Unbelievable FactsNerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Ever wonder how you can react so fast to things around you or why that stubbed toe hurts right away? It’s due to the super-speedy movement of nerve impulses from your brain to the rest of your body and vice versa, bringing reactions at the speed of a high powered luxury sports car.
The brain operates on the same amount of power as 10-watt light bulb. The cartoon image of a light bulb over your head when a great thought occurs isn’t too far off the mark. Your brain generates as much energy as a small light bulb even when you’re sleeping.
The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Or any other encyclopedia for that matter. Scientists have yet to settle on a definitive amount, but the storage capacity of the brain in electronic terms is thought to be between 3 or even 1,000 terabytes. The National Archives of Britain, containing over 900 years of history, only takes up 70 terabytes, making your brain’s memory power pretty darn impressive.
Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen that enters your bloodstream.The brain only makes up about 2% of our body mass, yet consumes more oxygen than any other organ in the body, making it extremely susceptible to damage related to oxygen deprivation. So breathe deep to keep your brain happy and swimming in oxygenated cells.
The brain is much more active at night than during the day.Logically, you would think that all the moving around, complicated calculations and tasks and general interaction we do on a daily basis during our working hours would take a lot more brain power than, say, lying in bed. Turns out, the opposite is true. When you turn off your brain turns on. Scientists don’t yet know why this is but you can thank the hard work of your brain while you sleep for all those pleasant dreams.
Scientists say the higher your I.Q. the more you dream. While this may be true, don’t take it as a sign you’re mentally lacking if you can’t recall your dreams. Most of us don’t remember many of our dreams and the average length of most dreams is only 2-3 seconds–barely long enough to register.
Neurons continue to grow throughout human life. For years scientists and doctors thought that brain and neural tissue couldn’t grow or regenerate. While it doesn’t act in the same manner as tissues in many other parts of the body, neurons can and do grow throughout your life, adding a whole new dimension to the study of the brain and the illnesses that affect it.
Information travels at different speeds within different types of neurons. Not all neurons are the same. There are a few different types within the body and transmission along these different kinds can be as slow as 0.5 meters/sec or as fast as 120 meters/sec.
The brain itself cannot feel pain. While the brain might be the pain center when you cut your finger or burn yourself, the brain itself does not have pain receptors and cannot feel pain. That doesn’t mean your head can’t hurt. The brain is surrounded by loads of tissues, nerves and blood vessels that are plenty receptive to pain and can give you a pounding headache.
80% of the brain is water. Your brain isn’t the firm, gray mass you’ve seen on TV. Living brain tissue is a squishy, pink and jelly-like organ thanks to the loads of blood and high water content of the tissue. So the next time you’re feeling dehydrated get a drink to keep your brain hydrated.
Read more: http://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2012/07/10-unbelievable-facts-about-human-brain.html#ixzz2q6Vgow4T
I want to add something from my own personal experience… I smoked heavily for over 40 years, I got up to 2 packs a day about one half pack did burn up in the ash tray but that was about all of the waste.
In August of 2010 I called 911 with having trouble breathing It was like a trap door closing I wasn’t coughing or wheezing at all. At the hospital through testing the doctors found a triangular flap of tissue (benign) that would flap over the larynx and cut off the air supply. Only standing or sitting would keep it at bay.
In order for the surgeon to be able to remove this tissue flap without an incision a temporary trach had to be created. The area of operation was tight and intubation plus a light and surgical tools was too much to insert.
The second day post op I envisioned placing a cigarette in the hole of my neck and it was so repulsive to me my brain completely and instantly shut down any desire to smoke. I didn’t need gum or patches or anything it ended that second.
I had no withdrawal symptoms and it lasted all through my stay in the hospital which was five days and even at home. On the eighth day the trach was out and the condition continued even at home. I never lit another cigarette again nor desired one.
I found that to be amazing and attributed it to my brain and was very grateful it was so easy to quit. Nothing I could think of could have worked so well not even that horrible commercial they put on TV a few years ago.
I had much the same pretty much the same experience Susan about 12 years ago. I had that MRSA and almost died from it – within a day or so from death. Anyway, while I was in the hosp. under high doses of morophine. While on the morophine I had my morophine dreams and something said to me that I needed to quit cigarettes immediatly and I quit then and there. In fact I had my last cigarette was with Millard while he was visiting me in the hosp. I had one cig. agout 5 years ago and it made me sick, almost physically puked. literally. cigarettes are nothing but poison to me. Yes, the brain is a real powerful workhorse for sure. Listen to it and you can do anything pretty much. 😉 😎
Free at last eh? I never even lit one again I was afraid to even contemplate it. Since the brain did such a good job for me why undo it. Happy for your experience I can only wonder how many people have experienced something similiar?:
Ya never forget experiences like that do ya Susan, Puts a whole new lite on things 🙂 cool – almost like a relegous experience if it isn`t one. 😉 😎
…check this out…let me see if I can explain it clearly….if you read my memoir about growing up in Webster Groves… there is a whole chapter devoted to what my family referred to as “sleepwalking”.. where they would find me wandering the house at 0300 and get me to do goofy things.. vacuum the house…trim grass…feed the non-existent chicken on the front lawn….then…as an adult…I was told that I had PTSD related to the idiotic garbage I’d endured as a kid…so they told me that when I have an “anxiety attack”…which they (and myself) described as a drop in the stomach, increased heart-rate…. …panicky feeling…well the Head-Doctors told me to “breath-in-and-out”..deeply to help “calm” the anxiety…so far 30 years when that happens…I try to breath… deeply…till the feeling fades….
Now…fast forward to this December…they now know I’ve been epileptic my whole life…I am in the hospital and they induce a set of seizures to see where they originate, etc….part of the “inducement” therapy is to “breath deeply / hyperventilate” and look into a strobe light…so…while I am in the hospital …I have an “anxiety attack” and I explain to the Neurologist about the attack…and she says…oh, yes… that’s what we call an “Aura”…(which, BTW… I’d been asked for years if I had experienced?) But I always said no to the Aura question..as it sounds so religious…like those pictures of the Virgin Mary with the gold glow around her head…(you know?)
So now it seems that the same thing the Head Dr. has been telling me to do to relive an anxiety attack …that it seems I was not having…and this is the same technique that Dr.’s use to bring on a seizure to study it..?
WTF?
RJ O’Guillory
Author-
Webster Groves – The Life of an Insane Family
Awesome find, Digs. I particularly like the “Scientists say the higher your I.Q. the more you dream.” point. Especially since I dream an awful lot and my wife says she hardly ever does. Haha! I think I’ll use that against her as a joke one of these days.