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MORE WONDERS OF THE WORLD - 125 TODAY!
As our body cells are discarded, so they must be replaced. The first
step in this process is when we decide to eat and see food. Our eyes
can detect around 10 million different shades of colour. We possess
in the region of 25 million olfactory (Smell) cells capable of detecting
over 10,000 smells discerning as little as one part in 20 billion. Our
9,000 taste buds each have a life of 770 days can detect one part in
2 million.
Digestion
Enzyme activities in the digestion process begins as soon as we start
chewing, then the journey through our system begins. Our digestive
tract is 30 ft long but if our intenstine were laid out as a smooth
surface, they would cover an area the size of a football pitch. In
our stomach, weighing close to 2lbs, lives over 80 varieties of bacteria,
all with a specific task. Our stomach capacity is close to nine pints
and we manufacture five pints of intestinal juice a day.
Lung Capacity
We also take in life's energy in the form of oxygen via the lungs.
The actual surface of these is around 775 sq ft, 30 times the body
surface area and about the size of a tennis court. The oxygen finds
it way into the blood stream by filtering through 315 million alveoli
in each lung.
Blood
We have eight pints of blood, the fluid that nourishes us and removes
waste. In each cubic millimeter there are 5 million red corpuscles
- cells - and 5000 white blood cells. The red live for 127 days and
8,000 die every hour. If you could lay our capiliaries (very small
blood vessells) end to end, they would go round the earth 2.5 times.
In the 96,000 km of blood vessels in our body, the time taken for
food to circulate is just over 30 seconds.
Heart
Our heart beats 100,000 times a day and it pumps 550 gallons of blood
in a year. In the course of its life it will beat some 2.5 billion
times.
Lifespan
Scientists now tell us that the human body has the potential to live
for 125 years of age in good health. The reason we have not previously
done so is a combination of factors including family genes, nutrition
and hygiene. We stand on the threshold of understanding why the body
seems to have an alloted lifespan of life. It appears that as we get
older, cells do not function well. It is genetically encoded. Splinters
of chemicals known as 'free radicals' also erode our defence mechanism,
yet ageing is a mystery on another level - the lifespan of a human
at 80 years old is the equivalent of a four year old mouse and a bee
at three weeks. The metabolic rate of a shrew - the speed at which
the cells use energy - is some 35 times faster than a human.
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