Menopause Mondays: You, Regenerated. Happy New You!

Wish you could look at your reflection in the mirror and see a new, younger you? You do it every day! What the human body is capable of reproducing, repairing, and regenerating each year is nothing short of miraculous. You are literally a revised version of what you were last year, and a completely different you than seven years ago. Sound strange? I think it’s inspiring! A new year brings a new you. A better you. If you are considering the idea of making a positive shift towards better health and happiness, then knowing what your body is automatically accomplishing should motivate you to push yourself even further. Here are some interesting facts about why you’re even more amazing this January than you were last:

• Your skin has regenerated itself up to 52 times. Every 7-28 days, it has completely different skin cells than it had one to four weeks earlier.¹ Cuts and scrapes take about 1-2 weeks to completely heal. That’s amazing. Infants and small children heal faster than adults, but adults still have the ability to regenerate new cells at practically lightning speed.
• Your body has replaced an insane amount of other types of cells, too. While most of us are aware (or were at some point in our child-bearing years) that sperm cells live for about 3 days, did you know that colon cells are replaced every 4 days, and blood cells are replaced every month to a year, depending on if they’re red or white?²
• Think about how fast your hair and nails grow. Hair grows at an average of 1/2 an inch every month,³ and fingernails grow about 1/3 an inch every 90 days.⁴ This means that your nails take about 3 months to become completely different than they were at the time of your last manicure.
• When you observe how fast it takes for a broken bone to heal, a virus to pass through your body, your body to recover after delivering a baby, or the quick time it took for your body to turn one cell and one egg into a baby (a blast from the past for many of us), that’s enough to make you wonder if we are indeed divine.
• Some organs of the body, such as the liver, are especially known for their fast regeneration. (This is why liver transplants work well – one small piece of another’s liver will grow into a full-sized adult liver in just 4-8 weeks.⁵ Amazing.) In traditional Chinese medicine, this organ is often thought to be the epicenter of human emotion,⁶ so it’s interesting to think about the connection between liver health and a good psyche. If your liver is not in great shape, whether it be because of excess drinking, an illness, or some other reason, your state of mind is usually not up to its awesome potential, either. Hmmm…

Ladies! The message is this: view this brand new year as an opportunity for purposeful change, and I’m not just talking about the “brilliant” ideas that are the result of a champagne-induced coma! Improve yourself. Inspire, motivate, and love yourself. If you’re suffering from any kind of health roadblock that could be improved by simply making conscientious lifestyle choices, then please do it! There’s only one you, and your inevitable evolution will be even more fabulous when you take control, and steer yourself into the land of not just positive thinking, but doing. Be even more amazing than you already are. If you believe you’re fabulous, you will be. Happy New You!

Remember my motto: Reaching out is IN! Suffering in silence is OUT!

How will YOU be even more amazing in 2013?

• ¹ http://stemcell.stanford.edu/research can provide more interesting information on skin cell regeneration.
• ² Information about blood cell replacement and growth can be found at http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/body_basics/blood.html.
• ³ For information on normal hair growth patterns see http://womenshealth.about.com/lw/Health-Medicine/Womens-Health/Hair-Loss-in-Women.htm.
• ⁴ To learn more about nail growth and health, visit http://longevity.about.com/od/agingproblems/tp/The-Long-And-Short-Of-Aging-Nails.htm.
• ⁵ http://www.transplant.bc.ca/pre_livingliver.htm can give you information about liver regeneration and transplants.
• ⁶ For more information about traditional Chinese medicine and how organs relate to human emotion, visit http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/traditional-chinese-medicine-causes-of-illness6.htm.