The Fragile Human Body

It is normal for all of us without serious injury or disease to take life for granted; especially during our teen years. We are conditioned to believe that we are indestructible as teens, and when the morbid truth of death comes to the surface of reality, we tend to push it aside as quickly as possible. Why? It brings to mind our own mortality and we don't want to think of that.

The absolute truth is that millions of bodily functions have to work in a precise manner at a precise time in order for us to sustain life. Life is truly a miracle. Our heart has to pump about seventy beats per minute; sometimes, for over one hundred years. Our lungs must exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide sixteen to eighteen times a minute for the duration of our lives. Our kidneys must filter gallons of blood per day without incident.

The liver is the body's chemical plant and it is absolutely necessary that it work properly. Substances we ingest, such as alcohol could easily give way to a fatty or cirrhotic liver; and, even though the liver can still function or be in failure, it backs up blood in the portal vein causing esophageal varices. These are varicose veins at the cardiac sphincter area of the stomach, and can cause severe bleeding and death in a short time.

The pH of our body must remain within tight parameters at all times, or we risk an abbreviated death. The normal values of the pH of the body are 7.35 to 7.45. Any variation above or below for a very limited time could kill us.

As normal conditioning, we only feel threatened when disease or injury invades our body; when, in fact, the body can turn on itself in the simplest way and cost our lives. I will only "footnote" cancer, as it is a known killer that results from the body turning on itself.

The author, when in nursing school, observed an autopsy on an extremely obese patient whose death was sudden and unpredictable. This body revealed upon autopsy a small hole about the size of a pencil eraser, if not smaller, in the duodenum. It was an ulcer that had eaten through an artery. The natural thought would be that she bled to death, right? Well, yes and no. The fact is that she did not die just from blood loss alone, although this was a major contributing factor. As her total blood volume decreased and the fact that her ulcer was in the duodenum (the small bowel just past the stomach where absorption of chemicals and nutrients occur), she absorbed potassium from the blood she was loosing as she bled. This absorption of potassium, sodium, etc. from the bleeding, in conjunction with blood volume depletion, resulted in a tremendous increase in the amount of potassium, etc. in her remaining blood. This increase in chemicals changed her body's pH rapidly and the rising potassium probably caused her heart to go into arrhythmia, causing her to arrest before she could bleed out, so to speak.

Every day of our lives is a miracle; we just take it for granted and keep going until that day when an ever so slight problem arises with the delicate operation of the human machine. Be thankful for every day. If you look closely at how easily the process of life can be disrupted, you have no choice but to consider belief in a Higher Power.