body produces enough heat in only thirty minutes to boil a half-gallon of water.
Your body
is the epitome of a study on the laws of thermodynamics. You produce heat from
all that is going on – exercise, metabolizing food, maintaining homeostasis –
and as you sweat, exhale, excrete, and urinate (lovely thoughts, all of them).
3. For every pound of fat gained, you add seven miles of new blood vessels.
3. For every pound of fat gained, you add seven miles of new blood vessels.
New tissue needs blood supply, so your
vascular system expands to accommodate it. This also means your heart must work
harder to pump blood through the new network, which may reduce oxygenation and
nutrient replenishment in other tissues. Lose a pound? Your body will break
down and reabsorb the unneeded blood vessels from the previous tissue.
4. Your stomach manufactures a new lining every three days to avoid digesting itself.
4. Your stomach manufactures a new lining every three days to avoid digesting itself.
As a part
of the digestive process, your stomach secretes hydrochloric acid (HA). HA is a
powerful corrosive compound also used to treat various metals. The HA your
stomach secretes is also powerful, but mucous lining the stomach wall keeps it
within the digestive system. As a result it breaks down the food you consume,
but not your own stomach.
5. Muscle tissue is three times more efficient at burning calories than fat.
5. Muscle tissue is three times more efficient at burning calories than fat.
This is why possessing more muscle should be a
training goal for most people. More muscle = more calories burned = less fat =
being more fit looking. Simple goals and simple math.
6. Human bone is as strong as
granite, relative to supporting resistance.
Would you
believe a matchbox-size chunk of bone can support 18,000 pounds? Compared to
concrete, human bone is four times greater in support strength.
7. Your
skin is an organ.
Just like
the liver, heart, and kidneys, your outer covering is an organ. An average man
has enough skin on his body to cover approximately twenty square feet. For an
average woman it is approximately seventeen square feet. Approximately 12% of
your weight is from your skin. And, your skin replaces 45,000+ cells in only a
few seconds. It’s constantly growing new skin and shedding old skin.
8. By the age of eighteen your brain
stops growing.
From that
age forward it begins to lose more than 1,000 brain cells every day. Only two
percent of your body weight is occupied by your gray matter, but is uses up to
20% of your overall energy output (it needs carbohydrates). Your brain works
continuously and never rests, even when you’re asleep. Aside from producing REM
dreams, your brain works overtime to replenish its ability to function normally
during your daytime waking hours.
9. There are more than 600 individual skeletal muscles and 206 bones in your body.
9. There are more than 600 individual skeletal muscles and 206 bones in your body.
If all
600+ muscles contracted and pulled in the same direction, you could lift over
twenty tons of resistance. Additionally, the adult skeleton is composed of 206
bones, but at birth an infant skeleton contains approximately 350 bones. Over
time, some of the 350 bones fuse together and eventually grow to the 206 adult
figure.
10. You need to consume a quart of water each day for four months to equate to the amount of blood your heart pumps in one hour.
10. You need to consume a quart of water each day for four months to equate to the amount of blood your heart pumps in one hour.
Additionally,
over a lifetime, at your normal (resting) heart rate you will have pumped
enough blood to fill thirteen oil super tankers. To further expound on this
fact, on average, your heart beats 40,000,000 times per year. Doing the math,
over your lifetime (both men and women averaged), that results in 2,600,000,000
heartbeats (two billion, six hundred million). This does not even factor in
your increased heartbeats due to your love of exercise.
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