37 Amazing Things You Didn’t Know About Your Own Body (Part 1)

Education 5 Minutes

You’ll have a brand-new skeleton in 10 years.

Your skeletal system’s cells are constantly regenerating and, on average, the bones you have now will have completely regenerated in about a decade’s time. This does start to slow down as you age, however, with regeneration taking longer, causing bones to naturally become thinner.You’re taller in the morning than you are at night.It might seem like a tall tale, but when you wake up in the morning, you’re actually a tiny bit taller than you were when you went to bed. This is due to the pressure put on joints throughout the day.As you go about your activities, this pressure causes the cartilage in your spine to compress—just fractions of an inch, but enough to push everything down. As you relax in your sleep, it eases the pressure on your spinal disks, thus allowing you to return to your full height.Your sweat is actually odorless.If you think sweat stinks, you wouldn’t be alone—but you would be incorrect. Sweat itself doesn’t smell. It’s the interaction with bacteria on your skin that causes body odor. Don’t worry, this is perfectly normal. These bacteria occur naturally and just happen to thrive in the sweatiest regions of our body.You have over 60,000 miles of blood vessels.If it sounds overwhelming, that’s because it kind of is. While individual blood vessels are relatively small, the amount found within the average adult body tallies up in some pretty impressive ways. If laid out in a straight line, the entire network would stretch well over 60,000 miles. That’s including all arteries, capillaries, and veins, end-to-end.Like lizards, we also shed our skin.

OK, so it’s not quite as intense as when it happens to a lizard or to a snake but it is just as creepy. According to the American Chemical Society, humans shed their entire outer layer of skin every two to four weeks. That’s about 500 million skin cells a day!

Babies don’t have kneecaps.

You’d think that our kneecaps would be a necessary part of the human body. Not for babies, who aren’t born with them. Instead, their cartilage gradually turns into bone, as ossification begins between the ages of two and six years—and doesn’t fully finish until young adulthood.

Your stomach growls because it’s full of hot air.

Ever wonder why you experience those grumbly, growly sounds when hungry? It all circles back to the digestive system. More specifically, the intestines. These guys go through a series of contractions to help move food and liquid along when eating. But even after all the food is digested, the intestines continue to move air through the digestive tract. That’s what causes “borborygmus,” the scientific name assigned to those funny little rumbles.

Your bones are stronger than steel.

While many of us experience a broken bone at some point in life, the fact is that bone is an incredibly tough substance. So strong, in fact, that, as Discover puts it, “ounce for ounce, our bones are stronger than steel.”  A bone has a greater pressure tolerance and bearing strength than a rod of steel of the same width. The strongest bone in the body is the femur, which can support 30 times the body weight of an average person.

Throughout your life, you will produce enough saliva to fill up two pools.

The average human produces over 20,000 liters of saliva throughout their lifetime. That’s enough to eventually fill up two swimming pools full of spit.  If you think that sounds like a long time, just remember: Rome wasn’t built in a day, either.

Your feet contain a quarter of your bones.

Human feet contain 52 bones (26 for each foot). That’s nearly a quarter of all the bones in your whole body! Each also contains 33 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments.

The smallest bone in your body is in your ear.

No named bone in your body is smaller (or lighter) than the stapes, a bone in the middle ear that’s actually shaped like a stirrup. It’s complete with a base and an oval window, which is covered with a membrane that measures sound vibrations.

You lose almost one-third of your bones as you age.

As it turns out, there are quite a few things you didn’t know about your body—including how many bones you have. According to the doctors over at the Cleveland Clinic, you’re born with about 300 bones, but as you grow, some fuse together as cartilage ossifies, eventually leaving you with 206 bones by the time you stop growing (once you’ve reached young adulthood).

There are no muscles in your fingers.

Your fingers do countless important things throughout the day, from opening jars to opening doors. But don’t chalk up those feats of strength to your fingers. Any movement that happens in your fingers is due to tendons and bones, with a lot of help from the muscles in the palms of your hands and at the base of each individual digit.

Half your hand strength is in your pinkie.

The pinkie seems unassuming, but it’s crucial for your hand strength—helping the thumb to pinch and giving more power to the ring, middle, and index fingers.

Laurie Rogers, hand therapist at National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, told The New York Times that losing your pinkie would mean, “You’d lose 50 percent of your hand strength, easily.”

Your tongue is the only muscle that doesn’t join two bones.

Every muscle in the human body connects to bones at both ends, allowing it to pull and create motion, with one notable exception: your tongue. On one end, it’s connected to your hyoid bone—part of your neck—but nothing else on the other side.

Your rear is your largest muscle.

While there is some debate about which of your muscles is the strongest, your gluteus maximus happens to be your largest, according to the Library of Congress. These muscles help keep your body upright, move your hips and thighs, and work against gravity when you’re walking uphill or upstairs.  The fact that they make your jeans look great is just a bonus.

We’re as hairy per square inch as chimpanzees.

It turns out we’re just as hairy as chimps. According to a 2011 paper published in the International Journal of Trichology, we have the same number of hairs as chimps, even if the hair itself is much finer, making it harder to see and creating a lower volume of hair overall.

Roller coasters can “toss” your organs.

You know that sinking feeling you get when on a roller coaster? Turns out, it might be a little something more than the adrenalin. According to experts, these rides can achieve speeds fast enough to actually toss your internal organs around. We’re talking brain, heart, eyes, blood vessels, and more.  Don’t worry, the acceleration isn’t enough to do any harm (unless you have a preexisting condition). It’s just enough to leave you feeling a little queasy.

Hair can “taste.”

Here’s a fun human body fact: Your nasal passages and lungs are lined with fine hairs, or cilia, that detect and sweep out impurities. How do they detect it? By sensing the bitter tastes of the things passing through them (such as, say, nicotine).  When these hairs taste something bitter, they increase their rate of movement, attempting to sweep out the bad stuff, according to a 2009 study published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Hair knows when you sleep.

Your hair helps the environment.

Dirty hair can be good for the atmosphere: According to a 2008 study published in Atmospheric Environment, hair absorbs the air pollutant ozone. Scalp oils were found to be a major contributor to this, so if you want to do your part to help your local air quality, skip the shampoo!

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Published by pat frederick

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159 thoughts on “37 Amazing Things You Didn’t Know About Your Own Body (Part 1)”

  4. Michigan using taxpayer $$ to allow shynese to build
    FTA

    Furious Michigan residents slammed their Democratic state lawmakers for facilitating the construction of a Chinese-backed green energy project.

    During a public hearing for the Michigan Senate’s appropriations committee, locals condemned plans to use $175 million in taxpayer funds to build an electric vehicle battery plant in Big Rapids Township owned by Chinese tech company Gotion.

    Despite being aggressively confronted for considering the plans, the committee went on to approve the measure in a tight 10-9 vote, with every Republican and three Democrats on the committee coming out against it.

    The approval comes amid mounting focus upon China’s ability to buy large amounts of farmland in the US, which both lawmakers and citizens fear could allow the nation undue influence in America.

    Hannah Saez, left, and Marjorie Steele, right, were among those who slammed the committee for even considering the plans

    Speaking before the committee ultimately approved the proposal, Hannah Saez, the clerk of the Big Rapids Township, told the committee she was ‘gravely disappointed’.

    Saez criticized the local lawmakers for falling in line behind Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who announced in October that Gotion, which is a subsidiary of China-based company Gotion High-Tech, would invest $2.4 billion to construct two 550,000 square-foot production plants across 260 acres in Michigan.

    ‘I can attest, however, that our community is now united in ways they would have never been before. They do not want this,’ Saez continued.

    ‘Thousands of Michiganders will be watching today. I know you all receive daily emails and phone calls. I know you’re under pressure. I know you’ve probably been coerced.

    ‘I beg of you to do what is right here even if corruption is knocking at your door.’
    Gotion’s plans would see the firm invest $2.4 billion to construct two 550,000 square-foot production plants across 260 acres in Michigan

    Gotion’s plans would see the firm invest $2.4 billion to construct two 550,000 square-foot production plants across 260 acres in Michigan

    Michigan residents furiously objected to Chinese-based company Gotion’s plans to build an electric battery plant in the state

    Saez was followed in her remarks by Marjorie Steele, who slammed the committee for quickly scheduling the vote without ‘due diligence’ over the risks.

    ‘I’m angry,’ she began. ‘I’m angry that this vote was slipped into the agenda today with as little information as possible so that people like me wouldn’t know it was happening.

    ‘I’m angry that you, our elected officials, have ignored my community’s pleas to table this vote until some small semblance of due diligence can be performed.’

    ‘I can promise you that we will not stop at the local level,’ she added.

    ‘We are tired of being abused and we are not alone. This is not just a Mecosta County issue. Townships and counties across the state are uniting, sharing resources, manpower and grassroots activism. Your votes today, senators, are lines drawn in the sand.’

    Many Big Rapids residents who spoke at the hearing slammed the mounting presence of China in the area, with one going as far as to claim the project was part of the CCP’s plan to ‘overthrow the United States without firing a shot’.

    ‘I think that any Chinese communist plant buying up 700 acres of Michigan land is a concern to all citizens throughout the state,’ added Cheryl Vitito.

    ‘This CCP-controlled company represents communism and is a threat to our way of life and our God-given and constitutional freedoms.

    ‘We don’t want the CCP here by way of the Gotion plant as they have no regard for the value and dignity of human life.’

    ‘This company pledges allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party and should be determined as a threat to our national security,’ added Shirley Schaefer, another resident.
    State Senator Sarah Anthony, the chair of the appropriations committee, was among those who voted for the proposal

    Only three Democrats on the committee voted against the measure, including Sylvia Santana, pictured

    According to Fox News, the corporate bylaws of Gotion High-Tech, the parent company of Gotion, mandates that the company carries out ‘Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.’

    Concerns over the Chinese company’s expansion in the state has seen fierce opposition from local Republican lawmakers, including Kyle Luce, the supervisor of nearby Barton Township.

    Luce said 85 percent of the residents in his jurisdiction, which is near to the now-approved electric facility, opposed the project in a poll.

    ‘Our citizens are concerned with the timeframe that’s going on here,” Luce told the committee.

    ‘The timing seems to be sped up exponentially to, in our opinion, try to seal the deal and get this done before people have a chance to speak out, residents have a chance to speak out. And individuals, the fine senators, are digging up information daily about the CCP involvement.’

    Troublemaker10
    Troublemaker10
    April 21, 2023 12:52 pm

    Furious Michigan residents accuse Dem-led state senate of helping ‘overthrow the US’ by green lighting $2.4B plans for Chinese green energy giant to build two huge plants

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11997731/Michigan-residents-slam-Democrat-led-2-4-billion-proposal-Chinese-green-energy-plants.html

    Liked by 1 person

  5. This is too funny! Just checking my account on-line….remember last summer when I stopped by the local area produce farm and found the Vinca plants as well as the red Clematis? I left a check for $10 – that check just now hit my bank! From August of last year!!! LOL

    Liked by 1 person

  6. OK, skies have cleared somewhat – still only 39 and windy – but I’m headed to Norfolk…if I don’t “see” you before you go, Pat – have a wonderful week-end and I sure hope you get your Mom’s concerns ironed out!

    Liked by 1 person

  7. for pete’s sake…new rules in senate bill for detaining illegals…
    if they can’t speak much english, are pregnant, GAY, TRANS, or whatever and are VULNERABLE cannot be detained, but have to be released with a promise to come to a hearing…WTH?
    CLOSE THE BORDER! problem SOLVED. round up the illegals here–with the caveat that those that don’t self deport cannot EVER achieve citizenship or get ANY social (READ: $$$$) benefits
    EVER from the gov’t.
    FTA
    For example, officials would have to decide within 48 hours whether to detain an alien, and could only detain them after a determination that “the release of an alien will not reasonably ensure the appearance of the alien as required or will endanger the safety” of others. In those cases, DHS “shall impose the least restrictive conditions” for detention, and ensure they get a custody hearing within 72 hours. And in those hearings, “there shall be a presumption that the alien should be released,” the bill said.

    But the bill goes further by seeking to exempt several groups of illegal aliens from any detention at all. It creates a “special rule for vulnerable persons and primary caregivers,” and says these aliens “may not be detained” unless DHS can demonstrate that it is “unreasonable or not practicable to place the alien in a community-based supervision program.”

    Under the bill, “vulnerable person” is defined as anyone who is under 21 or older than 60, pregnant, or who “identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex.” Other vulnerable aliens are those who are a victim of or witness to a crime, anyone who has filed a nonfrivolous civil rights claim in court, anyone with a workplace claim, and those with a “serious mental or physical illness or disability.”

    Aliens with a credible fear of persecution, “limited English language proficiency,” those experiencing “severe trauma,” and survivors of “torture or gender-based violence” also meet the definition of a “vulnerable person” for which DHS must take extra steps before detaining.
    Kirk Elliott Expert

    In other words, DHS will only be able to detain illegal aliens who admit to being able to speak English and who do not claim to have any challenges, risks, or abnormalities. So… none of them. Literally 100% of illegal aliens will claim something about themselves that would make them exempt from detention.

    https://discernreport.com/why-were-about-to-get-an-unprecedented-influx-of-lgbtq-illegal-aliens-who-dont-speak-english/

    Liked by 1 person

  8. they demand records, disclosures and we give it to them. when they are asked thru the FOIA process for information, they refuse. see how that works?
    FTA
    (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that the Department of Justice refuses to release the names of staffers working in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office in two investigations targeting former President Donald Trump and other Americans.

    On December 9, 2022, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for:

    All staff rosters, phone lists, or similar records depicting all employees hired by or detailed to the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith.

    The Justice Department responded on April 12, stating that records responsive to Judicial Watch’s request have been located, but are being withheld “pursuant to Exemptions 6 and 7(A)” of FOIA:

    Exemption 6 pertains to information the release of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Exemption 7(A) pertains to records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, the release of which could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.

    https://www.judicialwatch.org/jack-smiths-staff/

    Liked by 1 person

  9. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

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