You Are Wonderfully Made – Things You May Have Not Known About Your Body

Your Liver

The liver is the largest glandular organ of the body. The average adult liver weighs about three pounds. Another way to estimate it size is as percentage of your weight, 2.5% being the most used percentage. It is reddish brown in color and is divided into four lobes of unequal size and shape and is located on your right hand side looking down – just underneath your ribs, just beneath your diaphragm. Your liver helps produce red blood cells, manufactures antibodies which fight infection, makes enzymes, stores iron, vitamins and carbohydrates, produces bile which helps digest fats and breaks down drugs and poisons into waste chemicals. Blood is carried to the liver via two large vessels called the hepatic artery and the portal vein. The heptic artery carries oxygen-rich blood from the aorta (a major vessel in the heart). The portal vein carries blood containing digested food from the small intestine. These blood vessels subdivide in the liver repeatedly, terminating in very small capillaries. Each capillary leads to a lobule. Liver tissue is composed of thousands of lobules, and each lobule is made up of hepatic cells, the basic metabolic cells of the liver.  All this chemical activity produces so much heat that your liver plays an important part in keeping your body warm. Your liver love raw living food and continue to serve you faithfully as long as you don’t stress it with too much fat, sugar and/or alcohol.

Your Lungs

When you were born your lungs were small, solid and yellow. When you took your first breath your lungs expanded and turned pink and by the time you reach adulthood your lungs combined weight is around eleven pounds.  Your lungs lie inside your rib cage within your chest, separated by the heart and mediastinum. The right lung is a little larger and has three lobes and the left lung two.  A bronchus, an artery and a vein enter each lung . The terminal airways or bronchioles expand into small clusters of grapelike air cells, the alveoli, the average adult has more than 350,000 of them, which make up the alveolar walls.  A small network of blood capillaries in the walls of the alveoli handle the exchange of gases. Deoxygenated blood from the heart  is pumped through the pulmonary artery to the lungs, where oxygen is sent into the blood and is exchanged for carbon dioxide. The oxygen-rich blood returns to the heart via the pulmonary veins to be pumped back throughout your body. If you live in the country and breathe fresh air your lungs stay pink. If you smoke or live in the city your lungs gradually get darker. Take care of your lungs by eating more fruits, vegetables, sprouts and greens. Stay away from smokers and keep your stress levels down.

Your Muscles

Half your body weight is made up of muscles – there are over 600 of them. Each muscle is a separate organ controlled by its own nervous system and supplied by its own blood vessels. You have three different types of muscles in your body.

·         Smooth muscles are sometimes also called involuntary muscles These muscles are controlled by your brain and body and you do not have to ever think about what they should be doing.  These muscles are found throughout your bodies organs and work behind the scenes to insure your bodies systems are functioning at the highest level possible.

·         Cardiac muscle is what enables your heart  to contract to pump blood out and then relax to let blood back in after it has circulated through the body and been reoxygenated in the lungs. Just like smooth muscle, cardiac muscle works all by itself with no help from you. A special group of cells within the heart are known as the pacemaker of the heart because it controls the heartbeat.

·         Skeletal Muscles are voluntary muscles. You are in control what they do. You can use them at will (running, lifting, kicking, punching etc)  These muscles help to make up the musculoskeletal system and work with your bones to give your body power and strength. Skeletal muscles come in many different sizes and shapes to allow them to do many types of jobs. Some of your biggest and most powerful muscles are in your back, near your spine. These muscles help keep you upright and standing tall.

To keep your muscles in trim, exercise them regularly eat raw living foods and don’t forget to massage and rest them if they are sore or painful.

Your Pancreas

Tucked in between your stomach and your duodenum and connected to your small intestine at the duodenum. Producing the juices which carry hormones to vital systems and the enzymes which help digest the food you eat. Your pancreas is about 7 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. Most of the pancreatic tissue consists of grapelike clusters of cells that produce a clear fluid (pancreatic juice) that flows into the duodenum through a common duct along with bile from the liver. Pancreatic juice contains three digestive enzymes: tryptase (digests protein), amylase (digests carbohydrates) and lipase (digests fats), these  along with intestinal enzymes, enable your body to assimilate the nutrients it needs to function. Within  the enzyme-producing cells of the pancreas are small groups of endocrine cells, called the islets of Langerhans, that secrete two hormones, insulin and glucagon. The pancreatic islets contain several other types of hormones,  as well. These two are especially important as they help us control our blood sugar levels. Insulin is secreted by the islets beta cells of the pancreas in response to high blood sugar, although a low level of insulin is always secreted by the pancreas.  After a meal, the amount of insulin secreted into the blood increases as the blood glucose rises.  Likewise, as blood glucose falls, insulin secretion by the pancreatic islet beta cells decreases. In response to insulin, cells (muscle, red blood cells, and fat cells) take glucose in from the blood, which ultimately lowers the high blood glucose levels back to the normal range. Glucagon is secreted by the alpha cells when blood glucose is low.   Blood glucose becomes low between meals and during exercise.  When blood glucose is high, no glucagon is secreted from the islets alpha cells.  Glucagon has the greatest effect on the liver although it affects many different cells in the body.  Glucagon’s function is to cause the liver to release stored glucose from its cells into the blood.  Glucagon also the production of glucose by the liver out of building blocks obtained from other nutrients found in the body, for example, protein.  To help keep your pancreas in top condition eat a diet high raw vegan diet and avoid cigarettes, excess sugar and too much alcohol.

Your Skin

The total weight of skin in an average adult human is around six pounds. Skin keeps the rest of your body neatly wrapped, protecting muscles helps control your body temperature, keeps out infection, serves as a waterproof barrier, protects delicate tissues which lay underneath it and mends itself when its ‘damaged. How does it do all this?

Your skin is made of many thin sheets of layers of cells in nerves, blood vessels, hair follicles, glands, and sensory receptors.  Your skin is constantly renewing itself as older cells are constantly being pushed to the surface by new cells which grow from below. When the old ones reach the top, they fall off your body, in fact, every minute 30,000-40,000 dead skin cells fall from your body! It takes about a month for your body to make a whole new layer of skin cells.  This shedding process creates around 40 pounds of dead skin cell in the average human beings lifetime the skin on your palms and the soles of your feet is one twentieth of an inch thick but the skin on your face is ten times thinner. To keep your skin in good condition moisturize it regularly and eat mostly a diet consisting of raw living foods.

MORE TO COME…

Love and Blessings,

Bobby