What an incredible machine the human body is. And what efficiency! Every day, it is able to regenerate itself, build new “parts”, and eliminate the superfluous. Here, nothing is lost, nothing is created, and everything is transformed (like the 180 liters of blood flowing every day, which become 1.5 liters of urine). Every second, millions of neuronal connections and billions of cells are set in motion. And in one minute, what happens? Answer.
Blink 10 to 20 times
And that’s still 15,000 to 30,000 blinks a day! Blinking serves to clean and moisten the eyes, but not only that. Several studies suggest that it could be a micro-break for the brain. Thus, as soon as the eyes blink, several areas of the brain linked to attention and the senses become inactive. On the other hand, the so-called “default network” (areas of the brain that are activated during rest, for example) is more active. A blink of an eye is therefore a temporary interruption of our thinking to let a less energy and attention-consuming area of the brain work. Moreover, it has been proven that we blink more in less important moments (for example, between the reading of two sentences, or when a person turns around at the TV) and less when we are concentrated on a screen for example.
The area related to vision is also paused during the blink, which probably explains the fact that we do not see a black screen when we have our eyes closed
Our heart beats on average 70 times…
But beware, it beats differently in adult men (60-70 beats per minute on average) and women (70-75). At the end of the day, that’s still about 100,000 beats.
Between the ages of 3 and 5, the average child’s heart rate is 105 beats per minute. And what about babies, whose little heart beats at birth around 140 times per minute (a normal rhythm for them should be between 90 and 190 beats per minute!).
… and this same heart pumps 5.5 liters of blood
It is also the amount of blood we have in the body.
Our blood runs through our entire bloodstream
That’s right: at rest, one minute is the time it takes for the blood to travel through the entire body since the heart pumps all of our blood in one minute. But if you are exerting yourself, then it can travel up to 4 or 6 times through your entire bloodstream in 60 seconds.
We lose 0,05 hair
We gain between 0.00016 mm and 0.0004 mm of hair
Be careful, this figure can vary greatly from one individual to another depending on his or her sex, ethnic origin, or health. The range is therefore between 0.23 and 0.6 mm per day, or 0.7 to 2 centimeters per month.
They grow faster when it is hot, and if you wet them, they gain 30%!
0.7 milliliters of saliva are produced
Doesn’t sound like much? Tell yourself that at the end of the day, you have still produced an average of one liter! Obviously, this rate changes according to your biology and your diet (but also by external factors such as chewing gum or smoking), it is generally between 0.5 and 1.5 liters per day. At the end of our lives, this represents 30,000 liters, or a tanker truck.
Breathe 12 to 20 times
It is estimated that a healthy adult inhales 12 to 20 breaths per minute on average. Obviously, this depends on the physical condition of the person.
… and we suck in 8 liters of air
We estimate that each inhalation is equivalent to about 0.5 liters of air. Taking an average of 16 breaths, we therefore inhale 8 liters per minute. At the end of the day, we will have inhaled and exhaled about 11500 liters of air (with different rhythms, especially during sleep).
We have (at least) 4.3 different thoughts
For a long time, we have estimated that we have about 60,000 thoughts per day (or 41 per minute). To verify this, researchers recently studied what they call “thought worms”, the time when the brain switches from one thought to another. And they detected an average of 6200 per day! But beware, this method has its limits, notably the fact that the researchers must first know what the subject is thinking about in order to easily identify the bifurcations from one thought to another. The real number could therefore be much higher.
The kidneys filter 0.125 liters of fluid
Yes, our kidneys are rather efficient machines, they pump an average of 180 liters per day, all that for two organs that weigh only 300 grams.
1 milliliter of urine is produced
At the end of the day, that’s 1.5 liters. And that’s why we go to the bathroom on average 6 times (well, not exactly ONLY for that).
We lose 70 neurons
That is to say about 10,000 per day for a healthy adult. But be careful, this figure can vary, especially in case of shock, the practice of “violent” sports, or simply because of your environment or your psychological state. Thus, if you listen to music too loudly, if you are stressed or depressed, or if you have few social relations, your neurons deteriorate much faster.
1 neuron is produced in the hippocampus
Yes, we lose neurons, but we also continue to produce them: this is called neurogenesis. This occurs mainly in the hippocampus, notably via memory work: 1 neuron is born there every minute on average.
15 million red blood cells appear…
That is 250,000 per second. This allows them to renew their stock very quickly, to say the least.
… and 15 million red blood cells die
After an average of 120 days.
7.2 km are covered by neural information
The distance, extrapolating, that would be covered by a nervous information between neurons. In fact, in the largest fibers, electrical information travels up to 120 meters per second, or a speed of 430 km/h.
