Human Body

1. The body is composed of 70 trillion cells. That's 70 million million cells! 80% of your body is water.
2. The hand has more moving parts controlled by more muscles than any other structure in the body.
3. Only 1% of human genes differ from those of chimpanzees.
4. More babies are born between 3 and 4am than any other time of the day.
5. Your arm span usually equals your height.
6. There are 200 different types of cells in the body.
7. The body is made up of around 100 trillion cells.
8. The body is 70% water by weight.
9. Fat cells are liquid at body temperature.
10. There are 700 different enzymes in the body.
11. The oldest human lived to be over 120 years old

Breathing

1. You breathe enough air throughout your lifetime to fill 10 million balloons.
2. The air from a sneeze travels at almost 100mph.
3. Humans breathe 20 times per minute.
4. Only 1/5 of the air you breathe is oxygen.
5. One cigarette shortens your life by 14 minutes.
6. Yawning can be the result of a lack of oxygen.

Circulation

1. The heart pumps 5 liters of blood through the body at any one time.
2. 4000 quarts of blood are pumped through the heart daily.
3. The heart may pump up to 2.5 billion times in an average lifetime.
4. The heart is extremely efficient. It converts 50% of its fuel directly into energy while an automobile engine converts only 25% of its fuel directly into energy.
5. The heart is about the size of your fist.
6. An average heart rate for men is 70 to 72 beats per minute.
7. An average heart rate for women is 78 to 82 beats per minute.
8. An average heart beats over 100,000 times a day.
9. While you're sleeping the heart completes a workload approximately equal to carrying a 30-pound pack to the top of the 102 story Empire State Building.
10. Blood outside the body clots in about 6 minutes.
11. There are about 62,000 miles of blood vessels in the body. That's equivalent to 2.5 times around the world.
12. Red blood cells reproduce at a rate of 8 million new cells per second.
13. The largest vein is the inferior vena cava, draining the entire lower half of the body into the heart.
14. The aorta is the largest artery, over 1in. in diameter, supplying every tissue of the body except for the fingernails and cartilage.
15. It takes one full minute for a blood cell to travel through the entire body.
16. Blushing is a way your body cools itself by dilating small blood vessels near the skin.
17. Some capillaries are small enough to only allow blood cells to travel single file.

Digestion

1. The average body has 30 to 40 billion fat cells.
2. You consume 30 tons of food throughout your life.
3. It takes 24 hours to completely digest food.
4. The digestive tube from your mouth to your anus is 9 meters or 30 feet long.
5. The digestive system has a surface area of 2000 square feet.
6. The surface area of the digestive system is approximately equal to that of a single's tennis court!
7. The hardest material in the human body is the white enamel on your teeth.
8. Your mouth makes 1.2 quarts of saliva daily.
9. Mammals have a growth factor in saliva making the inner lining of their mouth the fastest healing tissue in the body.
10. Enzymes in the mouth only digest starchy foods.
11. Dental plaque begins to develop only six hours after brushing.
12. The salivary glands pour 1 to 1/2 liters of water into the digestive tract daily.
13. The average person eats 3 lbs. of food daily.
14. The stomach can stretch to 50 times its empty size.
15. The stomach can hold about 4.5 quarts of liquid.
16. Each minute about 1/2 million damaged lining cells are replaced in the stomach.
17. Vomiting can empty the stomach along with the first foot of intestines.
18. Water molecules in the gut can move at 1500 miles/hour due to peristalsis.
19. It takes 4 to 8 seconds for food to travel to the stomach.
20. Most absorption occurs within the first quarter of the small intestine.
21. The small intestine averages 21 feet long.
22. The large intestine averages 5 feet long.
23. The colon is home to 100 trillion bacteria.
24. Human feces are normally 1/4 dead intestinal bacteria.
25. The body's bacteria could fill a soup can.
26. Fat accounts for about 80% of the energy stored in the body.
27. When resting, about half the energy used by the muscle, liver, and kidneys is derived from fat.
28. The bacteria as it naturally exists within the lumen (or hollow space) of the digestive tract is perfectly harmless and beneficial, helping the digestion and absorption of food that otherwise couldn't be absorbed. However, if this bacteria ever did enter the body and the blood, due to a ruptured digestive organ, it could be extremely harmful and even lethal.

Excrement

1. The kidneys filter 180 quarts of blood daily.
2. 1/4 of all the blood is filters by the kidneys every minute.
3. The yellow color of urine is caused by bile.
4. The lumen (contents) of the digestive tract is considered outside the body like the hole of a donut, since it's continuous with the outside of the body. The lungs and kidneys eliminate most of the waste products from inside the body. The digestive tract is disqualified from this function, since most contents of feces never technically enters the body.

Exercise

1. Calories burn fastest when exercise occurs within three hours of a meal.
2. The average heart rate for college male students is 72 beats per minute, while highly trained athletes can have a resting heart of 30 to 40 beats per minute!
3. Wild animals have a much lower heart rate than domestic animals. So take Fido for a walk and give yourself some exercise!
4. You need to burn 4000 calories to zap away one pound of fat.

Glands

1. The liver is the only internal organ that will completely regenerate itself if partly damaged. Up to 25% can be removed and within a short period of time it will grow back to its original size and shape.

Hair

1. Straight hair is round in cross section while curly hair is flat.
2. The average head has 100,000 hairs each living for about 2 to 4 years.
3. There are over 5 million hair follicles on the body.
4. No hair exists on the lips, palms or soles of the feet. 50 to 100 scalp hairs fall out daily.

Muscles

1. You have all the muscle fibers you will ever have at birth. Once damaged they can't be replaced.
2. Arnold Shwarzenaeger has just about as many muscle fibers as you do. They're just thicker.
3. A single muscle cell of the sartorius muscle in the thigh can be more than 12 inches long.
4. There are more than 600 voluntary muscles in the body.
5. The strongest muscle of the body is the masseter muscle used for chewing.
6. Your hand contains 20 different muscles.
7. If all your muscles could pull in one direction you could create a force of 25 tons.
8. Muscles account of 40% of your body weight.
9. It takes 17 muscles in your face to smile, but it takes a whopping 43 muscles to frown.
10. You take 5 million steps per year.

Nerves & the Brain

1. A nerve can send up to 1000 impulses per second.
2. The brain operates on the same amount of electricity as a 10-watt light bulb (used for the light in your glove compartment).
3. The adult brain has 14 billion nerve cells and weighs only 3 lbs.
4. The brain is 85% water.
5. The brain uses 25% of all the body's oxygen.
6. The longest nerve is located in the leg and extending from the large toe to the spinal cord.
7. The pineal gland located in the center of the brain tells the body the time of day and season of the year.
8. Each half of the brain (left or right) controls its opposite side of the body.
9. One square inch of skin on the back of your hand has 12,000 nerve endings.
10. Goosebumps add an extra layer of insulation.
11. The body is more sensitive to pain late in the afternoon.
12. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

Nutrition

1. Carbohydrates account for only 1% of the body's weight, but play a central role in the chemical reactions that provide cells with energy.
2. Lipids, including fatty acids, are water insoluble and make up 40% of the organic matter in the body and 15% of the bodies weight.
3. Cholesterol is a steroid because it is a lipid with the steroid skeletal configuration of 4 interconnected carbon rings.
4. Proteins such as DNA are large molecular chains.
5. Proteins account for 50% of the organic material in the body and 17% of the body's weight.

Senses

1. The vestibular organ, located in your inner ear, detects changes in the position of your head to a few hair widths.
2. Eyes at birth are 2/3 their mature size.
3. One in 12 men is colored blind.
4. There are 6 million cones (color light receptors) and 120 million rods (black and white receptors) in each eye.
5. Pupils are holes through which the dark interior of the eye can be seen.
6. Blinking causes the eyes to be closed for a total of one hour each day.
7. Tears enter tiny holes on the inside corner of the eye, travel down the lachrymal duct and into the nose causing you to sniffle when you cry, or to sniffle when cold wind causes more lubrication of the eye.
8. You secrete 17 gallons of tears throughout your lifetime.
9. It is impossible to lick your elbow. Now that you know it is almost impossible to resist trying.

Sex & Reproduction

1. On average, a single healthy ejaculation consists of 5 milliliters (1 teaspoon) of semen, and contains 300,000,000 to 500,000,000 sperm.
2. Over 8 million (8,388,608) (2 to the 23rd power) different combinations of maternal and paternal chromosomes can result during the formation of gametes.
3. Over 69,949,000,000,000 different combinations of chromosomes can result from fertilization.
4. Another word for breast is mamma or mammary gland. Mammals is a classification for more than 15,000 species of vertebrates (animals having a spine) including ourselves. Mammals are characterized by being warm blooded, having hair, and females having breasts. This amazing collection of animals is basically named after the scientific word for breasts. Why didn't they name the classification after hair? Because even male scientists are apparently fixated on breasts!
5. The time it takes humans to have sex varies from a few minutes to many minutes, while most other mammals have sex within a few seconds.
6. Humans have sex year round as opposed to most animals that have sex only during a breeding season.
7. Humans and dolphins are two of the only animals that have sex for fun or pleasure. We can thank our anatomy for this. The clitoris is an organ with the exclusive function to give the woman pleasure during sex. The penis is longer and wider compared to close animal relatives reflecting its ability to bring pleasure to both partners.
8. Human sex serves functions in addition to reproduction. Not only is it fun and pleasurable, but it serves to bring two people emotionally closer, resulting in strong relationships that benefit each partner as well as their offspring.
9. Most women enjoy sex when they are no longer fertile. (after menopause)
10. Conception occurs more often in December than any other month.

Skeleton

1. There are 206 distinct bones in the body.
2. You shrink 1/2 an inch during the day due to compression of the spinal column.
3. The hipbone is composed of 6 smaller bones.
4. Your pelvis is composed of your hipbone and the last fused vertebrae called your sacrum.
5. There are 230 joints in the body.
6. The femur is the longest bone in the body.
7. 26 bones are in the foot.
8. 22 fused bones makeup the skull that protects your brain.
9. One in 20 people has an extra rib.
10. Landing from a jump exerts half a ton of force within your femur. This is enough force to shatter granite!
11. The design of the Eiffel tower is based on the design of human bone.

Skin

1. Your skin is the largest organ of the body weighing in at 9 pounds.
2. Your skin has a surface area on average of 20 square feet.
3. The average head has 100,000 hairs each living for about 2 to 4 years.
4. There are over 5 million hair follicles on the body.
5. No hair exists on the lips, palms or soles of the feet.
6. 50 to 100 scalp hairs fall out daily.
7. There are more than 650 sweat glands in one square inch of skin
8. Under normal conditions and strenuous exercise you can secrete 2 pints of sweat per hour.
9. Under severe heat and stress adult males can secrete 1 to 2 liters of sweat per hour.
10. The collagen strands, which give skin its strength and structure, are stronger than steel wires of the same size.
11. Skin grafts, not taken from oneself, are usually grown from the circumcised foreskins of babies. The cells from a baby's foreskin can generate enough skin cells to cover a football field.
12. Fingernails grow four times faster than toenails.
13. Fingerprints form 6 to 8 weeks before birth.
14. 500 million dead skin cells fall off daily due to ordinary wear and tear.
15. A single pea-sized bead of sweat can cool about 1 quart of blood by 1 degree F.
16. Americans spend spend about 750 million on antiperspirants and deodorants a year.
17. Eccrine sweat glands open directly to the skin. You have from 2 to 5 million eccrine glands on your body.
18. Apocrine sweat glands open into a hair follicle on your scalp, armpits, and external genitals, and are mostly responsible for body odor since sweat from these glands collects on hair where bacteria breaks it down releasing a foul odor.
19. Sweat is mainly water, salt and electrolytes. Electrolytes are molecules that help regulate the body's fluids.

Sleep

1. Mattresses were originally secured on bed frames by ropes. To make a bed firmer the ropes were pulled tight. Hence the phrase "goodnight, sleep tight".

World Records

According to the Guinness Book of World Records...

1. Most fingers and toes on one person: 14 fingers and 15 toes
2. Fewest toes on one person: 2 on each foot
3. Most arms and legs on one person: 4 arms and 3 legs
4. Some people are born with tails, the longest ever reported was 1 foot in length. Today tails are removed at birth.
5. Longest beard on a person: 17.5 feet
6. Longest mustache: 11 ft. 11 in.
7. The largest feet: size 29.5
8. longest nose: 7.5 inches
9. The oldest baby tooth removed from an adult was 82 years and 364 days old
10. Heaviest brain: 5 lb. 1 oz. from a 30 year old man
11. Lightest brain: 1 lb. 8 oz. from a 46 year old man
12. Largest gall bladder: 23 lb. from a 69 year old woman
13. The oldest woman to give birth was 63 years old. Today hormonal treatments allow some women to give birth well after menopause.
14. The loudest snorer produced a roar of 93 dBA
15. The longest dream recorded was 3hr. 8min. long
16. A man had the longest continuous hiccuping fit for 68 years.