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Talk with the Doc

Medical fun facts bring smiles

Dr. James Surrell, Journal columnist

When I was doing my pre-medical education at Northern Michigan University and then while in medical school at Michigan State University, I became very interested in the many fascinating facts about the science of medicine and our marvelous human body.

The human body is an absolutely amazing biological machine that does so many things to keep going each and every day. I hope you find the following list of these ten medical fun facts to be as interesting and amazing as I do.

≤ The longest internal organ in the human body is our small intestine. It is about 22 feet long and is the organ in our body that is primarily responsible to absorb the nutrition we consume in our food and drink.

≤ The largest external organ of the human body is our skin and the thinnest portion of our skin is the skin that makes up our eyelids.

≤ The human body is supported by our bones and muscles and other structures as well. There are a total of 206 bones in the human body. It is estimated that there are approximately 700 named muscles in the human body.

≤ There are three types of muscles found in the human body in the human body and they are as follows. 1. Skeletal muscles that hold us together. 2. Smooth muscles found in our organ systems. 3. Cardiac muscle that is found only in our heart and is responsible for the beating of our heart.

≤ The two most common cancers in the U.S. are skin cancer and lung cancer. You will decrease your risk of getting skin cancer by avoiding too much sun exposure and by using sun screen products. You will certainly reduce your risk of ever getting lung cancer by not smoking and by avoiding all second hand smoke as well.

≤The four letters “itis” added to the end of a medical term can mean either infection or inflammation. Examples of this meaning an infection would be tonsillitis or appendicitis. An example of this meaning inflammation would be arthritis, or inflammation of our bone joints.

≤ It is important to get dietary fiber in our diet to maintain our digestive health. It is generally recommended that we take in about 25 to 30 grams of dietary fiber per day for our digestive system to function properly and to allow us to avoid any constipation of diarrhea.

≤ If all the blood vessels, including all of the arteries, veins, and capillaries in our human body were removed and laid end to end, this would be an amazing length of at least 60,000 miles long.

≤ It is estimated by most medical scientists that our human body has a total of about 40 trillion cells.

≤ We all need to remain aware that our human body is approximately 60% water. It is therefore very important for all of us to consume enough fluid each and every day to avoid dehydration. Our human thirst mechanism will let us know if we are somewhat dehydrated. If one feels thirsty, it likely means we are in need of some fluids to avoid dehydration.

I sincerely hope you enjoy my brief review of these ten medical facts, and find them as interesting and amazing as I do.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Jim Surrell is the author of “The ABC’s For Success In All We Do” and the “SOS (Stop Only Sugar) Diet” books.Contact Dr. Surrell by email at sosdietdoc@gmail.com.

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