HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY, GARTH

My beautiful mother, Florence, & Garth on his 90th Birthday!

Garth recently celebrated his ninetieth birthday! WOW! As I have my mother and Garth living with us, and as Jim and I seem to have more and more aches and pains. . . .we can feel our bodies changing. Things aren't quite so easy as they used to be. . . . I often wonder at what point do we get old? We go day to day and don't seem to see much difference, but as we move from year to year or decade to decade, there are decided differences in our energy levels and ability to do things that used to come so easily to us. Our bodies are fascinating. How remarkable they are--with the ability to regenerate new cells, heal themselves, etc. I recently completed an Independent Study course through Brigham Young University: Essentials of Human Nutrition.

Here are some amazing facts about the human body:

• If you live for 65 years or longer, you will have consumed more than 70,000 meals, and your remarkable body will have disposed of 50 tons of food.
• Each of the body's cells is a self-contained, living entity, but at the same time it depends on the rest of the body's cells to supply its needs.
• As living things, cells also die off, although at varying rates.
• Some skin cells and red blood cell replenish themselves every 10-120 days
• Cells lining the digestive tract replace themselves every three days.
• Many muscle cells reproduce themselves only once every few years.
• Liver cells have the ability to reproduce quickly and do so whenever repairs to the organ are needed.
• Certain brain cells do not reproduce at all; if damaged by injury of disease, they are lost forever.