Perhaps you’ve heard that every seven years, your bodily cells replenish themselves. Or maybe you’ve heard it happens every ten years. Well I have heard this, too. The seven year thing, especially, makes sense.
After all if you’ve broken a mirror you’re supposed to get seven years of bad luck. Doesn’t it make sense that every single bad luck cell that broke that mirror is different after the seven years. So these new cells are able to be neutral or even lucky.
Have you heard about the seven year itch? That’s the time when married couples who once loved each other dearly are then tempted to stray. They even made a movie about this premise. If you promised to love your spouse forever, all those cells are gone after seven years which might get you thinking of straying. And, according to cell replenishment ideas, your spouse becomes a completely different person after seven years, too. Did you sign up for this new person?
Then there is the absolution provided by bankruptcy. After seven years your bankruptcy no longer shows up on your credit history. Isn’t this fair? At the end of your seven years folk wisdom has it that you have become a new person.
But there are people who would have it that the seven year replenishment thing is a modern myth. Indeed they use science to show that this is the case. Apparently the cells of the body replenish themselves at different rates. But we can make some sense even out of modern cell replenishment theory.
According to this article, fat cells are replaced in about 10 years. So maybe you can blame a 10 year marital itch on your fat. The more inconsiderate will blame it on their spouse’s fat.
Cerebral cortex neurons are never replaced. You might think you’ve pulled the wool over our eyes when you have a bankruptcy. You might be the same in the mind even though society absolves you of blame. But you will experience some guilt. And if cerebral cortex neurons can last your lifetime, so might that guilt.
And according to that same article, the heart even changes rates of replenishment at different ages. Those of you who see the heart as the seat of emotions can have your fun with a variable heart. Indeed this might make sense to those people, seeing varying emotions for varying times of life. Does it surprise anyone that the heart gets less variable as we age?
From the article, it seems like cell replenishment theory is still in its infancy. Might we find even more sensible links between new findings and life? I think we might.
