Each human organism (that’s you) is made up of about 40 Trillion cells (that’s 40 Thousand Billion or 40 Million Million) -liver cells, bone cells, heart cells, brain cells, nerves cells, and blood cells; the microscopic building blocks of your organs, tissues and bones.
That’s a lot of Legos!
And then there are electrical and chemical signals like neurotransmitters, enzymes, hormones, plus chemical co-factors. While your organs are each preforming their specific functions they are also functioning in relationship to all the other organs. While you are busy trying to get to work on time the system digests your food, regulates your body temperature, inhales and exhales, maintains postural balance and thousands of other functions without any specific instructions from you.
On a cellular level, you have endless mitosis and apoptosis.
Now don’t panic.
Simply put, every cell replicates itself (mitosis), ideally producing a healthy, functioning copy of itself. Apoptosis, on the other hand, is when unhealthy cells self-destruct rather than replicate. This process is called programmed cell death. Think of it as preventive maintenance. During apoptosis immune cells are called in to remove what remains of the damaged cell.
Now, not to worry,
while unhealthy cells are being carried off, healthy mitosis is constantly creating replacement cells. This on-going cellular replication provides you with 200 Billion red blood cells daily and a new stomach lining every 3 to 5 days.
Years ago, I had a co-workers whose response to, “How are you?” was always
“I’m BRAND NEW!” And he was absolutely right!
The outermost layer of skin is brand new every few weeks. You don’t have the same liver you had two years ago and even bone, which we often think of as static, is constantly being remodeled, albeit, more slowly.
Bone takes about 10 years before it’s all brand new!
You’re amazing!
You’re incredible
and although you can’t instruct your cells to recreate your organs regularly you can do more to support the process and less to undermine it.
Yes, all that while living a full, vibrant and playful life.
That’s part of cellular support!
Sources:
- http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/23/how-many-cells-are-in-your-body/
- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/02/science/02cell.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0