Here are some amazing brain facts from The Nature of Things with David Suzuki:
- Your brain contains 100 billion neurons: about 16 times the number of people on earth.
- 95% of your decisions take part in the subconscious mind.
- The language and consciousness part of the brain (neocortex) accounts for 76% of the brain’s mass.
- Your gut, or “second brain,” contains 100,000 neurons.
- Your brain keeps developing until your late 40’s.
- Our IQ’s have dropped over 13 points since the Victorian era. 🙁
- Women have more grey matter and a larger hippocampus (involved in emotional processing) than men.
- The brain consumes 20% of the body’s energy production.
- The brain is capable of re-wiring, re-engineering itself.
- Neuroplasticity is the science behind the “wires that wire together, fire together.”
With the notion that the brain is not fixed; that it can change itself, we can begin to really appreciate what our brains do for us in terms of not only our physical being, but our psychological lives as well. All the more reason to holistically take care of ourselves on a daily basis; it’ll do the brain good!
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