The Amazing Human Body
The amazing human body, self-regulating, sensitive, self-healing, mobile, strong, intelligent, self-balancing, able to turn vegetables into muscle and blood and brains….
200+ bones
360 joints connecting the bones
600 muscles
900 ligaments holding together bones, joints, and organs
4,000 tendons connecting muscles and bones
7 trillion nerves stretched into 90,000 miles
31 pairs of spinal nerves
100 billion nerves in the brain
100 billion more nerves in the gastrointestinal system (“the second brain”)
10 trillion cells
19 billion cells in each square inch of skin
that square inch of skin also has 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels, and 1,000+ nerve endings
100,000 miles of blood vessels
1500 miles of airways in two lungs that would cover 2000 square feet if laid flat
50+ hormones involved in metabolism, reproduction, growth, mood, and sex
We are wired to be aware of so much of what happens in and to the body, but the body’s biological and biochemical functions are largely self-regulating and self-balancing. We can alter our breath, a little, for a while, but the breath does its thing on its own, 24 hours a day for our entire life.
Our health does depend on us supporting the body with appropriate food, plentiful water, exercise, and sleep. Qigong is a great exercise that supports the complex inteerdependent functions of the body and mind. Qigong involves natural movements at a leisurely pace, but no particular knowledge of how the body works or how different movement affect the body and mind. The amazing body does the movements and maintains health. Amazing!