YOUR AMAZING BODY

How much do you know about your amazing body? You are more remarkable than you ever imagined!

And some of these amazing answers will help you live longer and age more slowly.

15 INTERESTING FACTS AND RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES IN DAILY PARTS

YOUR AMAZING BODY NO. 4

How many hairs do we have on our bodies compared to a chimpanzee?

We have the same amount of hair on our bodies as a chimpanzee. But most are so fine that they are invisible.

Hair colour helps determine how dense the hair on your head is. The average human head has 100,000 hair follicles, each one able to produce 20 individual hairs during a person’s lifetime.

Blondes ‘head’ the table, averaging 146,000 follicles. People with black hair have about 110,000 follicles, brown-haired people have an average of 100,000 follicles, and redheads have an average of 86,000 follicles.

Hair is termed a ‘non-essential’ tissue, i.e., your body will preferentially divert nutrients to other tissues if they are depleted, so hair is usually one of the first things to suffer when there is even a slight imbalance or deficiency in the body.

Healthier follicles produce healthier hair – and your diet is a big determinant of that health. Foods that particularly help are those that contain essential fatty acids, vitamin C to help create collagen, vitamin E, beta carotene, biotin, and the minerals zinc and selenium.  Examples include salmon, nuts, mangos, carrots, sweet potatoes, eggs, spinach, broccoli, lentils, and blueberries.

A supplement that contains the same nutrients as well as antioxidants and anti-inflammatories would equally help, but it doesn’t have to be a specialised hair supplement.