Grab hold of these body facts

Ever wonder why the skin on fingers and toes wrinkles when wet? So things are easier to grip, according to new research by scientists in the U.K.'s Royal Society. The body is intriguingly efficient.

Take the appendix, that allegedly vestigial (Darwin's name for evolution's holdovers) organ long believed to serve no purpose other than the occasional burst necessitating surgery. Not so. Research at Duke University suggests the appendix may indeed be useful - a place where stomach bacteria congregate during intestinal problems.

Other amazing things to appreciate about the human body, courtesy of Reader's Digest Book of Facts:

The lungs contain over 300,000 million capillaries. Stretched end to end, these little blood vessels could cover 1,500 miles.

A matchbox-sized block of bone can support 9 tons. Speaking of bones, nearly half are in the hands and feet.

The largest of the body's organs? Skin. An average adult male wears 20 square feet and sheds 40 pounds of skin cells in a lifetime.

Remember the old Lily Tomlin movie, "The Incredible Shrinking Woman?" Not entirely far from the truth. As we sleep at night we grow up to 8 mm, then shrink back during the day. Gravity squeezes cartilage like a sponge while standing or sitting.

Give your eyes - which are the same size as the day you were born - a rest by closing them a minute or two throughout the day. Their muscles work hard focusing at least 100,000 times daily (perhaps more with all these electronic screens), providing 90 percent of sensory information. That's the equivalent of a 50-mile walk for leg muscles.

In half an hour the heat given off by the average body could boil a half gallon of water. In my husband's case, make that 15 minutes (the kids nicknamed him BHH: the big human heater).

Got a minute? That's how long it takes a single blood cell to navigate the entire body.

This was over in the bat of a man's eyelash. I say man, because females blink about twice as often per day as men do. Why? To clear the increased fluid secretions brought by our higher estrogen levels. And you guys thought we were flirting... .

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at sholehjo@hotmail.com.