Wednesday Wonder #11: Spit

31/05/201731/05/2017 Admin

Spit

You may not want to swim in your spit, but if you saved it all up, you could. In a lifetime, the average person produces about 25,000 quarts of saliva – enough to fill two swimming pools!

11 Squeaky-Clean Facts About Spit

1. IT’S MOSTLY WATER.
Saliva consists of about 99 percent water. The other 1 percent is made up of electrolytes and organic substances, including digestive enzymes and small quantities of uric acid, cholesterol, and mucins (the proteins that form mucus).
2. THERE’S A MEDICAL STANDARD FOR HOW MUCH YOU SHOULD DROOL.
Healthy individuals accumulate between 2 to 6 cups of spit a day. That’s without stimulation from activities like eating or chewing gum, which open the spit floodgates.
3. SALIVA PRODUCTION HAS A CIRCADIAN RHYTHM.
Your body typically produces the most saliva in the late afternoon, and the least at night. Salivation is controlled by the autonomic nervous system (much like your heartbeat), meaning it’s an unconscious process.
4. THERE ARE FIVE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SPIT.
Salivation has five distinct phases, most triggered by the passage of food through the body. Not all of them are a good thing. The first type of salivation is cephalic, the kind that occurs when you see or smell something delicious. The buccal phase is the body’s reflexive response to the actual presence of food in the mouth (which aids in swallowing). The oesophageal involves the stimulation of the salivary glands as food moves through the oesophogus. The gastric phase happens when something irritates your stomach—like when you’re just about to puke. The intestinal phase is triggered by a food that doesn’t agree with you passing through the upper intestine.
5. IT CAN BATTLE BACTERIA.
There’s a reason the phrase “lick your wounds” came about. Spit is full of infection-battling white blood cells. And, according to a 2015 study in the journal Blood, neutrophils—a type of white blood cell—are more effective at killing bacteria if they come from saliva than from anywhere else in the body. So adding saliva to a wound gives the body a powerful backup as it fights off infection.
6. IT KEEPS YOU FROM GETTING CAVITIES.
The calcium, fluoride, and phosphate in saliva strengthen your teeth. Spit also fights cavity-causing bacteria, washes away bits of food, and neutralizes plaque acids, reducing tooth decay and cavities. That’s why chewing gum gets dentists’ stamp of approval—chewing increases the flow of saliva, thus protecting your oral health.
7. YOU NEED IT IF YOU WANT TO TASTE ANYTHING.
Saliva acts like a solvent for tastes, ferrying dissolved deliciousness to the sites of taste receptors. It also keeps those receptors healthy by keeping them from drying out and protecting them from bacterial infection. Many people who have dry mouth (xerostomia) find their sense of taste affected by their oral cavity’s parched conditions. Because many medications have dry mouth as a side effect, scientists have developed artificial saliva sprays that mimic the lubrication of real spit.
8. SWAPPING SPIT EXCHANGES MILLIONS OF BACTERIA.
A 10-second kiss involves the transfer of some 80 million bacteria, one study found.
9. PEOPLE AREN’T BORN DROOLING.
Babies don’t start drooling until they’re two to four months old. Unfortunately, they also don’t really know what to do with their spit. They don’t have full control of the muscles of their mouth until they’re around two years old, so they can’t really swallow it effectively. Which is why we invented bibs.
10. STRESS CAN LEAVE YOU SPIT-LESS.
The body’s fight-or-flight response is designed to give you the energy and strength needed to overcome a near-death experience, like, say, running into a bear, or, more common in the modern age, giving a big presentation at work. Your blood pressure goes up, the heart beats faster, and the lungs take in more oxygen. This is not the time to sit around and digest a meal, so the digestion system slows down production, including that of saliva.
11. A LACK OF SPIT WAS ONCE USED AS AN ADMISSION OF GUILT.
In some ancient societies, saliva was used as a basic lie detector. In ancient India, accused liars had to chew grains of rice. If they were telling the truth, they would have enough saliva to spit them back out again. If someone was lying, their mouth would go dry and the rice would stick in their throat.

[Previous: Wednesday Wonder #10: 200 million litres of blood]

[Next: Wednesday Wonder #16: Sleep]

Your Monday Muscle: #6 Brachialis

29/05/201705/06/2017 Admin

Brachialis

The brachialis muscle is located in the upper arm.

It lies underneath the biceps muscle. It acts as a structural bridge between the humerus, which is the bone of the upper arm, and the ulna, which is one of the forearm bones.

The muscle is innervated by both the musculoskeletal nerve and the radial nerve.

In some people, the muscle may appear doubled. Also called the brachialis anticus, its primary action is to flex the forearm muscles at the elbow.

[Read more at Healthline]

What movements does the brachialis muscle control?

Bending the elbow

Activities that cause brachialis pain and symptoms:

Lifting heavy objects with a bent elbow
Picking up children
Holding up heavy tools
Working at the computer
Chin ups
Playing the oboe, clarinet, and saxophone

[Read more at the Wellness Digest]

[Previous: Your Monday Muscle: #5 Triceps brachii]

[Next: Your Monday Muscle: #7 Rectus femoris]

Friday Fitness Fact #4: Muscle

19/05/201719/05/2017 Admin

Muscle does not weigh more than fat.

“Technically, the statement, muscle weighs more than fat is false. The truth is that when placed on a scale, one pound of fat is going to weigh the same as one pound of muscle – just like one pound of bricks is going to weigh the same as one pound of feathers. Where the confusion comes in is that muscle and fat differ in density (muscle is about 18% more dense than fat) and one pound of muscle occupies less space (volume) than one pound of fat.

So yes, muscle seems to weigh more because there is a difference in the volume between the two. When a cubic inch of muscle and a cubic inch of fat are measured, the cubic inch of muscle will weigh more. As you add compact muscle mass to the body, body weight may increase. However, pound for pound, muscle and fat weigh the same and when tracking progress of a fitness program, it is very important to look at all markers of improvement, and not just the numbers on the scale.

These diagrams visually express the differences between muscle and fat densities

1) Muscle = more dense

2) Fat = less dense

3) Cross section of a skeletal muscle (200x) showing the muscle fibres (red) and the fat cells (white)

Cross-section of muscle — Cross-section of skeletal muscle

Note that the fat cells are less dense than the muscle cells and take up more volume.”

[Read the rest of this article at bamboocorefitness.com]

15 Fun Facts about Muscles

The biggest muscle in the human body is the gluteus maximus- your butt
The smallest is the stapedius. It is thinner than a thread of cotton and is located in your ear
The reason for goosebumps is the contraction of small muscles located in your hair’s roots
You use 17 muscles in order to smile, and 43 to frown
The fastest muscle group in the human body is the one responsible for blinking. Thanks to them you are able to blink up to 5 times a second
You use up to 200 muscles in order to take a single step
The strongest muscle in the human body is located in the jaw and its name is the the masseter muscle
Your muscles are normally around 40-50% of your body weight
Every half a kilo (1 lb) of muscle you gain, your body burns an extra 50 calories a day
The fibres you already know about can support up to 1,000 times their own weight
75% of the muscle is water
Producing human speech takes 72 different muscles
The human tongue consists of sixteen separate muscles, not one as many people think.
Did you know that your muscles have their own memory? This is why once you learn how to ride a bike, you can never forget it, no matter how long you haven’t done it.
Muscles produce up to 85% of your body’s heat. In fact they produce enough daily heat to boil 2 pints of water for an hour.

Previous: Friday Fitness Fact #3: Dehydration

Your Monday Muscle: #5 Triceps Brachii

01/05/201702/05/2017 Admin

Triceps Brachii Muscles – the muscles used to straighten your arm

The Triceps Brachii muscles are located on the back of the humerus and more commonly referred to as the triceps. They derive their name from a Latin phrase meaning “three headed arm muscle”, due to the fact that the triceps muscles have three muscle heads and therefore have three separate origin attachment points. These three heads are called the Lateral, Medial and Long and they connect the Humerus, Scapula and the >Ulna. The Triceps Brachii muscles are primarily responsible for the extension of the elbow joint (straightening of the arm). They are the largest muscles in the upper arms.

As with the Bicep muscle which has two heads and therefore two origin points, the three-headed Triceps muscle has three different origin points. These origin attachment points are as follows;

1. The Long head arises from the lower part of the Glenoid Cavity which is a shallow depression on the scapula where the head of the Humerus fits. This head is responsible for giving the Triceps Muscle the horse shoe shape.

2.The Lateral head which arises from the upper half of the outside posterior surface of the humerus.

3.The Medial head which arises from the dorsal and inside posterior of the humerus and can usually only be visible closer to the elbow joint as it is mostly covered by the Lateral and Long heads.

— read more at musclesused.com

Fun Facts

Here are some fun facts about triceps muscles that you need to know.

The Triceps muscle makes up 2/3 of the muscle in your arm.
The average triceps muscle is twice as big as the biceps muscle.
The Triceps muscle has 3 separate heads.
The Triceps muscle is mostly responsible for straightening your arm.
The Triceps muscle instigates shoulder and elbow rotation.
More than 90% of a horse’s total muscle weight is located at their triceps.
In many mammals such as dogs, they have a fourth head called the accesory head. It is located between the lateral and medial heads.
The triceps brachii is a contributor to both tennis elbow and golfers elbow.
It and the serratus anterior are known as the boxer’s muscles because these muscles deliver the straight-arm punch.

— sources:

Previous: Your Monday Muscle: #4 Biceps Brachii

Friday Fitness Fact #3: Dehydration

28/04/201718/05/2017 Admin

Dehydration Causes Major Strength Decreases!

A 2008 study[1] concluded that muscular power decreased by up to 19% at a dehydration level of 3% (that’s 3% of total body weight). Interestingly, the study participant’s perception of fatigue increased by a massive 70%!

What happens when you dehydrate?

Research shows that as little as 1 percent dehydration negatively affects your mood, attention, memory and motor coordination. Data in humans is lacking and contradictory, but it appears that brain tissue fluid decreases with dehydration, thus reducing brain volume and temporarily affecting cell function.

Normal water needs range drastically due to a number of factors, such as body composition, metabolism, diet, climate and clothing.

Surprisingly, the first official recommendation about water intake was made as recently as 2004. According to the Institute of Medicine, the adequate water intake for adult men and women is 3.7 and 2.7 litres per day, respectively.

Around 80 percent of total daily water should be obtained from any beverage (including water, caffeinated drinks and alcohol!) and the remaining 20 percent from food.

But of course, this is just a rough guide. Here’s how to monitor your own hydration:

Track your body weight and stay within 1 percent of your normal baseline. You can work out your baseline by averaging your weight (just out of bed, before breakfast) on three consecutive mornings.
Monitor your urine. You should be urinating regularly (more than three to four times per day) and it should be a pale straw or light yellow colour without strong odour. If less frequent, darker colour or too pungent, then drink more fluids.
Be conscious about drinking enough fluids. Your fluid consumption should prevent the perception of thirst.

— from Here’s What Happens to Your Body When You’re Dehydrated, by Toby Mündel from Massey University, and originally published by The Conversation.

[1] Active Dehydration Impairs Upper and Lower Body Anaerobic Muscular Power – Jones, Leon C; Cleary, Michelle ; Lopez, Rebecca M; Zuri, Ron E; Lopez, Richard, Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research: March 2008 – Volume 22 – Issue 2 – pp 455-463

Previous: Friday Fitness Fact #2: Sit-ups

Wednesday Wonder #8: Smelly Feet

26/04/201721/05/2021 Admin 2 Comments

Foot facts

Feet get us around – we use them for running, walking and jumping. And yet, most people know very little about what actually goes on inside the foot. Feet generally get taken for granted – that is, until something goes wrong with them. Nothing incapacitates you as much as a broken or badly infected foot, and smelly feet can affect others as well.

Some foot facts

The average adult takes 4,000 to 6,000 steps a day.
Sixty million Americans or 25% of the U.S. population have flat feet.
In the Middle East heels were added to shoes to lift the foot from the burning sand.
Feet are at their largest at the end of the day.
In a foot, there are 250,000 sweat glands.
The only shoe museum in North America is located in Toronto. This museum showcases shoes spanning over 4,500 years.
Sneakers were first made in America in 1916. They were originally called keds.
In Europe it wasn’t until the 18th century that women’s shoes were different from men’s.
In Europe, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries heels on shoes were always colored red.
The average person walks about 100,000 miles in a lifetime.
Feet are spreading to support extra weight as our populations pack on the kilos. According to a 2014 study by the College of Podiatry in the UK, the average foot has increased two sizes since the 1970s.
The oldest preserved shoe is 5,500 years old and was found in an Armenian cave.
Approximately 20% of the population in the US has high arches
The human foot contains 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, 19 muscles and tendons.
The first boots were made for Queen Victoria in 1840.
Plantar fasciitis affects about 10% of the US population.
There are 52 bones in a pair of feet.
The average foot gets two sizes longer when a person stands up.
Madeline Albrecht holds the world record for most feet sniffed at 5,600.
75% of Americans will experience foot problems at one time or another in their lives.
The average woman walks 3 miles more per day than the average male.
The record for the world’s largest feet belongs to Matthew McGrory who wears US size 28.5 shoes. The average male shoe size is 10.
9 out of 10 women wear shoes that are too small for their feet.
During the first year of a child’s life, their feet grow rapidly, reaching almost half their adult size. By 12, a child’s foot is about 90% of its adult length.
Walking is the best exercise for your feet. It contributes to your general health by improving circulation and weight control.
Typically in a person’s 30-40’s, the natural fat pads on the bottoms of the feet made from collagen & elastin gradually thin out, causing foot pain by the end of the day unless properly cushioned footwear is worn.
It takes at least 5-6 months to grow an entirely new toenail.
Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis, affecting an estimated 20.7 million adults in the United States, mostly after the age of 45.
Cigarette smoking is the biggest cause of Peripheral Vascular Disease (disease of the arteries of the feet and legs) which often leads to pain on walking, ulceration, infection and in the most severe cases – gangrene and possible amputation.
The pressure on the feet when running can be as much as four times the runner’s body weight.
Fingernails and toenails grow faster during hot weather, pregnancy, and teenage years.
25% of all the bones in the human body are down in your feet. When these bones are out of alignment, so is the rest of your body.
Ankle sprains are one of the most common injuries in sports. Because the inner ankle is more stable than the outer ankle, the foot is likely to turn inward from a fall (ankle inversion) which results in an ankle sprain.
About 5% of Americans have toenail problems in a given year.
The average child will take its first steps around 13-17 months – but between 10 and 18 months falls within the “normal” range.
During an average day of walking, the forces on your feet can total hundreds of tons, equivalent to an average of a fully loaded cement truck.
The ancient Romans were the first to construct distinct left and right shoes. Before that, shoes could be worn on either foot.
Women experience foot problems 4 times more often than men.
65 out of 1,000 people get corns or calluses on their feet.
Sweat glands in the feet product approximately half a pint of perspiration daily.
Shoe size in Britain is measured in Barleycorns a unit of measurement that stretches back to Anglo-Saxon times.
More than half the women in America have bunions, a common foot deformity in which the joint that connects the big toe to the foot gets larger and juts out.
Akshat Saxena holds the world record for having the most toes after being born with 34 fingers and toes, with 10 digits on each foot!
About 20-30% of the world’s population have Morton’s Toe, a foot condition in which the second toe is longer than the big toe.
In America, the average shoe size has gone up two sizes in just four decades.
Soles of feet contain more sweat glands and sensory nerve endings per square centimeter than any other part of the body.
Over 2 million Americans seek treatment for plantar fasciitis (heel pain) each year.
When walking, each time your heel lifts off the ground it forces the toes to carry one half of your body weight.
It’s rare that two feet are exactly the same; one of them is usually larger than the other.
The first foot coverings were probably animal skins, which Stone Age peoples in northern Europe and Asia tied around their ankles in cold weather.
Foot disorders in the elderly are extremely common and are the cause of much pain and disability, and consequent loss of mobility and independence.
A human foot & ankle is a strong, mechanical structure that contain 26 bones, 33 joints, and more than 100 muscles, tendons & ligaments.
Standing in one spot is far more tiring than walking because the demands are being made on the same few muscles for a longer length of time.
Butterflies taste with their feet, gannets incubate eggs under their webbed feet and elephants use their feet to hear – they pick up vibrations of the earth through their soles.
3 out of 4 Americans experience serious foot problems in their lifetime.
Only a small percentage of the population is born with foot problems.
It’s neglect and a lack of awareness of proper care – including ill fitting shoes – that bring on problems.
Women have about four times as many foot problems as men. High heels are partly to blame.
Walking is the best exercise for your feet. It also contributes to your general health by improving circulation, contributing to weight control, and promoting all-around well being.
Your feet mirror your general health. Conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, nerve and circulatory disorders can show their initial symptoms in the feet – so foot ailments can be your first sign of more serious medical problems.
Arthritis is the number one cause of disability in America. It limits everyday dressing, climbing stairs, getting in and out of bed or walking – for about 7 million Americans.
About 60-70% of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of diabetic nerve damage, which in severe forms can lead to lower limb amputations. Approximately 56,000 people a year lose their foot or leg to diabetes.
Sweat glands in the feet excrete as much as a half-pint of moisture a day.
Walking barefoot can cause plantar warts. The virus enters through a cut.
The two feet may be different sizes. Buy shoes for the larger one.
About 5% of Americans have toenail problems in a given year.
The average person takes 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day, which adds up to about 115,000 miles over a lifetime. That’s enough to go around the circumference of the earth four times.
There are currently more websites on the Internet having to do with foot fetishes than with foot health.
The foot accounts for 25% of the bones in the human body.
There are roughly 500,000 sweat glands on a pair of feet.
The afternoon is the optimum time to shop for shoes because the feet tend to be more swollen then.
Shoe sizes were devised in England by King Edward II who declared in 1324 that the diameter of one barley corn – a third of an inch – would represent one full shoe size. That’s still true today.
The feet can contract an array of nasty diseases from communal showers: Planter Wart, Athletes foot, Ring worm!

— Foot Facts, foot.com

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Next: Wednesday Wonder #9: Coughs and Sneezes

Your Monday Muscle: #4 Biceps Brachii

24/04/201702/05/2017 Admin 2 Comments

The biceps brachii

The biceps brachii, sometimes known simply as the biceps, is a skeletal muscle that is involved in the movement of the elbow and shoulder.

It is a double-headed muscle, meaning that it has two points of origin or “heads” in the shoulder area. The short head of each biceps brachii originates at the top of the scapula (at the coracoid process). The long head originates just above the shoulder joint (at the supraglenoid tubercle). Both heads are joined at the elbow.

The biceps brachii is a bi-articular muscle, which means that it helps control the motion of two different joints, the shoulder and the elbow.

The function of the biceps at the elbow is essential to the function of the forearm in lifting. The function of the biceps brachii at the shoulder is less pronounced, playing minor roles in moving the arms forward, upward, and sideways.

Although it is generally considered to be doubled headed, the biceps brachii is one of the most variable muscles in the human body. It is common for human biceps to have a third head originating at the humerus. As many as seven heads have been reported.

— Biceps Brachii Origin, Function & Anatomy, Healthline

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Next: Your Monday Muscle: #5 Triceps Brachii

Friday Fitness Fact #2: Sit-ups

21/04/201718/05/2017 Admin 1 Comment

‘It takes training to increase strength, build endurance and DEVELOP the abdominals, but to SEE the definition in your abdominals – or any other muscle group for that matter – is almost entirely the result of low body fat levels.

This may sound counter-intuitive, but if you can’t see your abs, it’s not an issue of “muscle development” at all. You simply have too much body fat covering up the ab muscles. The lower abdominal area also happens to be the one place that most people – especially men – store the body fat first.’

— from The Great Abs Mistake – Crunches And Situps And Still No Abs

Previous: Friday Fitness Fact #1: Muscle Mass

Wednesday Wonder #7: Skin

19/04/201726/04/2017 Admin 2 Comments

Skin

The skin supports its own ecosystems of microorganisms, including yeasts and bacteria, which cannot be removed by any amount of cleaning. Estimates place the number of individual bacteria on the surface of one square inch (6.5 square cm) of human skin at 50 million, though this figure varies greatly over the average 20 square feet (1.9 m²) of human skin.

Oily surfaces, such as the face, may contain over 500 million bacteria per square inch (6.5 cm²). Despite these vast quantities, all of the bacteria found on the skin’s surface would fit into a volume the size of a pea.^[1]

In general, the microorganisms keep one another in check and are part of a healthy skin. When the balance is disturbed, there may be an overgrowth and infection, such as when antibiotics kill microbes, resulting in an overgrowth of yeast.

– Human Skin, Wikipedia

21 Little Known Facts About The Human Body

A human being loses an average of 40 to 100 strands of hair a day.
A cough releases an explosive charge of air that moves at speeds up to 60 mph.
Every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months.
A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 mph.
Every person has a unique tongue print.
According to German researchers, the risk of heart attack is higher on Monday than any other day of the week.
An average human drinks about 16,000 gallons of water in a lifetime.
A fingernail or toenail takes about 6 months to grow from base to tip.
An average human scalp has 100,000 hairs.
It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 to frown.
Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our bodies.
Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime.
By age sixty, most people have lost half of their taste buds.
By the time you turn 70, your heart will have beat some two-and-a-half billion times (figuring on an average of 70 beats per minute.)
Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.
Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
Every person has a unique tongue print.
Every square inch of the human body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it.
Fingernails grow faster than toenails.
Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour – about 1.5 pounds a year. By 70 years of age, an average person will have lost 105 pounds of skin.

– Human trivia, Teach-nology

References:

Theodor Rosebury. Life on Man: Secker & Warburg, 1969 ISBN 0-670-42793-4

Previous: Wednesday Wonder #6: the Small Intestine

Next: Wednesday Wonder #8: Smelly Feet

Wednesday Wonder #16: Sleep

12/04/201710/04/2017 Admin

How Long???

The easy experimental answer to this question is 264 hours (about 11 days)^[1]^[3].

In 1965, Randy Gardner^[2], a 17-year-old high school student, set this apparent world-record for a science fair. Several other normal research subjects have remained awake for eight to 10 days in carefully monitored experiments. None of these individuals experienced serious medical, neurological, physiological or psychiatric problems.

On the other hand, all of them showed progressive and significant deficits in concentration, motivation, perception and other higher mental processes as the duration of sleep deprivation increased. Nevertheless, all experimental subjects recovered to relative normality within one or two nights of recovery sleep. Other anecdotal reports describe soldiers staying awake for four days in battle, or unmedicated patients with mania going without sleep for three to four days. (Read more of this article^[1] at Scientific American on-line).

The Australian National Sleep Research Project states the record for sleep deprivation is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes^[2].

Sources

“How long can humans stay awake?” J. Christian Gillin, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, in Scientific American
Randy Gardner (record holder) Wikipedia
“Man Dies After Going 11 Days Without Sleep: What Are The Health Risks Of Sleep Deprivation?”, Huffington Post