The human body is without doubt the most complex machine ever created – and there's still so much we take for granted and don't really know about its inner workings.
The brain
The brain is the font of all knowledge, but if you're a fully grown adult be warned – it's all downhill from here. Once a human reaches the age of 35, he or she will start losing approximately 7,000 brain cells a day, which will never be replaced.
Your brain is also 80% water, which is why it's all spongey and, some say, why we all go a little bit crazy during a full moon.
The heart
The heart weighs less than a pound, yet it can be heavy, hard, broken etc - it's also the body part most immortalised in song. On a more medical level, the average human heart beats around 100,000 times per day and produces enough pressure to be able to squirt blood at a distance of over 35 feet.
The eyes
Do your eyes ever feel tired at the end of the day? Hardly surprising - the focusing muscles of the eyes move around 100,000 times a day. To give your leg muscles the same workout, you would need to walk 50 miles every day.
Most people blink 25 times a minute, so the average human blinks his eyes over 6 million times each year.
Sexy stuff
Both men and women perform more powerfully than they may realise, even in their wildest dreams. Male testicles manufacture 10 million new sperm cells each day - enough to repopulate the entire planet in only 6 months.
As for women, during the female orgasm powerful endorphins are released which are extremely strong painkillers - so 'not tonight dear, I've got a headache' should actually be 'yes please'!
The bones
Adult human bones account for 14% of the body's total weight, so when someone says 'he's big-boned' as a euphemism for saying someone's overweight – remember there's a full 86% that isn't bones!
The mouth
The average person in the west eats 50 tonnes of food and drinks 50,000 litres (11,000 gallons) of liquid during his life. It also takes food seven seconds to go from the mouth to the stomach via the oesophagus.
Atchoo! That was quick – a sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 100 m.p.h.
Laughter
Laughter really is contagious – the part of your brain associated with facial movements is stimulated into mimicry by social cues such as someone laughing, sneezing, yawning and crying. If laughing makes you hiccup, you'll have a job to beat the world's longest ever hiccuping bout, which lasted from 1922 to 1987 for a poor farmer in the USA.
Tickling yourself is a different matter - the brain warns you if you are going to do it so it shuts off the response.
Hair
Some of us may not have that much on top right now, but the average human has about 100,000 hairs – though brunettes have 10,000 more and redheads 10,000 fewer. In fact, humans have about the same number of hair follicles as a chimpanzee has.
In a lifetime, an average man will shave 20,000 times – that's five months of his life spent shaving.
Sleep
Every night while you sleep, you grow by about 8mm, but the next day you shrink back to your former height - it's all to do with the force of gravity on your cartilages.
Sleep is good for thinking - your brain is more active and thinks more at night. And ladies, check this one out - while sleeping, one man in eight snores, and one in ten grinds his teeth.
The body beautiful
Your ears and nose continue to grow all your life – even when your height has peaked. Your teeth are the only part of the body that is unable to repair itself.
Finally, in 30 minutes, the average body gives off enough heat (combined) to bring a half gallon of water to boil. You always knew you were hot!
The final Curious © phrase:
¨Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live¨
(Jim Rohn)
