The excretory system helps your body excrete wastes from your system. It is essential in regulating hydration, removing sugars and salts that are in excess, and acts as part of the overall whole that keeps your body healthy. It includes organs that are part of other systems as well, including the digestive system.
1. It’s How Long?
The intestines for a human are generally 8.5 meters in length. That’s more than 27 feet if you could stretch them all out in a line. That’s only about 1 yard less than it takes in American football to achieve a first down.
2. That’s a Lot
The bladder is where your urine is stored. Urine is the liquid waste that your body expels after it has been processed by the kidneys. Salts, sugars, and proteins that are extra can be expelled through urine, as is any extra water that your body doesn’t actually need. The bladder can hold up to 24 ounces of fluid, or enough to fill up two standard cans of soda.
3. 3000 Times
Most humans will urinate about 3,000 times per year if given a regular lifestyle that doesn’t require pushing fluids. That means you’re going to need to pee between 5-10 times on any given day. Although that doesn’t seem like very much, it generally takes about 30 seconds to pee when you need to use the toilet. At 3 minutes per day, that means you spend more than 10 hours every year just urinating.
4. A Breath of Fresh Air
The lungs are also part of the excretory system because they pull in oxygen and help to remove carbon dioxide. The average lung is about 12 inches long and it is a work horse. The average person breathes more than 6 million times over the course of their average life. That might be a fraction of the amount of beats that a heart makes, but that’s still a lot of carbon dioxide being expelled.
5. That’s a Stinky Log
Your body must process solids just like it processes liquids. The foods that you eat are pulled apart by the digestive system and the nutrients are removed. All of the remaining leftovers becomes solid waste that your body doesn’t need. When you put all of that solid waste together, the average person uses toilet paper to clean up after 305 pounds of waste.
6. Give Me Some Skin
The skin is also part of the excretory system. It protect your body against disease and it helps to remove extra salts. Sweating also helps to keep the body cooler. Your skin will shed up to 40,000 skin cells every minute in order to replenish itself.
7. They Never Stop
The kidneys work just as hard as any other organ in your body. The largest vein in the body, in fact, goes through the kidney. It takes the trash out of your blood and makes sure your body is balanced as much as possible. This means in the course of just 1 day, your blood will pass through your kidneys an average of 300 times.