I have put together a list of 20 random health facts, sourced from the far corners of the world wide web, to ignite your curiosity about the amazing human body.

Health Facts You Probably Don't know

Laughing 100 times is equivalent to 15 minutes of exercise on a stationary bike

There are more bacteria in your mouth than there are people in the world.

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.

Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.

You are about 1cm taller in the morning than in the evening

During your lifetime, you will eat about 30,000kg of food – that’s the weight of about six African elephants.

In some parts of the world (one being Malaysia), parents protect their babies from disease by bathing them in beer

Extreme music – such as heavy metal – can positively influence those experiencing anger.

It's not just coughs and sneezes that spread diseases. One single bacteria cell can multiply to become more than eight million cells in less than 24 hours.

Joining clubs after retirement could extend your life. Bring on knitting and book club!

When you sneeze your body is getting rid of infected cells and an average sneeze will spread over 100,000 virus cells up to nine metres. On average, adults catch two to three colds each year. School-age children can have 12 or more colds in a year.

It is believed that the main purpose of eyebrows is to keep sweat out of the eyes.

Smokers reduce their life span expectancy by 11 minutes per cigarette.

Of the 206 bones in the average human adult's body, 106 are in the hands and feet. (54 in the hands and 52 in the feet)

Feeling down? Eating spinach, elk, oysters and crab have been proven to positively impact on your mood.

Doctors who work at Australian Antarctic stations are required to have their appendix removed prior to leaving.

Motorists who talk on cell phones are more impaired than drunk drivers with blood-alcohol levels exceeding .08

Banging your head against a wall burns 150 calories an hour. Not that we recommend this!

Ever wondered why there are mirrors in front of the cardio section at gym? Watching yourself run in a mirror can make a treadmill workout go by faster and feel easier.

When we touch something, we send messages to our brain at 200 km/h.

Answering the 20 questions you never knew you needed to know.

Health Facts

20 random health facts you probably don't know - Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences

People know that they want less fat and more muscle, but they often don't know what it takes to get there. Body recomposition is the act of altering your physique by burning fat and gaining muscle at the same time. It needs a different approach to health and fitness than the typical weight-loss mindset. By keeping a close eye on when you eat what and your training, you can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.

Body recomposition

Your body composition is the ratio of fat mass to lean mass in your body.Lean mass includes muscle, bones, ligaments, tendons, organs, other tissues and water. Everything else is fat mass. You may define water as its own percentage depending on the method you use to measure it.Body composition is changing the ratio of fat mass to lean mass. The goal is to lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously instead of the traditional approach of putting on weight first and then losing the fat to reveal the muscle underneath.

Understanding body composition

Body recomposition isn't about weight loss; it's about fat loss. Because muscle is denser than fat, you may maintain your current weight or even gain weight on a body recomposition plan. Weight loss isn't the primary goal with body composition, so you can ditch the scale because it doesn't differentiate between fat loss and muscle loss.

Forget about weight loss

Body recomposition comes down to your specific health and fitness goals.Basic guidelines to successfully change your body composition:<ul><li>Cardiovascular exercise for fat loss</li><li>Resistance (weight) training to build muscle</li><li>The overall decrease in calorie consumption to lose fat</li><li>Increased protein intake to promote muscle formation</li></ul>

How body recomposition works

Fat loss is about your calorie maintenance. To lose fat, you must eat fewer calories than you burn. The best technique for fat loss is cardiovascular exercise or combined cardio and resistance exercise and a healthy diet. A sustainable way to lose fat is to have realistic goals and not deprive your body of its nutrients.

How to lose fat

Focus on two main factors: <ol><li>Weight training. Your muscles won't grow if you don't challenge them.</li><li>Protein consumption. You must eat more calories than you burn to promote muscle growth. Protein is essential for building muscle. Without it, your body will struggle to repair the muscle tissues that get broken down during weight training. </li></ol>

How to build muscle

Figure out your maintenance calories - how many calories you burn on a day you don't exercise. Use a certified personal trainer, dietitian or an online calorie calculator.<ul><li>On days that you do cardio exercise, consume enough calories to meet your maintenance number. It ensures that you're in a slight deficit to promote fat loss.</li><li>On days that you do a strength training workout for 30 minutes or more, eat 5% to 15% more calories than your maintenance number with a focus on protein. </li><li>On days that you don't work out at all, eat 5 % to 15%  less than your maintenance calories.</li></ul>

Calorie cycling

Want to tone up and build muscle? The secret isn't weight loss -- you need to know about body recomposition.

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Can You Lose Fat and Gain Muscle at the Same Time? Yes, Here's How

Taking a cold shower can be a great way to stay energized, but the science is still unclear on the effects on your body when you take the cold shower. That said, there are some reasons why a person might want to turn the faucet all the way to cold.

Staying energized

<ul><li>Some people say they feel more energized and alert.</li><li>Athletes say cold showers have a positive effect on muscle recovery. A 2016 study showed that cold showers positively impacted exertional hyperthermia, meaning high body temperatures resulting from intense workouts, although an ice bath is far superior.</li><li>Some advocates of cold showers say that cool temperatures can boost the immune system.</li><li>A splash of cold water can boost circulation, calm itchy skin and shrink pores leading to better-textured skin.</li></ul>

The potential benefits of a cold shower

A few minutes of frigid water shouldn’t do any harm. However, for some people, it can be dangerous. <ul><li>A cold shower is shocking and can trigger your sympathetic nervous system, which is your fight-or-flight mechanism.</li><li> Someone with a preexisting heart condition can find that a cold shower creates unnecessary stress.</li></ul> However, instead of expecting health benefits from a cold shower, consider incorporating exercise into your routine, which can help boost your immunity and improve your mood.

The potential risks of a cold shower

Are cold showers the health boost you need? Here, the experts explain what really happens when you take a cold shower.

What Happens to Your Body When You Take Cold Showers

We have over 600 muscles that make up between 1/3 and 1/2 of our body weight. They bind us together along with connective tissue and help us move.  Muscles need constant attention. The way you treat them on a daily basis will determine if they will wither or grow.

Muscles need attention to grow

When you expose your body to stress, such as pushing something heavy, your muscles experience microscopic damage. In response, the injured cells release inflammatory molecules called cytokines that activate the immune system to repair the injury. This is when muscle-building happens. The greater the damage to the muscle tissue, the more your body needs to repair itself. The cycle of damage and repair makes muscles bigger and stronger to adapt to greater demands.

Muscles stress

When your body has adapted to an activity, it won't produce enough stress to stimulate new muscle growth.  <ul><li>Hypertrophy, an increase in muscular size through exercise, is possible by exposing your cells to higher workloads than they are used to. </li><li>If you don't continuously expose your muscles to some resistance, they will shrink, known as muscular atrophy.</li><li>Exposing the muscle to a high degree of tension while the muscle is lengthening is called an eccentric contraction.</li></ul>

Hypertrophy, muscular atrophy and eccentric contraction

Without proper nutrition, hormones, and rest, your body will not be able to repair damaged muscle fibres.<ul><li>Protein in our diet preserves muscle mass. It provides the building blocks for new tissue in the form of amino acids.</li><li>Hormones such as insulin-like growth factors and testosterone shift the body into repair and growth.</li><li>However, this repair mainly happens when we're sleeping.</li></ul>

Muscles need proper nutrition and sleep

View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-makes-muscles-grow-jeffrey-siegel We have over 600 muscles in our bodies that help bind us together, hold us up, and help us move. Your muscles also need your constant attention, because the way you treat them on a daily basis determines whether they will wither or grow. Jeffrey Siegel illustrates how a good mix of sleep, nutrition and exercise keep your muscles as big and strong as possible. Lesson by Jeffrey Siegel, animation by Brett Underhill.

What makes muscles grow? - Jeffrey Siegel

Sleep is just one of many types of consciousness we experience, and sleep itself comprises several states of consciousness. Even when we’re sleeping, our brains and bodies continue to work.Sleep is affected by biological rhythms or periodic physiological changes. Biological rhythms are regular, periodic changes in a body’s functioning. There are three types of biological rhythms.

A DEEP DIVE INTO SLEEPING

<ol><li>Circadian Rhythms: biological cycles that occur about every twenty-four hours. Sleep follows a circadian rhythm. Hormone secretion, blood pressure, body temperature, and urine production also have circadian rhythms.</li><li>Infradian Rhythms: biological cycles that take longer than twenty-four hours. For example, women’s menstrual cycles occur about every twenty-eight days.</li><li>Ultradian Rhythms: biological cycles that occur more than once a day. Sleep follows an ultradian rhythm of about ninety minutes as well as a circadian rhythm. Alertness and hormone levels also follow ultradian rhythms.</li></ol>

3 Types Of Biological Rhythms

Biological rhythms usually synchronize with environmental events such as changes in daylight. However, experiments have shown that many biological rhythms continue to have the same cycle even without cues from the environment. Such biological rhythms are Endogenous, which means that they originate from inside the body rather than depend on outside cues.

Endogenous

Endogenous rhythms exist because the body has biological clocks that keep time. Biological clocks can be adjusted by environmental cues, such as changes in temperature.In humans, the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) is the main biological clock that regulates circadian rhythms of sleep. The SCN lies in the brain’s hypothalamus. When light stimulates receptors in the retina of the eye, the receptors send signals to the SCN. The SCN then sends signals to the nearby Pineal Gland, which secretes Melatonin, a hormone that regulates the sleep cycle.

Biological Clocks

Jet lag is the fatigue and disorientation air travelers feel after a long flight. Although traveling itself drains energy, the time change also contributes to fatigue. People experience jet lag when the events in their environment are out of sync with their biological clocks.EXAMPLE: A traveler leaves NYC at eight in the morning and arrives in London about seven hours later. For her, it’s three in the afternoon, but because of the time change, in London it’s eight in the evening. Her body, thinking it’s mid-afternoon, will be confused by the lack of sunlight, and she’ll experience jet lag.

Jet Lag

Although everyone sleeps, no one really knows why people sleep. Researchers have proposed several theories to explain how sleep evolved to be a necessary behavior:<ol><li>People conserve energy by sleeping periodically.</li><li>Sleep has a protective function, as it keeps people tucked away at night, safe from predators.</li><li>Sleep restores body tissues that are depleted during daily activities.</li></ol>

The Function Of Sleep

Sleep research has provided a lot of information about what happens to the brain and body during sleep. Researchers study sleep by monitoring subjects who spend the night in labs, and they use various instruments for different purposes:<ol><li>Electroencephalographs(EEGs): record brain waves</li><li>Electromyographs(EMGs): record muscle activity</li><li>Electrooculographs(EOGs): record eye movements</li><li>Electrocardiographs(EKGs): record the activity of the heart</li></ol>Other instruments monitor breathing, body temperature, and pulse.

Sleep Research 

During one night’s sleep, people pass through several cycles of sleep, each lasting about ninety to one hundred minutes. There are five distinct stages of sleep in each cycle: 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM.

Sleep Stages

<ul><li>When people are relaxed and ready to fall asleep, their EEG will show mostly alpha waves. When people fall asleep, they enter into stage 1 sleep, which lasts just a few minutes. In stage 1, the EEG shows mostly theta waves. Heart rate, breathing rate, and body temperature drop, and muscles relax. Fantasies or bizarre images may float around in the mind.</li><li>After a few minutes of stage 1 sleep, people move into stage 2 sleep. Stage 2 lasts about twenty minutes and is characterized by short bursts of brain waves called Sleep Spindles.</li></ul>

Stages 1 To 4

<ul><li>People then pass into slow-wave sleep, which occurs during stages 3 and 4. In stages 3 and 4, which together last about thirty minutes, the EEG displays mostly delta waves. People in stage 3 and 4 sleep show slow breathing and pulse rates, have limp muscles, and are difficult to rouse.</li></ul>

Most people in stage 4 sleep are still, quiet, and difficult to rouse. Sleepwalkers, however, sometimes become physically active during stage 4. They may get up and walk around their room or even carry on a conversation, take a bath, cook, or go outside and get in their car. Because they are in a deep sleep, most sleepwalkers remember nothing of their actions when they wake up.

Sleepwalking

<ul><li>At the end of stage 4, people go back through the stages in reverse, from stage 4 to 3 to 2 to 1. When they reach stage 1, instead of waking up, people go into REM, or rapid eye movement, sleep. A single cycle might look like this: ' 123432REM '</li><li>REM sleep is a stage of deep sleep in which, paradoxically, brain wave activity resembles that of an alert person. REM sleep is also called paradoxical sleep.</li></ul>

REM Sleep

<ul><li>During REM sleep, pulse rate and breathing become irregular, eyes move rapidly under closed lids, and muscles remain very relaxed. Genital arousal also happens during REM. In women, the clitoris becomes swollen with blood, and vaginal lubrication increases. In men, the penis becomes erect. EEGs show mostly beta waves during REM sleep. Although dreaming happens in other sleep stages as well, dreams are most vivid and frequent during REM sleep.</li></ul>

<ul><li>People typically go through about four sleep cycles during one night of sleep. The REM stage of sleep gets longer and longer as the night passes, while stage 3 and 4 sleep gets shorter and shorter. During the night’s first sleep cycle, the REM stage lasts about ten minutes. During the night’s last sleep cycle, people may spend about forty to sixty minutes in REM sleep. Non-REM sleep becomes more shallow as the night goes on, and eventually the sleeper awakens.</li></ul>

Different people need different amounts of sleep. Some people can function with fewer than six hours of sleep a night, while others can’t manage without at least nine hours. Research shows that getting insufficient sleep can have negative effects on health, etc.Experiment subjects who are intentionally deprived of REM sleep tend to enter the REM stage of sleep more and more frequently during the night. After an REM-deprivation experiment has ended, subjects usually experience a REM Rebound effect, spending more time in the REM stage on subsequent nights to make up for lost REM time.

Sleep Deprivation 

Sleep patterns change as people get older. Newborn babies spend about two-thirds of their time in sleep. As people age, they tend to sleep less. The amount of time spent in REM sleep also changes over time. In very young babies, about half of all sleep is REM sleep. As babies get older, the proportion of REM sleep decreases.

Aging and Sleep

<ul><li>Everyone has occasional difficulty sleeping, but some people have Insomnia, a chronic problem with falling or staying asleep. Another kind of sleep disorder is Narcolepsy, which is a tendency to fall asleep periodically during the day. Narcolepsy can be dangerous, as people who experience it may fall asleep while driving or operating machinery.</li></ul>

Sleep Disorders 

<ul><li>Sleep apnea is another condition that can have negative effects on health and safety. People who have Sleep Apnea stop breathing many times during a night’s sleep, and each time they stop breathing, they wake up briefly and gasp for air. This prevents them from getting enough deep sleep, which leads to irritability and sleepiness during the day. Chronic sleep apnea can also result in high blood pressure.</li></ul>

20 random health facts you probably don't know - Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences

Can You Lose Fat and Gain Muscle at the Same Time? Yes, Here's How

What Happens to Your Body When You Take Cold Showers

What makes muscles grow? - Jeffrey Siegel

States of Consciousness

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