The Human Brain is the most complex system in the known universe. Its 100 billion cells and intricate network of neural fibers give it immense processing power and incredible versatility that far outweighs that of any computer. Here are ten amazing facts about the brain that give an insight into what it is capable of and its incredible healing abilities.
Fact 1: The Brain is able to alter almost any body function
Heart rate can be slowed, the bowel relaxed, and blood vessels opened or closed, just through thought. Imagining being warm, for example, can increase the temperature in a person’s fingers by more than 10C.
Fact 2: The Brain has the power to mend the damage after a stroke
Although nerve cells affected by stroke usually die, connections between surviving cells can regrow, bypassing damaged areas. In this way, the brain can resculpture itself, often regaining some of the functions lost immediately after a stroke.
Fact 3: Cuddling A Baby Encourages It To Grow
Physical affection causes the brain to secrete a chemical called dopamine, which in turn triggers the release of growth hormones. Babies deprived of close physical contact with others may, therefore, be slower to develop psychologically as well as physically.
Fact 4: The Brain is the fastest-growing organ in the body
In a developing fetus, up to a quarter of a million brain cells are produced every minute. After birth, rapid -growth continues. By the time a child is two years old, its brain is nearly as big as an adult’s.
Fact 5: In regulating the appetite, the brain can match calorie input to energy output almost perfectly
In practice, the region of the brain that controls food intake is frequently overridden by conscious desires for food created by social and other pressures. But left alone, the brain provokes hunger only when glucose levels fall below the optimum level. In this situation, a person’s weight would vary less than 5 percent during their entire adult life.
Fact 6: The Brain Constantly monitors everything happening at the body’s surface and in every muscle and joint
By doing this, the brain keeps track of where the body begins and ends and enables it to maintain balance and carry out automatic, as well as deliberate, movements. Most of this input is registered unconsciously, but if it is cut off by brain injury or sensory deprivation- the body collapses.
Fact 7: During Childbirth, the mother’s brain is flooded with a hormone that helps build the mother-child bond and dull the memory of the pain
Giving birth is painful – so much so that many women vow they will never put themselves through it again. Yet most do. One reason is that the memory of the pain is partly wiped out by the hormone oxytocin – leaving only an intellectual (rather than emotional) recollection of how bad the pain was.
Fact 8: There are more potential connections between the cells in a single brain than atoms in the entire universe
The brain has about 100 billion neurons, and each neuron has up to one thousand ‘docking points ‘where it can connect with others. If all these connections were made, there would be 100 thousand billion information exchanging links. In practice, of course, only a tiny fraction of these connections are ever established.
Fact 9: A Happy brain can help to fight off infections
The body’s immune system responds directly to changes in the brain. A sad event – such as losing a loved one can produce measurable depletion in the number of infection-fighting blood cells within four days
Fact 10: No two brains are identical
The brain is so sensitive to its environment that even identical twins have visible differences in brain structure by the time they are born. These are caused by the minute differences in nutrients and sensory stimuli that each fetus experiences.
