• Question: What percentage of my body is the same as it was 5 years ago?

    Asked by jamesgrear to Alessandro, Angela, Claudia, Marina, Phil on 18 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Phillip Wilkinson

      Phillip Wilkinson answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      Great question.

      Difficult to answer, as different parts of our body will replace themselves at different rates. Our blood cells are replaced every 2 weeks, our stomach lining every 48 hours, our liver is closer to a few years. However, there are some parts that do not change. For example, we do not develop anymore neurons (brain cells) after birth.

      To answer this question you would have to isolate all of the different parts of the body and categorize them in terms of rate of cell replacement. Then taking this rate of cell replacement see how much of us is replaced in 5 years. Personally, I would guess close to 90% but that would only be a guesstimate.

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