24 surprising facts you didn’t know

• The reproductive system is the only system that can be removed without threatening your life.
• Your body is entirely made up of tissues and fluid.
• The word “organ” means instrument or tool in Greek.
• Cancer that has spread to another part of the body is said to have “metastasised”.
• Each cell in your body has about 90 000 pairs of genes.
• Even though the skins thickness averages just 2 mm, your skin gets an eighth of all your blood supply.
• Many people think that hair continues to grow after death, but this is a myth.
• It can take up to 6 months for a fingernail and 18 months for a toenail to regrow completely.
• The smallest bone in the body is only 3 mm long and is in the ear.
• The clavicle, or collarbone, is the bone that is broken most often, usually because of a fall.
• Animal bone marrow is an important food in many cultures.
• Scientific studies have shown that some dinosaurs had sinuses.
• Gravity squashes the joints in the spine over the course of a day, so you are shorter in the evening than you are in the morning.
• Some people don’t have all their ribs, whereas other people have an extra pair.
• You have about 30 small joints in each hand and wrist.
• Ball-and-socket joints allow your arms and legs to move 360 degrees.
• Cartilage is an old English word and comes from the Latin “cartilage”, which means gristle.
• Your tongue is made from 16 muscles.
• The term “funny bone” refers to the upper arm bone or humerus- a pun on the worn “humorous”.
• In anatomy the word “leg” is just used for the part of the leg between the knee and ankle.
• The foot contains dozens of muscles, tendons and ligaments.
• The central nervous system sends out message to more than 640 muscles around the body.
• The most common cause of a spinal cord injury is a traffic accident.
• Cranial means something to do with the skull. However, not all cranial nerves go to the head.
Lizel Britz 072 243 7707