Human Body Anatomy - PART 2

 

KIDNEYS - Starts ageing at 50
With kidneys, the number of filtering units (nephrons) that remove waste from the bloodstream starts to reduce in middle age.
One effect of this is their inability to turn off urine production at night, causing frequent trips to the bathroom.
The kidneys of a 75-year-old person will filter only half the amount of blood that a 30-year-old's will.
PROSTATE - Starts ageing at 50
The prostate often becomes enlarged with age, leading to problems such as increased need to urinate, says Professor Roger Kirby, director of the Prostate Centre in London.
This is known as benign prostatic hyperplasia and affects half of men over 50, but rarely those under 40.
It occurs when the prostate absorbs large amounts of the male sex hormone testosterone, which increases the growth of cells in the prostate.
A normal prostate is the size of a walnut, but the condition can increase this to the size of a tangerine.
BONES - Start ageing at 35
'Throughout our life, old bone is broken down by cells called osteoclasts and replaced by bone-building cells called osteoblasts - a process called bone turnover,' explains Robert Moots, professor of rheumatology at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool.
Children's bone growth is rapid - the skeleton takes just two years to renew itself completely. In adults, this can take ten years.
Until our mid-20s, bone density is still increasing. But at 35 bone loss begins as part of the natural ageing process.
This becomes more rapid in post-menopausal women and can cause the bone-thinning condition osteoporosis.
The shrinking in size and density of bones can lead to loss of height. Bones in the back shrivel up or crumble between the vertebrae. We lose two inches in height by the time we're 80.
TEETH - Start ageing at 40
As we age, we produce less saliva, which washes away bacteria, so teeth and gums are more vulnerable to decay.
Receding gums - when tissue is lost from gums around the teeth - is common in adults over 40.
MUSCLES - Start ageing at 30
Muscle is constantly being built up and broken down, a process which is well balanced in young adults.
However, by the time we're 30, breakdown is greater than buildup, explains Professor Robert Moots.
Once adults reach 40, they start to lose between 0.5 and 2 per cent of their muscle each year. Regular exercise can help prevent this.
HEARING - Starts ageing mid-50s
More than half of people over 60 lose hearing because of their age, according to the Royal National Institute for the Deaf.
The condition, known as presbycusis, happens due to a loss of 'hair cells' - tiny sensory cells in the inner ear which pick up sound vibrations and send them to the brain.
SKIN - Starts ageing mid-20s
The skin starts to age naturally in your mid-20s.
According to Dr Andrew Wright, a consultant dermatologist with Bradford NHS Trust, as we get older production of collagen - the protein which acts as scaffolding to the skin - slows, and elastin, the substance that enables skin to snap back into place, has less spring and can even break.
Dead skin cells don't shed as quickly and turnover of new skin cells may decrease slightly.
This causes fine wrinkles and thin, transparent skin - even if the first signs may not appear until our mid-30s (unless accelerated by smoking or sun damage).
TASTE AND SMELL - Start ageing at 60
We start out in life with about 10,000 taste buds scattered on the tongue. This number can halve later in life.
After we turn 60, taste and smell gradually decline, partly as a result of the normal ageing process.
This can be accelerated by problems such as polyps in the nasal or sinus cavities. It can also be the cumulative effect of years of smoking.
FERTILITY - Starts ageing at 35
Female fertility begins to decline after 35, as the number and quality of eggs in the ovaries start to fall.
The lining of the womb may become thinner, making it less likely for a fertilised egg to take, and also creating an environment hostile to sperm.
Male fertility also starts to drop around this age. Men who wait until their 40s before starting a family have a greater chance of their partner having a miscarriage, because of the poorer quality of their sperm.
HAIR - Starts ageing at 30
Male hair loss usually begins in the 30s. Hair is made in tiny pouches just under the skin's surface, known as follices.
A hair normally grows from each follicle for about three years, is then shed, and a new hair grows.
However, with male-pattern baldness, changes in levels of testosterone from their early-30s affect this cycle, causing the hair follicles to shrink.
Each new hair is thinner than the previous one. Eventually, all that remains is a much smaller hair follicle and a thin stump of hair that does not grow out to the skin surface.
Most people will have some grey hair by the age of 35. When we are young, our hair is coloured by the pigments produced by cells in the hair follicle known as melanocytes.
As we grow older, melanocytes become less active, so less pigment is produced, the colour fades, and grey hairs grow instead.

Human Body Anatomy - PART 1

Time: When your body really starts going downhill
There's no denying the ticking of a woman's biological clock - but men are not immune, either. French doctors have found that the quality of sperm starts to deteriorate by 35, so that by the time a man is 45 a third of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Here, with the help of leading clinicians, Angela Epstein identifies the ages when different parts of the body start to lose their battle with time.
BRAIN - Starts ageing at 20
As we get older, the number of nerve cells - or neurons - in the brain decrease. We start with around 100 billion, but in our 20s this number starts to decline.
By 40, we could be losing up to 10,000 per day, affecting memory, co-ordination and brain function.
In fact, while the neurons are important, it's actually the deterioration of the gaps between the brain cells that has the biggest impact, says Dr Wojtek Rakowicz, a consultant neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London.
We all assume grey hair and wrinkles are the first signs of ageing, but some parts of your body are worn out long before you look old
These tiny gaps between the end of one brain nerve cell and another are called synapses. Their job is to ensure the flow of information from one cell to another, and as we age we make fewer.
GUT - Starts ageing at 55
A healthy gut has a good balance between harmful and 'friendly' bacteria.
But levels of friendly bacteria in the gut drop significantly after 55, particularly in the large intestine, says Tom MacDonald, professor of immunology at Barts And The London medical school.
As a result, we suffer from poor digestion and an increased risk of gut disease.
Constipation is more likely as we age, as the flow of digestive juices from the stomach, liver, pancreas and small intestine slows down.
BREASTS - Start ageing at 35
BY their mid-30s, women's breasts start losing tissue and fat, reducing size and fullness.
Sagging starts properly at 40 and the areola (the area surrounding the nipple) can shrink considerably.
Although breast cancer risk increases with age, it's not related to physical changes in the breast.
More likely, says Gareth Evans, breast cancer specialist at St Mary's Hospital, Manchester, our cells become damaged with age - as a result, the genes which control cell growth can mutate, causing cancer.
BLADDER - Starts ageing at 65
Loss of bladder control is more likely when you hit 65.
The bladder starts to contract suddenly, even when it's not full.
Women are more vulnerable to bladder problems as, after the menopause, declining oestrogen levels make tissues in the urethra - the tube through which urine passes - thinner and weaker, reducing bladder support.
Bladder capacity in an older adult generally is about half that of a younger person - about two cups in a 30-year-old and one cup in a 70-year-old.
This causes more frequent trips to the loo, particularly as poor muscle tone means the bladder may not fully empty. This in turn can lead to urinary tract infections.
LUNGS - Start ageing at 20
Lung capacity slowly starts to decrease from the age of 20.
By the age of 40, some people are already experiencing breathlessness. This is partly because the muscles and the rib cage which control breathing stiffen up.
It's then harder to work the lungs and also means some air remains in the lungs after breathing out - causing breathlessness.
Aged 30, the average man can inhale two pints of air in one breath. By 70, it's down to one.
VOICE - Starts ageing at 65
Our voices become quieter and hoarser with age. The soft tissues in the voice box (larynx) weaken, affecting the pitch, loudness and quality of the voice.
A woman's voice may become huskier and lower in pitch, whereas a man's might become thinner and higher.
EYES - Start ageing at 40
Glasses are the norm for many over-40s as failing eyesight kicks in - usually long-sightedness, affecting our ability to see objects up close.
As we age, the eye's ability to focus deteriorates because the eyes' muscles become weaker, says Andrew Lotery, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Southampton.
HEART - Starts ageing at 40
The heart pumps blood less effectively around the body as we get older.
This is because blood vessels become less elastic, while arteries can harden or become blocked because of fatty deposits forming on the coronary arteries - caused by eating too much saturated fat.
The blood supply to the heart is then reduced, resulting in painful
angina.
Men over 45 and women over 55 are at greater risk of a heart attack.
A recent study by Lloyds Pharmacy found the average person in the UK has a 'heart age' five years older than their chronological age, probably due to obesity and lack of exercise.
LIVER - Starts ageing at 70
This is the only organ in the body which seems to defy the ag ing process.
'Its cells have an extraordinary capacity to regenerate,' explain David Lloyd, a consultant liver surgeon at Leicester Royal Infir mary.
He says he can remove ha a liver during surgery and it will grow to the size of a complete liver within three months.
If a donor doesn't drink, use drug or suffer from infection, then it is possible to transplant a 70-year-old liver into a 20-year-old.

Make A Successful Weight Loss Just By Drinking Water - Maybe The Easiest Weight Loss Method

Make A Successful Weight Loss Just By Drinking Water - Maybe The Easiest Weight Loss Method

Well, you may have heard it before - you can lose weight just by drinking pure plain water. Do you think it is like that? Yes, it is, you can lose weight just by drinking water. I will explain why it is so.
There are studies that show that just by drinking water your metabolism will increase with up to 30 percentages. That is quite impressive, isn't it? To make your weight loss possible you need to drink eight glasses of water every day, and if you have lots of overweight you need to drink a few glasses more. If you live in a warm climate or if you exercise very intensive you need to drink more than the eight glasses. You may be thinking that eight glasses is much water to drink, but you shouldn't drink it at the same time; instead you need to spread it out throughout the day.
Drinking water is not only great for your weight loss. Just by drinking lots of water you will look better because your skin will become more glowing. Your muscles will work more effective when you exercise which will lead to a better shaped body.
A few tips about how you should act when you decide to lose weight just by drinking water:
• Start every morning with a glass of water.
• Drink a glass of water before every meal.
• Drink lukewarm water, it may be easier to drink lots of water when it isn't cold.
• Add a slice of lemon if you don't like the taste of the water.
• Avoid drinking just before you go to bed.
Drinking water is a cheap and very effective way to lose weight, but often you need to add some diet and exercise to make your weight loss effective.

Your Nails

You may not think about your nails, unless you just painted them blue or your mom says it's time to trim them. But your nails have a job to do. The hard surface of your nails helps to protect the tips of your fingers and toes. And your fingernails make it easier to scratch an itch or remove a dog hair from your sweater.
Nails themselves are made of keratin (say: kair-uh-tin). This is the same substance your body uses to create hair and the top layer of your skin. You had fingernails and toenails before you were even born. Where do they come from?
It may look like your fingernails and toenails start growing where your U-shaped cuticle (say: kyoo-tih-kul) begins. But there's more going on under the surface. Nails start in the nail root, hidden under the cuticle.
When cells at the root of the nail grow, the new nail cells push out the old nail cells. These old cells flatten and harden, thanks to keratin, a protein made by these cells. The newly formed nail then slides along the nail bed, the flat surface under your nails. The nail bed sits on top of tiny blood vessels that feed it and give your nails their pink color.
Your fingernails grow slowly — in fact, they grow about one tenth of an inch (2.5 millimeters) each month. At that rate it can take about 3 to 6 months to completely replace a nail.
Where your nail meets your skin is your cuticle. Cuticles help to protect the new nail as it grows out from the nail root. The lunula (say: loon-yuh-luh) — which comes from the Latin word for "moon" — is that pale half circle just above the cuticle. Your lunula is easiest to see on your thumbnails.
Nail Care
You might need an adult to help you trim your fingernails and toenails, which can be a little challenging. A nail clipper or a pair of nail scissors may be used. To smooth jagged edges, you can use a nail file or emery board, which works like sandpaper.
Fingernails should be trimmed straight across and slightly rounded at the top. Having nicely trimmed nails can keep you from biting or picking at them, which can lead to infections. It's also a good idea to moisturize nails and cuticles regularly. A little hand lotion will do the trick.
Because toenails are slowpokes (they don't grow nearly as fast as fingernails), they don't need to be trimmed as often. They should be trimmed straight across, which can be difficult, so you might want to ask a parent for help.
Manicures and Pedicures
Sometimes people get their fingernails and toenails cut and polished by a professional. Manicures (done on hands and fingernails) and pedicures (done on feet and toenails) are popular services for girls and women, but if you get one, you'll want to be sure the salon follows strict guidelines for cleaning its tools and the stations where hands and feet are washed, trimmed, buffed, and polished.
To prevent infections and other problems, experts recommend taking your own nail clippers and other tools to the manicurist or pedicurist. That's better because you won't be exposed to bacteria and other bad stuff that can linger on the tools that were used on other people's hands and feet.
It can be fun to do your own manicure or pedicure at home, but you may want to ask for an adult's help. Use special care with sharp tools, nail polish, or nail polish remover. These items can be especially dangerous if a little brother or sister gets hold of them! Also, the ingredients in some nail polishes and removers can be damaging and dry out your nails.
Common Nail Problems
Most of the time, your nails are pink and healthy, but sometimes nails have problems. Some of the most common for kids include:
  *ingrown nail — when the nail curves down and into the skin, causing pain and, sometimes, an infection
  *nail injury — when you drop something on your big toe or catch your finger in a drawer. A bruise may appear under the nail and sometimes the nail falls off. A new one grows in its place.
  *nail deformity — when the nail isn't smooth, like a healthy nail. People who bite or pick at their nails a lot can have this problem, but it also can occur because the person has an illness that affects the nail.
  *hangnail — when a loose strip of dead skin hangs from the edge of a fingernail. Hangnails hurt if you pull them off.
Some of these problems, such as a minor nail injury or hangnail, can be handled at home by your mom or dad. But infections and more serious nail injuries need a doctor's care. Signs of a nail infection include pain, redness, puffiness (swelling), and maybe some pus.
What Your Nails Have to Say
Don't be surprised if your doctor takes a look at your nails at your next checkup, even if you're having no problems with them. Fingernails provide good clues to a person's overall health.
For instance, when the doctor presses your nails, he or she is checking your blood circulation. By looking at your nails, a doctor may find changes that may be associated with skin problems, lung disease, anemia, and other medical conditions. Your nails are in the know!

YOUR EYES

YOUR EYES

Which part of your body lets you read the back of a cereal box, check out a rainbow, and see a softball heading your way? Which part lets you cry when you're sad and makes tears to protect itself? Which part has muscles that adjust to let you focus on things that are close up or far away? If you guessed the eye, you're right!
Your eyes are at work from the moment you wake up to the moment you close them to go to sleep. They take in tons of information about the world around you — shapes, colors, movements, and more. Then they send the information to your brain for processing so the brain knows what's going on outside of your body.
You can see that the eye's pretty amazing. So, come on — let's take a tour of its many parts.
Eye See
You can check out different parts of the eye by looking at your own eye in the mirror or by looking at (but not touching) a friend's eye. Some of the eye's parts are easy to see, so most friends will say OK. Most friends won't say OK if you ask to see their liver!

The eye is about as big as a ping-pong ball and sits in a little hollow area (the eye socket) in the skull. The eyelid protects the front part of the eye. The lid helps keep the eye clean and moist by opening and shutting several times a minute. This is called blinking, and it's both a voluntary and involuntary action, meaning you can blink whenever you want to, but it also happens without you even thinking about it.
The eyelid also has great reflexes, which are automatic body responses, that protect the eye. When you step into bright light, for example, the eyelids squeeze together tightly to protect your eyes until they can adjust to the light. And if you flutter your fingers close (but not too close!) to your friend's eyes, you'll be sure to see your friend's eyes blink. Your friend's eyelids shut automatically to protect the eye from possible danger. And speaking of fluttering, don't forget eyelashes. They work with the eyelids to keep dirt and other unwanted stuff out of your eyes.
The white part of the eyeball is called the sclera (say: sklair-uh). The sclera is made of a tough material and has the important job of covering most of the eyeball. Think of the sclera as your eyeball's outer coat. Look very closely at the white of the eye, and you'll see lines that look like tiny pink threads. These are blood vessels, the tiny tubes that deliver blood, to the sclera.
The cornea (say: kor-nee-uh), a transparent dome, sits in front of the colored part of the eye. The cornea helps the eye focus as light makes its way through. It is a very important part of the eye, but you can hardly see it because it's made of clear tissue. Like clear glass, the cornea gives your eye a clear window to view the world through.
Behind the cornea are the iris, the pupil, and the anterior chamber. The iris (say: eye-riss) is the colorful part of the eye. When we say a person has blue eyes, we really mean the person has blue irises! The iris has muscles attached to it that change its shape. This allows the iris to control how much light goes through the pupil (say: pyoo-pul).
The pupil is the black circle in the center of the iris, which is really an opening in the iris, and it lets light enter the eye. To see how this works, use a small flashlight to see how your eyes or a friend's eyes respond to changes in brightness. The pupils will get smaller when the light shines near them and they'll open wider when the light is gone.
The anterior (say: an-teer-ee-ur) chamber is the space between the cornea and the iris. This space is filled with a special transparent fluid that nourishes the eye and keeps it healthy.
Light, Lens, Action
These next parts are really cool, but you can't see them with just your own eyes! Doctors use special microscopes to look at these inner parts of the eye, such as the lens. After light enters the pupil, it hits the lens. The lens sits behind the iris and is clear and colorless. The lens' job is to focus light rays on the back of the eyeball — a part called the retina (say: ret-i-nuh). The lens works much like the lens of a movie projector at the movies. Next time you sit in the dark theater, look behind you at the stream of light coming from the projection booth. This light goes through a powerful lens, which is focusing the images onto the screen, so you can see the movie clearly. In the eye's case, however, the film screen is your retina.
Your retina is in the very back of the eye. It holds millions of cells that are sensitive to light. The retina takes the light the eye receives and changes it into nerve signals so the brain can understand what the eye is seeing.
The lens is suspended in the eye by a bunch of fibers. These fibers are attached to a muscle called the ciliary (say: sil-ee-air-ee) muscle. The ciliary muscle has the amazing job of changing the shape of the lens. That's right — the lens actually changes shape right inside your eye! Try looking away from your computer and focusing on something way across the room. Even though you didn't feel a thing, the shape of your lenses changed. When you look at things up close, the lens becomes thicker to focus the correct image onto the retina. When you look at things far away, the lens becomes thinner.
The biggest part of the eye sits behind the lens and is called the vitreous (say: vih-tree-us) body. The vitreous body forms two thirds of the eye's volume and gives the eye its shape. It's filled with a clear, jelly-like material called the vitreous humor. Ever touch toy eyeballs in a store? Sometimes they're kind of squishy — that's because they're made to feel like they're filled with vitreous humor. In a real eye, after light passes through the lens, it shines straight through the vitreous humor to the back of the eye.
Rods and Cones
The retina uses special cells called rods and cones to process light. Just how many rods and cones does your retina have? How about 120 million rods and 7 million cones — in each eye!
Rods see in black, white, and shades of gray and tell us the form or shape that something has. Rods can't tell the difference between colors, but they are super-sensitive, allowing us to see when it's very dark.
Cones sense color and they need more light than rods to work well. Cones are most helpful in normal or bright light. The retina has three types of cones. Each cone type is sensitive to one of three different colors — red, green, or blue — to help you see different ranges of color. Together, these cones can sense combinations of light waves that enable our eyes to see millions of colors.
Rods and cones process the light to give you the total picture. You're able to see that your friend has brown skin and is wearing a blue hat while he tosses an orange basketball.
Sometimes someone's eyeball shape makes it difficult for the cornea, lens, and retina to work perfectly as a team. When this happens, some of what the person sees will be out of focus.
To correct this fuzzy vision, many people, including many kids, wear glasses. Glasses help the eyes focus images correctly on the retina and allow someone to see clearly. As adults get older, their eyes lose the ability to focus well and they often need glasses to see things up close or far away. Most older people you know — like your grandparents — probably wear glasses.
To the Brain!
Think of the optic nerve as the great messenger in the back of your eye. The rods and cones of the retina change the colors and shapes you see into millions of nerve messages. Then, the optic nerve carries those messages from the eye to the brain! The optic nerve serves as a high-speed telephone line connecting the eye to the brain. When you see an image, your eye "telephones" your brain with a report on what you are seeing so the brain can translate that report into "cat," "apple," or "bicycle," or whatever the case may be.
Have No Fear, You Have Tears
For crying out loud, the eye has its own special bathing system — tears! Above the outer corner of each eye are the lacrimal (say: lak-ruh-mul) glands, which make tears. Every time you blink your eye, a tiny bit of tear fluid comes out of your upper eyelid. It helps wash away germs, dust, or other particles that don't belong in your eye.
Tears also keep your eye from drying out. Then the fluid drains out of your eye by going into the lacrimal duct (this is also called the tear duct). You can see the opening of your tear duct if you very gently pull down the inside corner of your eye. When you see a tiny little hole, you've found the tear duct.
Your eyes sometimes make more tear fluid than normal to protect themselves. This may have happened to you if you've been poked in the eye, if you've been in a dusty or smoking area, or if you've been near someone who's cutting onions.
And how about the last time you felt sad, scared, or upset? Your eyes got a message from your brain to make you cry, and the lacrimal glands made many, many tears.
Your eyes do some great things for you, so take these steps to protect them:
  *Wear goggles in classes where debris or chemicals could go flying, such as wood shop, metal shop, science lab, or art.
  *Wear eye protection when playing racquetball, hockey, skiing, or other sports that could injure your eyes.
  *Wear sunglasses. Too much light can damage your eyes and cause vision problems, such as cataracts, later in life. If the lens gets cloudy, it's called a cataract. A cataract prevents light from reaching the retina and makes it difficult to see.
The eyes you have will be yours forever — treat them right and they'll never be out of sight!

The Essential Vitamins For Hair Growth

The average rate of growth for hair is about one half an inch per month. The average person has about 100,000 strands of hair on their head. By the time hair gets to shoulder length level, it is about 2 years old.
The question becomes, after 2+ years of constant wear, how can you possibly keep your hair look young, shiny, and resilient? The answer to your question: vitamins.
A person's overall health is reflected in their hair. A good diet, regular exercise, and a low stress level is a pretty good way to ensure great looking hair. On the other side, a poor diet, little exercise, and a bunch of stress will have your hair looking dull and lifeless, that is assuming you have much left.
With so many factors working against your hair already, it is important to take that extra step to ensure beautiful hair. There are many suggestions out there to help with this task.
Amino acids and B vitamins are useful in helping hair grow strong and fast. With only one half an inch of hair growth per month being the average, every little bit helps.
Beta-carotine will also help with hair growth. As the body demands it, beta-carotine will turn into vitamin A, which is known to help maintain growth and bone development, strength around nerve fibers, and promote healthy skin, nails, and hair. Green and yellow vegetables as well as fruits are known to house beta-carotine.
Protein is very good for the promotion of strong, healthy hair. Since hair is made from protein, a diet rich in protein will help yield beautiful hair. Some foods that have high levels of protein are eggs, yogurt, and fish.
Soy and soy protein have been shown to yield strong results in hair growth. Studies have shown that soy has helped hair to grow longer as well as strengthen it.
On the other side there are several things that you should avoid that will lead to hair problems. One of the major impediments to healthy hair is smoking. Tests have shown that smoking causes your capillaries to contract, reducing the amount of blood that can reach the hair follicles. With less blood come fewer nutrients.
While there are many factors that affect hair, proper nutrition is a sure way to get real, noticeable results that will stay.

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Your Endocrine system

You might say endocrine (say: en-doh-krin) glands are a little bossy — they tell your cells what to do! But that's actually a good thing. Without your endocrine glands — and the hormones they release — your cells wouldn't know when to do important things.
For instance, your bones wouldn't get the message that it's time for you to grow and get bigger. And your body wouldn't know that it's time to begin puberty, the body changes that turn kids into grownups.
You have a variety of endocrine glands in different sizes and shapes located in different parts of the body. You might be surprised to learn that the pituitary (say: pih-too-uh-ter-ee) gland, which is about the size of a pea, is the "master gland" of the endocrine system. It makes and releases a bunch of hormones that control other glands and body functions. Tiny and tucked beneath your brain, the pituitary helps you grow big by producing growth hormone.
Your thyroid (say: thy-royd) gland is in your neck and it's shaped like a bowtie or a butterfly. It makes hormones that are important for growth and it helps you stay alert and full of energy.
Your adrenal (say: uh-dree-nul) glands are really important to your body in times of trouble, like when you're sick or under stress. Adrenaline (say: uh-dreh-nuh-lin), one of the adrenal gland hormones, gives you the boost you need if you're being chased by a wild animal — or even your brother!
Insulin Is Essential
Your pancreas (say: pan-kree-us) is your largest endocrine gland and it's found in your belly. The pancreas makes several hormones, including insulin (say: in-suh-lin), which helps glucose (say: gloo-kose), the sugar that's in your blood, enter the cells of your body. Your cells need to be fueled with glucose to function, like a car's engine needs gas. And we all know what happens when you run out of fuel!
Your body does an amazing job of making sure that hormones are released in just the right amounts at just the right time. If there's a problem with the endocrine system, a person's body might not grow like it should or it might not work the way it's supposed to.
Diabetes (say: dye-uh-be-tees) is one common problem with the endocrine system. It occurs when a person's pancreas doesn't make enough insulin. It's also an endocrine problem if a kid isn't growing as quickly as expected because his or her pituitary gland isn't making enough growth hormone.
Fortunately, special doctors called endocrinologists (say: en-doh-krin-all-oh-jistz) know a lot about the endocrine system and can help treat people with hormone problems. But most kids will never need to worry about their endocrine system because it works fine on its own. How does that make a kid feel? Gland-tastic!

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10 tips for good night's sleep

Stick to a schedule. Erratic bedtimes do not allow for your body to align to the proper circadian rhythms. Mum was right when she set a time we always had to go to sleep as kids. Also, make sure you try to keep the same schedule on weekends too, otherwise the next morning, you’d wake later and feel overly tired.
Sleep only at night. Avoid daytime sleep if possible. Daytime naps steal hours from nighttime slumber. Limit daytime sleep to 20-minute, power naps.

Exercise. It’s actually known to help you sleep better. Your body uses the sleep period to recover its muscles and joints that have been exercised. Twenty to thirty minutes of exercise every day can help you sleep, but be sure to exercise in the morning or afternoon. Exercise stimulates the body and aerobic activity before bedtime may make falling asleep more difficult.
Taking a hot shower or bath before bed helps bring on sleep because they can relax tense muscles.

Avoid eating just before bed. Avoid eat large meals or spicy foods before bedtime. Give yourself at least 2 hours from when you eat to when you sleep. This allows for digestion to happen (or at least start) well before you go to sleep so your body can rest well during the night, rather than churning away your food.
Avoid caffeine. It keeps you awake and that’s now what you want for a good nights sleep. We all know that.

Read a fiction book. It takes you to a whole new world if you really get into it. And then take some time to ponder over the book as you fall asleep. I find as I read more and more, regardless of the book, I get more tired at night and so find it easier to fall asleep. Different for others?
Have the room slightly cooler. I prefer this to a hot room. I prefer to turn off the heat and allow the coolness to circulate in and out of the windows. If I get cold, I wear warmer clothes. It also saves on the bills as you’re not going to require the heat all night long.
Sleep in silence. I find sleeping with no music or TV on more easy and restful. I guess others are different, but sleep with no distractions is best for a clearer mind.

Avoid alcohol before bedtime. It’s a depressant; although it may make it easier to fall asleep, it causes you to wake up during the night. As alcohol is digested your body goes into withdrawal from the alcohol, causing nighttime awakenings and often nightmares for some people.

YOUR TONGUE

Want to find out just how much you use your tongue? Try eating an ice-cream cone or singing your favorite song without it. You need your tongue to chew, swallow, and sing. And don't forget talking and tasting!
Tongue Twister
Has anyone ever told you that the tongue is a muscle? Well, that's only partly true: The tongue is really made up of many groups of muscles. These muscles run in different directions to carry out all the tongue's jobs.
The front part of the tongue is very flexible and can move around a lot, working with the teeth to create different types of words. This part also helps you eat by helping to move food around your mouth while you chew. Your tongue pushes the food to your back teeth so the teeth can grind it up.
The muscles in the back of your tongue help you make certain sounds, like the letters "k" and hard "g" (like in the word "go"). Try saying these letters slowly, and you'll feel how the back of your tongue moves against the top of your mouth to create the sounds.
The back of your tongue is important for eating as well. Once the food is all ground up and mixed with saliva (say: suh-lye-vuh), or spit, the back muscles start to work. They move and push a small bit of food along with saliva into your esophagus (say: ih-sah-fuh-gus), which is a food pipe that leads from your throat to your stomach.
Tongue Held Down Tight
Have you ever wondered what keeps you from swallowing your tongue? Look in the mirror at what's under your tongue and you'll see your frenulum (say: fren-yuh-lum). This is a membrane (a thin layer of tissue) that connects your tongue to the bottom of your mouth. In fact, the whole base of your tongue is firmly anchored to the bottom of your mouth, so you could never swallow your tongue even if you tried!
Tasty Tidbits
Don't put that mirror away yet! Look at your tongue again, but this time look closely at the top of it. Notice how it's rough and bumpy — not like the underside, which is very smooth. That's because the top of your tongue is covered with a layer of bumps called papillae (say: puh-pih-lee).
Papillae help grip food and move it around while you chew. And they contain your taste buds, so you can taste everything from apples to zucchini! People are born with about 10,000 taste buds. But as a person ages, some of his or her taste buds die. (An old person may only have 5,000 taste buds!) That's why some foods may taste stronger to you than they do to an adult. Taste buds can detect sweet, sour, bitter, and salty flavors.
Traveling Tastes
So how do you know how something tastes? Each taste bud is made up of taste cells, which have sensitive, microscopic hairs called microvilli (say: mye-kro-vih-lye). Those tiny hairs send messages to the brain, which interprets the signals and identifies the taste for you.
Identifying tastes is your brain's way of telling you about what's going into your mouth, and in some cases, keeping you safe. Have you ever taken a drink of milk that tasted funny? When the milk hit the taste buds, they sent nerve impulses to your brain: "Milk coming in — and it tastes funny!" Once your brain unscrambled the nerve impulses, it recognized the taste as a dangerous one, and you knew not to drink the milk.
Some things can make your taste bud receptors less sensitive, like cold foods or drinks. An ice pop made from your favorite juice won't taste as sweet as plain juice. If you suck on an ice cube before you eat a food you don't like, you won't notice the bad taste.
Friend of the Tongue
Last time you had a cold and your nose felt stuffed up, did you notice that foods didn't taste as strong as they usually do? Well, that's because your tongue can't take all of the credit for tasting different flavors — it has help from your nose.
Your nose helps you taste foods by smelling them before they go in your mouth and as you chew and swallow them. Strong smells can even confuse your taste buds: Try holding an onion slice under your nose while eating an apple. What do you taste?
Your tongue also gets help from your teeth, lips, and mouth. Your teeth help your tongue grind food as the tongue mixes the food around your mouth. And without your teeth, lips, and the roof of your mouth, your tongue wouldn't be able to form sounds to make words.
Saliva is also a friend of the tongue. A dry tongue can't taste a thing, so saliva helps the tongue by keeping it wet. Saliva moistens food and helps to break it down, which makes it easier for the tongue to push the food back to swallow it.
Fighting Germs
If all that wasn't enough, your tongue even helps keep you from getting sick. The back section of your tongue contains something called the lingual tonsil (say: ling-gwul tahn-sul). Lingual is a medical word that means having to do with the tongue, and tonsils are small masses of tissue that contain cells that help filter out harmful germs that could cause an infection in the body.
But when you have tonsillitis, it's not your lingual tonsil that's infected. Tonsilitis affects the palatine (say: pah-luh-tyne) tonsils, which are two balls of tissue on either side of the tongue. The lingual tonsil, the palatine tonsils, and the adenoids are part of a bigger system that fights infections throughout your body.
The Tongue Is One Tough Worker
With all that talking, mixing food, swallowing, tasting, and germ fighting, does your tongue ever get a rest?
No. Even when you are sleeping, your tongue is busy pushing saliva into the throat to be swallowed. It's a good thing, too, or we'd be drooling all over our pillows. Keep your tongue in tip-top shape by brushing it along with your teeth and avoiding super-hot foods. A burned tongue is no fun!

YOUR EYES

Which part of your body lets you read the back of a cereal box, check out a rainbow, and see a softball heading your way? Which part lets you cry when you're sad and makes tears to protect itself? Which part has muscles that adjust to let you focus on things that are close up or far away? If you guessed the eye, you're right!
Your eyes are at work from the moment you wake up to the moment you close them to go to sleep. They take in tons of information about the world around you — shapes, colors, movements, and more. Then they send the information to your brain for processing so the brain knows what's going on outside of your body.
You can see that the eye's pretty amazing. So, come on — let's take a tour of its many parts.
Eye See
You can check out different parts of the eye by looking at your own eye in the mirror or by looking at (but not touching) a friend's eye. Some of the eye's parts are easy to see, so most friends will say OK. Most friends won't say OK if you ask to see their liver!

The eye is about as big as a ping-pong ball and sits in a little hollow area (the eye socket) in the skull. The eyelid protects the front part of the eye. The lid helps keep the eye clean and moist by opening and shutting several times a minute. This is called blinking, and it's both a voluntary and involuntary action, meaning you can blink whenever you want to, but it also happens without you even thinking about it.
The eyelid also has great reflexes, which are automatic body responses, that protect the eye. When you step into bright light, for example, the eyelids squeeze together tightly to protect your eyes until they can adjust to the light. And if you flutter your fingers close (but not too close!) to your friend's eyes, you'll be sure to see your friend's eyes blink. Your friend's eyelids shut automatically to protect the eye from possible danger. And speaking of fluttering, don't forget eyelashes. They work with the eyelids to keep dirt and other unwanted stuff out of your eyes.
The white part of the eyeball is called the sclera (say: sklair-uh). The sclera is made of a tough material and has the important job of covering most of the eyeball. Think of the sclera as your eyeball's outer coat. Look very closely at the white of the eye, and you'll see lines that look like tiny pink threads. These are blood vessels, the tiny tubes that deliver blood, to the sclera.
The cornea (say: kor-nee-uh), a transparent dome, sits in front of the colored part of the eye. The cornea helps the eye focus as light makes its way through. It is a very important part of the eye, but you can hardly see it because it's made of clear tissue. Like clear glass, the cornea gives your eye a clear window to view the world through.
Behind the cornea are the iris, the pupil, and the anterior chamber. The iris (say: eye-riss) is the colorful part of the eye. When we say a person has blue eyes, we really mean the person has blue irises! The iris has muscles attached to it that change its shape. This allows the iris to control how much light goes through the pupil (say: pyoo-pul).
The pupil is the black circle in the center of the iris, which is really an opening in the iris, and it lets light enter the eye. To see how this works, use a small flashlight to see how your eyes or a friend's eyes respond to changes in brightness. The pupils will get smaller when the light shines near them and they'll open wider when the light is gone.
The anterior (say: an-teer-ee-ur) chamber is the space between the cornea and the iris. This space is filled with a special transparent fluid that nourishes the eye and keeps it healthy.
Light, Lens, Action
These next parts are really cool, but you can't see them with just your own eyes! Doctors use special microscopes to look at these inner parts of the eye, such as the lens. After light enters the pupil, it hits the lens. The lens sits behind the iris and is clear and colorless. The lens' job is to focus light rays on the back of the eyeball — a part called the retina (say: ret-i-nuh). The lens works much like the lens of a movie projector at the movies. Next time you sit in the dark theater, look behind you at the stream of light coming from the projection booth. This light goes through a powerful lens, which is focusing the images onto the screen, so you can see the movie clearly. In the eye's case, however, the film screen is your retina.
Your retina is in the very back of the eye. It holds millions of cells that are sensitive to light. The retina takes the light the eye receives and changes it into nerve signals so the brain can understand what the eye is seeing.
The lens is suspended in the eye by a bunch of fibers. These fibers are attached to a muscle called the ciliary (say: sil-ee-air-ee) muscle. The ciliary muscle has the amazing job of changing the shape of the lens. That's right — the lens actually changes shape right inside your eye! Try looking away from your computer and focusing on something way across the room. Even though you didn't feel a thing, the shape of your lenses changed. When you look at things up close, the lens becomes thicker to focus the correct image onto the retina. When you look at things far away, the lens becomes thinner.
The biggest part of the eye sits behind the lens and is called the vitreous (say: vih-tree-us) body. The vitreous body forms two thirds of the eye's volume and gives the eye its shape. It's filled with a clear, jelly-like material called the vitreous humor. Ever touch toy eyeballs in a store? Sometimes they're kind of squishy — that's because they're made to feel like they're filled with vitreous humor. In a real eye, after light passes through the lens, it shines straight through the vitreous humor to the back of the eye.
Rods and Cones
The retina uses special cells called rods and cones to process light. Just how many rods and cones does your retina have? How about 120 million rods and 7 million cones — in each eye!
Rods see in black, white, and shades of gray and tell us the form or shape that something has. Rods can't tell the difference between colors, but they are super-sensitive, allowing us to see when it's very dark.
Cones sense color and they need more light than rods to work well. Cones are most helpful in normal or bright light. The retina has three types of cones. Each cone type is sensitive to one of three different colors — red, green, or blue — to help you see different ranges of color. Together, these cones can sense combinations of light waves that enable our eyes to see millions of colors.
Rods and cones process the light to give you the total picture. You're able to see that your friend has brown skin and is wearing a blue hat while he tosses an orange basketball.
Sometimes someone's eyeball shape makes it difficult for the cornea, lens, and retina to work perfectly as a team. When this happens, some of what the person sees will be out of focus.
To correct this fuzzy vision, many people, including many kids, wear glasses. Glasses help the eyes focus images correctly on the retina and allow someone to see clearly. As adults get older, their eyes lose the ability to focus well and they often need glasses to see things up close or far away. Most older people you know — like your grandparents — probably wear glasses.
To the Brain!
Think of the optic nerve as the great messenger in the back of your eye. The rods and cones of the retina change the colors and shapes you see into millions of nerve messages. Then, the optic nerve carries those messages from the eye to the brain! The optic nerve serves as a high-speed telephone line connecting the eye to the brain. When you see an image, your eye "telephones" your brain with a report on what you are seeing so the brain can translate that report into "cat," "apple," or "bicycle," or whatever the case may be.
Have No Fear, You Have Tears
For crying out loud, the eye has its own special bathing system — tears! Above the outer corner of each eye are the lacrimal (say: lak-ruh-mul) glands, which make tears. Every time you blink your eye, a tiny bit of tear fluid comes out of your upper eyelid. It helps wash away germs, dust, or other particles that don't belong in your eye.
Tears also keep your eye from drying out. Then the fluid drains out of your eye by going into the lacrimal duct (this is also called the tear duct). You can see the opening of your tear duct if you very gently pull down the inside corner of your eye. When you see a tiny little hole, you've found the tear duct.
Your eyes sometimes make more tear fluid than normal to protect themselves. This may have happened to you if you've been poked in the eye, if you've been in a dusty or smoking area, or if you've been near someone who's cutting onions.
And how about the last time you felt sad, scared, or upset? Your eyes got a message from your brain to make you cry, and the lacrimal glands made many, many tears.
Your eyes do some great things for you, so take these steps to protect them:
  *Wear goggles in classes where debris or chemicals could go flying, such as wood shop, metal shop, science lab, or art.
  *Wear eye protection when playing racquetball, hockey, skiing, or other sports that could injure your eyes.
  *Wear sunglasses. Too much light can damage your eyes and cause vision problems, such as cataracts, later in life. If the lens gets cloudy, it's called a cataract. A cataract prevents light from reaching the retina and makes it difficult to see.
The eyes you have will be yours forever — treat them right and they'll never be out of sight!
by: Elana Pearl Ben-Joseph, MD