I have read information suggesting that various parts of our bodies
regenerate within generally understood amounts of time. For instance:
--- We grow a new stomach lining every four days;
--- The surface stomach cells that come into contact with digesting
food renew themselves every five minutes;
--- Our skin is completely new every five weeks;
--- Our livers are completely regenerated every six weeks;
--- We rebuild our entire skeletal structure every three months; and
--- The entire body completely recreates itself, down to the last
atom, every four or five years.
My question has two parts.
First: can information about the rates of regeneration of various
parts of our bodies be SCIENTIFICALLY verified? The only answer to
this question that?s acceptable will include reference to published
information (i.e. medical or scientific journals) that will verify the
rates of regeneration of any particular body part or parts.
Second: is there scientifically verifiable information on the
regeneration rates of parts of our bodies other than those listed
above? |
Request for Question Clarification by
andrewxmp-ga
on
26 Sep 2005 17:43 PDT
First: Yes this information can be scientifically verified, but
probably has not been so directly, only indirectly. What I mean is,
it is probably possible to label or somehow mark every cell in an
organ or something and keep track of them or something like that to
actually verify the regeneration. However, I doubt this has ever been
done because it would be costly and not really necessary over an
indirect experimental study. The rates you mentioned were probably
observed in small amounts of tissue for cell turnover and then this
data was extrapolated for an entire organ or organism. This type of
estimating methodology, however, is very simple to do, quite accurate,
and is the way most scientific observations are done today. So yes,
this is scientifically verifiable information. I should also mention
that this is probably not the major aim of a scientific study, but
rather this type of data was probably collected in the process of
pursuing some other more scientifically interesting goal. This will
make finding this data in the public domain possible yet fairly
difficult.
Second: Probably, but I havn't looked yet :)
Let me know if this makes sense and if I should go ahead and try to
find these types of reports.
Regards,
Andrewxmp
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Clarification of Question by
cmscott-ga
on
27 Sep 2005 06:33 PDT
Clarification for Andrewxmp...
Indirect and extrapolated is absolutely okay. What I?m trying to get
at here is that it has indeed been observed that the body does
regenerate ? that this is NOT just some bit of wishful thinking made
up by a bunch of alternative practioners ? and that various organs
regenerate at a different pace than others, from which we can draw
some reasonable conclusions, or at least make some observations on the
basis of...
In other words, I absolutely do not need something very tight. More
casual is okay, but it will help a lot if the observation(s) is(are)
published within an article(s) found in (for instance) Lancet or JAMA
(or, or, or).
If, in your searching, you should happen to come across information
about the rate at which the large and/or small intestine regenerates,
that would be very useful to know.
I hope this helps.
CMScott
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Clarification of Question by
cmscott-ga
on
19 Oct 2005 06:27 PDT
I had thought this would be a simpler question to answer that apparently it is.
It?s not of use to me to know what the turnover is for different kinds
of blood cells. What I?m really looking for is the turnover (or
regeneration time) for specific organs and specific sites in the body.
For example, I believe that the liver completely regenerates more
quickly than any other body organ, but I don?t know exactly how
quickly it does this. I believe that the full skeleton turns over in a
middling period of time, but ? again, I have no idea exactly how long
it takes before all the skeleton?s cells are regenerated.
In the last four or five years it?s been discovered that, contrary to
popular belief, the heart muscle regenerates. But how long does it
take? (On average.) It?s also recently been discovered that at least
some of the brain cells regenerate.
Etc.
Does clarification this help at all?
CMScott
|
Request for Question Clarification by
andrewxmp-ga
on
19 Oct 2005 20:19 PDT
"I believe that the liver completely regenerates more
quickly than any other body organ, but I don?t know exactly how
quickly it does this. I believe that the full skeleton turns over in a
middling period of time"
What makes you believe this, or, where did you hear this? I'm trying
to see if this is possible and if there's any legitimate evidence to
support it...
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