Wonders of the Human Body

The human body is a true marvel. If you stop and think about all the things the body does without being told, day in and day out, it makes your head hurt. Here are two examples of just how amazing the body is. Individually, they are amazing, and they sometimes work well together.

The Eyes Have It

Did you know the human eye processes a huge amount of information each hour?

It’s one of the most complex and powerful organs in our body.

Thirty-six thousand pieces of information every hour. It can transmit 10 million bits of information per second to the brain. The eye-brain system processes visual data in as little as 13 milliseconds per image. This allows for quick perception. Thirteen milliseconds translates into about 75 frames per second.

To do these amazing feats, your eye has over 2 million working parts. The brain is the only organ more complex than the eye.

You may have heard people claim that animals see better than humans. Actually, that’s not true. Human visual acuity is better than that of many animals, especially small ones.

You assume that your cat can see more frames per second than you can. The reality is that you can probably see details much better than your cat, your dog, or your goldfish, in fact.

However, there are a few animal species with visual acuity that is even better than ours. This includes some birds of prey, which can see up to 140 frames per second.

Not surprisingly, all that processing takes a lot of energy. Your eyes use about 65% of your brainpower — more than any other part of your body. Over 80% of the brain’s processing is related to vision and our eyes.

No wonder we get headaches behind our eyes sometimes!

Nothing simple about a sneeze

A couple of weeks ago, I battled with a viral infection: sore throat, sneezing, and coughing. Oh, the sneezing!

There are two types of ‘sneezers’: the very subtle, you can hardly hear them sneeze, and the “Oh my God, the earth shook” sneeze. I definitely fit into the latter category. When I sneeze, you definitely know about it.

I was browsing a website to learn more about my condition when I came across an article on sneezing.

Did you know that you can sneeze at 100 mph? That is 160 km/h!

What’s more, the tiny droplets can be expelled over thirty feet, almost 10 meters.

A sneeze is triggered by irritation in the nasal membrane. It is often caused by allergens, viruses, or even bright sunlight in some people. Apart from the sunlight, the function of a sneeze is to rid the body of a foreign particle in the airways.

It’s a coordinated response that engages several muscle groups: your chest, vocal cords (especially during big sneezes), throat, and abs. Your body also has an involuntary reflex: you close your eyes when you sneeze.

Maybe you do that, so you can’t see where your sneeze is going!

You will keep sneezing until you get rid of the irritant. As I said, I am a big sneezer, sort of! With this virus that I had, I was sneezing and coughing so deeply and so much that I cracked a rib in my chest.

It was where I had broken several ribs many years ago, and they have never healed properly.

If you have a cracked rib and you are going to sneeze, hold your chest. Believe me, it helps when you attempt to break the sneeze speed record.

Putting the two together

Sneezing clears the nose and head. It also delivers a burst of oxygen to the body's cells when we inhale after a sneeze. The psychological effects are very similar to the effects of sniffing snuff or cocaine.

When a person sneezes, it puts incredible pressure on the body. All body functions momentarily pause. Your eyes are one of the organs that bear a lot of stress. That is why we close our eyes when we sneeze.

Although the blood pressure behind your eyes does increase when you sneeze, it’s not enough to dislodge your eyeballs from your head. So the old wives’ tale that you have to close your eyes when you sneeze is not true. Closing our eyes in a involuntary response.

Till next time,

Calvin