Human Body

Many people suffer from Cold Sores and there are many myths about what they are and where they come from, but here are some real facts.

Cold sores or herpes simplex as they are known medically can be found on the lips or faces of humans.

Cold sores are contagious from the first tingle until it’s completely healed, but they usually clear up by themselves, without treatment, within 7-10 days.

However there are anti-viral creams available over the counter from pharmacies without a prescription which, if used correctly, can help ease your symptoms and speed up the healing time.

Zovirax is probably the most popular cream, but there are many other cold sore creams available to buy.

Some popular myths about Cold Sores are that…

• Ice helps heal cold sores faster;
• Distilled vinegar prevents cold sore outbreaks;
• Alcohol/witch hazel kills the virus in cold sores;
• Tea bags heal cold sores;

So if you suffer from cold sores you know exactly what to do – either leave them alone or go to the chemist to get some cream!

Asthma is a medical condition  in which the tubes from the windpipe into the lungs get blocked or constricted due to an allergy, atmospheric conditions or sometimes even nerves.

The results are wheezing, shortness of breath and watery eyes.

Most patients who suffer from asthma are given inhalers/vaporizers and in some severe cases steroids.

It is an alternative method of medical treatment invented by the Chinese many centuries ago.

Acupuncture consists of inserting small needles into parts of the body (these parts are connected points across the anatomy which affect a specific organ or other part of the body) and the needles are left there for a short period of time.

During this time the body attempts to balance itself and thus helps the complaints improve.

The Chinese believe that by pinpointing the body’s acupoints with the needles it helps to re-balance the body’s yin, yang and qi.

Human bones are referred to as a ‘skeleton’ and without them our bodies would flop.

Our bones also protect our soft organs such as our heart and they work with our muscles to help us move around.

Here are some interesting facts about our bones:

• We have 206 bones in our body
• The largest bone in our body in the Femur, which is located in our thigh and is about a quarter of our height
• The smallest bone in our body is the Stirrup bone, located in our middle ear and is no bigger than a grain of rice
• About eighty bones make up the human skull, backbone and ribs
• We have the same number of bones in our neck as a giraffe, seven of them
• More than a quarter of our bones are in our hands
• There are four main types of bones:  Long, (like the femur), Short (like the heel bone), Flat (like the shoulder bone) and irregular (such as your vertebrae)
• We also have small round bones like our kneecap called Sesamoids
• Bones are made up of layers, hard compact bone on the outside and spongy bone beneath.  Some spaces are filled with Bone marrow which stores fat and also produces new blood cells
• The reason we can bend and move our bones is the body has lots of joints and these work by joining two separate bones together helping them to twist and turn

 

 

Quite simply, muscles are tissues that move parts of the body by contracting or getting shorter.

The word muscle comes from the Ancient Romans who thought muscle movement looked like little mice running around the body.  Their word for mouse was musculus.

We have around 650 skeletel muscles layered over our skeleton and they make up about half our body weight.  They are attached to bones by tendons.

There are three types of muscles and most muscle is skeletel muscle.

For example, if we went to grab something with our arm, our brain would tell our arm muscle to work, thus shortening and pulling the bones to reach for the item, they are controllable.

Then there are the cardiac muscles, and these keep your heart beating.  Finally, smooth muscle.  These are found inside hollow organs such as the digestive tract, these muscles are automatic and cannot be controlled.

Muscles need oxygen to make energy.  If the muscle is starved of oxygen maybe during a burst of activity, it produces a waste product known as Lactic acid.  If this builds up in the muscle cells it can cause painful muscle cramps.

Your longest and strongest muscles are in your back as these help you to stand.

It is also said that it takes 12 muscles to smile but only 11 to frown and your tongue is made up of muscle.

Lastly, the tendons,  these are what links the muscles to your bones, working together with muscles to pull bones into the correct position.

So you see we all need muscles, it just depends on us how well defined we want them to look.