Here are some incredible numerical facts about the human brain.
1. The typical brain comprises about 2% of the body’s total weight, but uses 20% of its total energy and oxygen intake.
2. Your brain is 73% water.
It takes only 2% dehydration to affect your attention, memory, and other cognitive skills.
3. Ninety minutes of sweating can temporarily shrink the brain as much as one year of aging.
4. The brain weighs about three pounds.
Sixty percent of the dry weight is fat, making the brain the most fatty organ in the body.
5. Twenty-five percent of the body’s cholesterol resides within the brain.
Cholesterol is an integral part of every brain cell.
Without adequate cholesterol, brain cells die.
6. No one knows for sure, but the latest estimate is that the brain contains roughly 86 billion brain cells.
7. Each neuron can transmit 1,000 nerve impulses per second and make as many as tens of thousands of synaptic contacts with other neurons.
8. A piece of brain tissue the size of a grain of sand contains 100,000 neurons and 1 billion synapses, all communicating with each other.
9. All brain cells are not alike.
There are as many as 10,000 specific types of neurons in the brain.
10. Your brain needs a constant supply of oxygen.
As little as five minutes without oxygen can cause some brain cells to die, leading to severe brain damage.
11. Babies have big heads to hold rapidly growing brains.
A 2-year-old’s brain is 80% of adult size.
12. As any parent can attest, teenage brains are not fully formed.
It isn’t until about the age of 25 that the human brain reaches full maturity.
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