Probably, there are more car and bike enthusiasts !!

I have met a lot of people talking about cars and bikes – tyres, chassis, engines, wipers, fuel economy and much more. However, I have not met enough people talking about our own bodies.

Few of us might know that there is around 5 liters of blood and 206 bones in an adult human. However, how many of us know the capacity of human lungs, the length and diameter of small and large intestine, how many vertebrae are there in the spinal column, how many ribs exist or how many lobes exist in the thyroid? Probably, not many if you are not from the medicine background.

The answers to the above questions – the average capacity of adult human lungs is about 6 liters (vital capacity is 3-5 liters), the small intestine is about 20 feet long and an inch in diameter, the large intestine is about 5 feet long and 3 inches in diameter, there are 33 vertebrae in human spinal column, there are 12 pair of ribs and 2 lobes in our thyroid which is a 25 grams butterfly-shaped organ.

So far, so good. Let’s look more holistically at the human body. There are 11 systems and around 80 organs(arguably) in the human body. A system is a collection of organs.

The human systems are – circulatory system, digestive system, endocrine system(secretion into bloodstream), integumentary/exocrine system(secretion into a duct), lymphatic/immune system, muscular system, nervous system, renal/urinary/excretory system, reproductive system, respiratory system and skeletal system.

Some of the organs/body parts are:

Heart, arteries, veins, capillaries in Circulatory system.

Stomach, liver, small intestine, large intestine, gall bladder, pancreas in Digestive system.

Pituitary gland, pineal gland, thyroid gland, parathyroid gland, adrenal gland in Endocrine system.

Skin, hair, nails, sweat in Integumentary/exocrine system.

Lymphatic vessels, spleen, thymus, bone marrow in lymphatic/immune system.

3 types of muscles (skeletal, cardiac and smooth), tendons and diaphragm in the muscular system.

Brain, spinal cord, nerves and sensory organs in the nervous system.

Kidneys, ureters, bladder, urethra in the renal system.

Ovaries, uterus, testes, prostrate in the reproductive system.

Lungs, Diaphragm, Pharynx, Larynx, Bronchi in the respiratoy system.

Bones, and joints in the skeletal system.

Probably, it’s worth becoming a human body enthusiast, especially if it is our own!!