Published: May 27, 2008 06:32 pm         

Dazzle your friends with these facts about the human body

By Steve Mullenix

Health Watch



Who has not played “Trivial Pursuit”?

It can be a fun, but nevertheless embarrassing, game. In order to prepare you for your text trivial chal-lenge, here are some fun facts about the human body.

Personally, I kind of enjoy reading these worthless facts. I thought I would take a break from a serious subject and provide some of these interesting and fun tidbits to lock away in the recesses of your mind.

•In an average healthy adult the volume of blood is one-eleventh the body weight, or between 5-6 quarts (about the amount of oil in a V8 engine)

• In 10 years, the average man will shave off one pound of whiskers and spend about a total of five months of his lifetime shaving, which would be about 20,000 times

• A human body loses an average of 40 to 100 strands of hair a day. Not to worry, because the average scalp has over 100,000 hairs and blondes have more hair than darker headed people

• A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 miles per hour

• According to German scientists, the risk for a heart attack is higher on Monday than any other day of the week, so avoid Mondays.

• By age 60, most people have lost half of their taste buds. I guess that explains why so many older people like buffets.

• Each square inch of human skin contains 20 feet of blood vessels, four yards of never fibers, 100 sweet glands, and three million cells

• Every person has a unique tongue print

• If you are able to curl your tongue, you have an additional gene that is responsible for a unique muscle which makes this possible

• Every time you lick a stamp, you are consuming one-tenth of a calorie

• Fingernails grow faster than toenails. The middle fingernail is the quickest to grow; the thumbnail is the slowest

• Your eyes are the same size as from birth, but your nose and ears never stop growing

• The average human body contains enough iron to make a three inch nail, enough carbon to make 900 pencils, enough potassium to fire a toy cannon, enough fat to make seven bars of soap, enough phosphorus to make 2,200 match heads and enough water to fill a 10 gallon tank

• The average human produces 25,000 quarts of saliva in a lifetime; that’s enough to fill two swimming pools

• Your feet account for one-fourth of the bones in the human body — that’s 52 bones in the feet alone. More than half of the bones in the human body are located in the hands and feet

• The average human takes 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day. That’s equivalent to about 115,000 miles in a lifetime, equal to circling the globe nearly 5 times

• It is not possible to tickle yourself. The cerebellum, a part of the brain, warns the rest of the brain that you are about to tickle yourself. Since your brain is aware of this, it ignores the sensation.

• The last one will make everyone happy: Eating chocolate three time a month helps people live longer, as opposed to people who overeat chocolate or don’t eat chocolate at all

Steve Mullenix (R.Ph), co-owns The Pharmacy in Mount Olive with his wife, Sherry Mullenix (J.D., R.N.). They can be reached at 631-1201.