The human body is a miraculous machine. With around 206 bones and 650 muscles, and a heart which is around the size of a grapefruit, the body keeps people moving, breathing and functioning with little or no outside help. That in itself is something of a miracle, but there are a number of amazing and unusual facts about the human body with which you can impress your friends and colleagues.
Your tongue can give you away
There’s an old saying that ‘your tongue can run away with you,’ meaning that if you’re not careful, you can say something you’ll regret later. However, your tongue can get you into trouble without a word being spoken. Just like fingerprints, each person has a unique tongue print. Those of a criminal persuasion should therefore ensure they don’t lick anything at the scene of the crime.
Shed a small person in skin cells
If you complain as you vacuum up pet hairs in the house, know that your dog or cat isn’t the only one shedding. The body sheds around 1.5lbs of dead skin cells each year. Over the course of the legendary ‘three score years and ten,’ that’s around 105lbs of flesh – a small person, in fact. Why bother with the diet?
Body heat
Ever looked at a guy or girl and thought they were ‘hot stuff?’ Well, they are – but not in the way you’re thinking. It’s strange but true that the heat released by the human body over the space of an hour is sufficient to bring 5 litres of water to the boil during another hour. That means everyone is ‘hot stuff!’
Hairy legs are good
Many people – especially women – spend a lot of time and money getting rid of hair on the legs. While it may be unsightly, it’s also a sign of good health. Loss of leg hair is one of the indicators of poor circulation.
There’s no pain in the brain
Although the brain is responsible for the transmission of pain messages around the body, it’s impervious to pain itself. This is because it has no sensory system of its own. The pain felt from headaches caused by growths in the brain such as tumours comes from pressure on the surrounding nerves and blood vessels, rather than the brain itself.
Busy eyes
You may feel your eyelids dropping when you’re very tired, but it’s not the eye itself that’s worn out from exertion or concentration. It’s the only part of the body that can work around the clock and function at full capacity without needing to rest.
Greedy brain
It may only comprise 2% of total body weight, but the brain uses 20% of the body’s total blood and oxygen supply. That’s why just a brief deprivation of blood and/ or oxygen can have devastating consequences.
A human swimming pool – or two
The human body produces around 10,000 gallons of saliva during its lifetime. That’s enough to fill two swimming pools, but it’s not a waste product, it’s an essential component of the digestive process. Without saliva, you couldn’t taste the food you eat.
Strong hair
A single human hair can support 3.5 ounces of weight. That’s the theory – in practice, you’d have a job with balancing something on a single hair. However, it does mean the tale of Rapunzel is less of a fairy story than one may imagine.
We don’t like Mondays
Heart attacks are more common on Mondays than any other day of the week. This is probably due to a combination of overindulgence at the weekend and the stress of returning to work after the break. That Boomtown Rats song had a scientific basis after all!
These facts prove that the human body is one of the most complicated and surprising mechanisms on Earth. Despite all its idiocyncracies, it keeps most of us happy and healthy for many years. What a wonderful invention the human body is.
