Page 98 - South Mississippi Living - June, 2024

AN
ALL NEW
Cellular Turnover
story by Nickie Harris-Ray
YOU
Your adult body is a natural marvel, constantly renewing and regrowing itself. In addition to improved habits such as diet and exercise, beyond your immediate control your body is in a perpetual state of reinvention.
Are the results immediately noticeable? Not necessarily. Your body is changing on a cellular level, with cells growing and dying at a rate that may not be visible to the naked eye. It’s a gradual process that unfolds over time until the results become apparent.
Want a new gut? Well, there is some good news and some bad news. Articles published by the National Institute of Health state that every 2-3 days, the cells that line the pit of your stomach regenerate. This is in part due to the fact that they are in contact with your digestive acids. However, the actual fat cells, human adipocytes, and triglycerides have about a 10-year life span and usually renew six times over a lifetime.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, you shed your skin
about every 30 days, a process that you might notice through changes in dryness and moisture. The outer layer of your skin, the epidermis, replaces about 40,000 old cells a day. This layer acts as a shield, protecting you from outside germs and destruction, underscoring the importance of keeping it intact.
Your blood cells change depending on the type. White blood cells, which many factors take into account, last about a week. According to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, red blood cells last about three months.
Some parts of you are never new. The hardest tissue in
your body is your tooth enamel. According to dentists with WebMD, the enamel is not a living tissue, so it does not regenerate. You can help strengthen it and remineralize it,
but once it is gone, it is gone. So now, knowing this, you know that depending on the time frame you are taking into account, your new year may literally produce a new you.
98 | June 2024
www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living