The Debris of Life

Each of us experiences insomnia at some point in our lives. I tend to wake around 3 a.m. on a regular basis and once my brain starts churning, it usually takes me at least an hour to downshift before sleep returns.

During one of my recent 3 a.m. planning sessions, it struck me that all the plastic garbage bags I’ve ever used are stuck somewhere in a landfill, just sitting there. Think about it: every garbage bag you’ve ever stuffed, taken out, and placed on the curb is probably lying dormant amidst all the other refuse from all those other people. Very scary.

It got me thinking about the waste our bodies produce. I’m not talking about poo (since we covered that two weeks ago in Fecal Foes). I’m talking about all the other elements cast off from the living, breathing bodies we occupy.



I did a little math. Now, bear with me: math is definitely not my forte, but I kept it simple. The average human breathes about twenty times per minute (give or take a few breaths, depending on your age and size). That’s twelve hundred breaths per hour, over twenty-eight thousand per day, and over ten million each year. And that’s if you’re just sitting in the recliner, watching a hockey game (although those players tend to make me breathe a bit harder). On average we expel about 200 milliliters of CO2 per minute, 288 liters per day, and over one hundred thousand liters per year. That’s a lot of hot air.

And what about our hair? Mine’s boy-short, so it’s not a major issue, but loss is a normal part of the life cycle of our locks. About ten percent of the hair on our heads is in a “resting phase,” which means it has stopped growing and is just lying there. After a couple of months, it falls out and new hair grows in its place. We humans lose about one hundred hairs per day. That’s over three thousand per year, which may be on the low end, depending on your age and genetics. That’s a hairball at least the size of a cantaloupe.


Then, there are our nails. Nails are made of the protein keratin and are not only affected by age, but by health. Good nutrition promotes healthy nails. Poor nutrition, along with certain drugs (chemotherapy) can hamper growth and even cause nails to fall off. Fingernails grow at the rate of three millimeters a month (that’s around a tenth of an inch, for us Americans allergic to the metric system). Growth is faster when you’re young. It’s also faster if you’re pregnant. Can you image the nails on a pregnant teen?? Yikes! It’s also a scientific fact that your fingernails grow faster than your toenails. It takes about four to six months to regrow a fingernail from scratch. It’ll take you a year or so to regrow that toenail.

What about urine? According to the folks at Harvard Medical School, the average person produces about six cups of pee a day, but this is highly dependent upon how much you drink. Three or four cups of coffee in the morning will send you running to the john more frequently. Frequency also depends on the size of your bladder. A teeny-tiny person probably sports a teeny-tiny bladder. They can’t compare to say, someone in the NBA. I bet their bladders are the size of grapefruits. 

And here’s a little urinary side note: if you’re well hydrated, your urine will be a pale yellow. The darker the shade, the higher the concentration. Certain foods can alter the color. Vitamins can make it bright yellow. Carrots can turn it “sunset” orange. If you’re a regular consumer of asparagus, you know it not only tints urine a greenish hue, it also gives it a funky smell. And should you ever pee red, please see a doctor.

Ironically, urine provides a proper segue into our final topic: cells. The yellow color of our urine is due in large part to the shedding of old cells. And boy, do we shed some cells. The lifespan of a cell depends on its type. Take our blood, for instance. Red blood cells live for about four months. Not so for white blood cells. They can last for over a year. Sperm? About three days. Brain cells? A lifetime! But keep in mind those brain cells can’t be replaced if they die early. Something to think about the next time you spark a big fatty.

I’ll end with skin. Your skin accounts for about fifteen percent of your body weight and is composed of over 1.6 trillion cells. Even more amazing – you’ll lose about forty thousand of those cells each hour! That’s over a million each day! As new skin cells push their way to the surface, the ones on top die and eventually fall off (if you want to impress your friends, that dead layer is called the stratum corneum). The journey from the depths of the dermis to death on the surface takes about a month before those little skin cells flake off and flutter to the ground. In fact, take a look around your home or office. If there’s dust, there’s skin. Most of the dust that surrounds us is composed of dead skin cells, and you’ll shed about eight pounds of them each year! Fortunately, there are fish-for-hire that will take care of the problem...

Our bodies produce a lot of waste, but it’s to be expected. Each of us is composed of cells, tissues, organs, and systems, working in concert to keep us alive. And with all that productivity comes the discarded excess; the byproduct of these amazing machines. 

Think about that the next time you take out the garbage.