How Smart Is Your Body?

How smart is YOUR body?

Do you think your body is clever? If you are not sure, then let me shine a light on how amazing you really are. By the way the answer is a resounding  YES!

Today your body:

• Blinked 15,000 times.

• Produced 1.5 litres of urine to clean itself.

• Held its temperature constant.

• Made your heart beat 105,000 times.

• Inhaled more than 2 million litres of air.

• Shed over 100,000 particles of skin.

• Allowed your blood to travel more than 80,000 kilometres.

• Filtered every drop of your blood 60 times

• Produced 25,000 cells every second.

And that’s barely anything of all that occurs each second in the estimated 37 trillion cells that makes you. Each cell doing hundreds and thousands of physiological and chemical actions, reactions and responses to keep you alive every second, all without you having to have a single thought about it.

Whether you are sat, laying or stood reading this, you are not necessarily paying attention to the pressure of the chair against your back and the back of your legs, or the pressure of your feet on the floor……..you are now because you’ve just checked in consciously because your attention has just been drawn to it. But that doesn’t mean all that information wasn’t constantly being fed through your nervous system for your brain to monitor, adjust and respond without your awareness. However, it would have made you very aware if I snuck in and popped a drawing pin under your backside or foot. Specialised nerves reading your body would register it immediately and your body would respond accordingly and instantly, which includes (and rightly so) reaching your arm out and clipping me around the back of the head for sticking a sharp pin underneath you.  

Even while we sleep and during rest, the body remains active. Orchestrating a symphony of complex processes every day, such as tissue repair, hormone regulation, and memory consolidation, to navigate, interact, adapt, and evolve into the world around you.

The human body is equipped with a vast array of nerve sensors called receptors, specialised structures that detect various information from the world around us and the world within and transmit signals to the brain for interpretation and response. Receptors such as:

• Mechanoreceptors: Detecting pressure, touch, vibration, and stretch, to help us perceive sensations like texture, pressure, and movement.

• Thermoreceptors: Detecting changes in temperature and help us to maintain an optimal body temperature and detect temperature changes in the environment.

• Pain receptors: Detecting tissue damage and indicate pain, alerting us to potential injury or danger.

• Chemoreceptors: Detecting chemical stimuli such as taste and smell, as well as changes in the chemical levels within the body fluids.

• Photoreceptors: Detecting light stimuli and enable vision.

• Proprioceptors: Sensory receptors found in muscles, tendons, and joints that provide feedback about body position, movement, and muscle tension. They play a crucial role in coordinating movement and maintaining balance and posture.

• Baroreceptors: Pressure sensors found in blood vessels, the heart, and other organs that detect changes in blood pressure and fluid balance.

All of these receptors are feeding information through the nervous system and up the spinal cord for your brain to process and then send the right information out keep you healing & dealing with everything.

So next time your body is challenged, or you feel is letting you down; picture the complex symphony of information your brain and nervous system is processing and orchestrating every second from all 37 trillion cells that make you up. Or the next time someone says there’s not a lot going on today – let them know the inconceivable complexity, majesty, and wonder of all that is happening right now just to keep you alive. Then ask them:

“DO YOU THINK ALL THIS HAPPENS EASIER OR HARDER, BETTER OR WORSE WITH A HEALTHY SPINE???”

So yes, your body is very clever!

With love,
James