50 Facts About The Human Body

The human body is a fascinating thing. Even though we all have one and use its functions every single day, there is much we do not know about it. Here we will take a look at 50 facts about the human body, some you may already know, some you may not.

• Blood equates to approximately 7% of the weight of the human body.
• Over a pint of sweat can be produced from the feet every single day; there are approximately 500,000 sweat glands in the feet.
• The only living tissue in the human body that does not contain blood vessels is the cornea.
• The brain contains around 100 billion neurons.
• The only muscle in the human body that is only connected at one end is the tongue.
• Everybody knows that a humans fingerprints are unique, but did you know that a tongue print is also unique.
• It has been estimated that fingerprints start to come through when the foetus is only 3 months old.
• Hair on the human head grows at a rate of roughly 0.34 millimetres a day – but not on bald people!
• Madarosis is the technical term for the loss of eyebrows.
• From the mouth to the stomach, food travels down the oesophagus in around 7 seconds.
• The average human colon contains over 400 species of bacteria.
• It takes nearly 12 hours for the body to fully digest any food it has eaten.
• The average human dream lasts 3 seconds.
• Around half of the bacteria found in a human mouth resides solely on the top of the tongue.
• A total of 14 bones make up a human face.
• Adults have 206 bones in their body but children have 300 bones; as they get older, some of the bones merge together.
• Most of the dust that exists in your house is nothing more than dead skin cells.
• The stapes bone in the ear is the smallest bone in the human body.
• There is enough carbon in the human body to fill 90 pencils.
• The combined monetary value of all the chemicals in the human body is approximately £4.
• The hardest substance in the human body is tooth enamel.
• There are no sensory nerve endings in the human brain, as such it cannot feel pain.
• The average ear will grow 0.01 inches in length every single year.
• Every single hour, the human body sheds approximately 600,000 particles of skin.
• Red blood cells are created in bone marrow and travel around the body for around 120 days.
• A sneeze travels at around 100mph and it is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
• Hair is the fastest growing tissue in the human body.
• 400 gallons of blood are filtered by the kidneys every single day.
• 20% of the oxygen taken in by the human body is used up by the brain.
• On the subject of the brain – 80% of it is made from water.
• The small intestine is about 22 feet long and only 2 inches round.
• Teeth are the only part of the human body that can not ‘fix’ itself.
• The largest organ of the human body is the skin.
• The strongest bone in the human body is the femur; it may be hollow but it is as strong as concrete.
• Give or take a very small distance, your arm span is equal to your height.
• A human spent around 30 minutes as a single cell!
• It can take only 60 seconds for a single human blood cell to travel round the human body.
• The average adult blinks 25 times a minute.
• A new layer of mucus is produced by your stomach every couple of weeks to stop it from digesting itself.
• An average person breathes in 11,000 litres of air every single day.
• The distance between your wrist and the inside of your elbow (where your arm bends) is roughly the same as the size of your feet.
• The eye sees images upside down but the brain fixes it.
• The average length of a yawn is 6 seconds.
• The weight of a human eyeball is approximately 28 grams.
• Hair on the human head grows at a rate of roughly 0.34 millimetres a day – but not on bald people!
• The human heart beats approximately 35 million times every year.
• The human liver performs over 500 functions.
• It is estimated that nearly two-thirds of the world’s population do not have perfect vision.
• The fastest growing fingernail is the middle-finger nail.
• The slowest growing fingernail is the thumb nail.