The truth about snot, saliva and sperm
The ancient Greeks believed that bodily fluids determined mood. Also, an incorrect ratio between the amount of blood, bile and mucus in your body would make you sick. We now know that this is nonsense. But is it actually true that you produce a liter of saliva every day, you only sniff when you have a cold and colorless urine is unhealthy? Eight contemporary facts and fables about bodily fluids explained.
1. Sweat stinks
fable. If you secretly sniff under your armpit after an hour of exercise, it probably doesn’t always smell fresh there. Yet fresh sweat is virtually odorless. The bacteria that live on the skin are responsible for the dirty air. They convert perspiration and waste products into malodorous substances.
What you eat also affects your armpit odor. For example, onions, garlic, certain herbs and alcohol make sweat smell stronger.
2. You produce a liter of saliva every day
Fact. At least this is an average. Stress, but also many medicines and Sjögren’s syndrome can cause you to produce less saliva.
Saliva consists largely of water. A number of glands make this substance, so that you can swallow food and taste the flavors. In addition, saliva protects your teeth and mouth and you need it for good digestion.
3. Bile comes from the gallbladder
fable. Although your gallbladder stores bile, the liver is the organ that produces bile. This thick, yellow-greenish liquid plays an important role in digestion.
If you eat something that contains fats, bile flows from the gallbladder through the bile ducts into the small intestine. The bile salts in the bile make small droplets of the fats, so that they can be better digested by the digestive enzymes.
4. You only sniff when you have a cold
fable. Your airways are lined with mucous membrane, a protective layer that produces mucus. Even if you don’t have a cold, about 1 to 1.5 liters of snot is produced there per day. Fortunately, you hardly notice it, because you swallow it unnoticed.
Only when you make extra mucus or it thickens and starts to run out of your nose, can that snot get in the way. This happens when you have a cold, but can also occur when you have an allergy.
5. Sperm is more than just sperm cells
Fact. Although there are about 100 to 200 million sperm swimming around in an ejaculation, semen consists largely of fluid from the prostate and seminal vesicles. That explains why the ejaculate still looks the same after sterilization.
6. There is only one kind of breast milk
fable. There are three types of breast milk. Each type has a different composition. The first days after delivery, colostrum is released from the breasts. Such breast milk contains many substances that protect the baby from diseases.
This is followed by so-called transitional milk, followed by mature breast milk when the baby is two weeks old. The concentration of protective substances is lower in these types of breast milk. That does not matter, because a baby will also drink more breast milk and thus still get what he needs.
7. Fluid in the Ear Helps Keep Your Balance
Fact. There are balance organs in both ears. The vestibular system contains canals and sacs with fluid and hairs.
If you move your head, the liquid will also move. These fluid movements are passed on to the brain via the hair cells. Together with the information that comes in through your eyes, muscles and tendons, this ensures that you can maintain your balance.
8. Colorless urine indicates a health problem
fable. Very light to almost colorless urine occurs if you drink a lot of water. Your pee is then diluted to such an extent that the concentration of dyes has become very low.
Is your urine dark yellow? Then you drink too little or you have lost a lot of fluid. In the morning, urine is darker in color anyway, because you perspire in your sleep and probably hardly drink at all during the night. That makes the morning urine more concentrated.
