My Alzheimer's Journey
Part 105 - Interesting Facts About The Human Brain
It is Friday the 13th of March. Generally, I take a break on Friday’s from writing about Alzheimer’s research, treatments, research organizations, or my AD progression. I feel like shaking things up a bit today.
I am studying the human brain in an attempt to better understand how it works. My research has resulted in the discovery of some interesting facts that I want to share with you.
The average human brain weighs about three pounds. Men have slightly heavier brains than women. As a comparison, the average cow brain weighs less than one pound, the average elephant brain weighs about ten pounds, and an average cat brain weighs about one half of a pound. Clearly, there isn’t a direct correlation between the size of the mammal to their brain weight.
About 60% of the human brain is fat. In fact, the brain is the fattiest human organ. Your brain needs the right food for cognitive health. Salmon, blueberries, leafy green vegetables, dark chocolate, coffee, and olive oil are top brain foods. I like a low-acid coffee that is flavored with dark chocolate. I should see how much dark chocolate it actually has.
I finally understand why kids and young adults struggle to make good decisions. The human brain isn’t fully developed until about age 25. The frontal lobes, which control planning and reasoning, are the last to develop and create connections.
Brain information travels up to 350 miles per hour. Electrical impulses traveling from cell to cell don’t waste anytime.
It is a myth that the human brain only uses ten percent of its capacity. This 2017 study from the University of California Los Angles explains how the brain is much more active than previously thought.
A human brain is similar to a powerful yet energy-efficient computer. The brain runs on about 20 watts of power. With that low power requirement, it can perform the equivalent of an exaflop — a billion-billion (1 followed by 18 zeros) mathematical operations per second. A super computer performing exaflop computing requires 20 megawatts of power. That is a million times more power than the human brain needs.
The human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about 1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than a trillion connections. Neurons combine so that each one helps with many memories at a time, exponentially increasing the brain’s memory storage capacity to something closer to around 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). Alzheimer’s disease (and other neurological diseases) damage neurons affecting our memory.
I hope everyone has a great weekend. Take care of your brain. Sleep, eat well, take a walk, and don’t worry about anything. Thank you for your continued support.