There are many things that might surprise you about human beings, but one of the least known facts is that a brand new human is about 75% water. That’s right, we’re born as wet as a juicy watermelon. We begin our lives as noisy dewdrops that will one day learn to crawl, then walk. With every step we take, we begin to dry, and the longer we live, the drier we get. A year after birth, a baby is only 65% water, but by the time we reach adulthood, men are about 60% water and women are 55% water. Elderly people……they’re roughly half water. There are, of course, variations. The more buff you are, the wetter you are, because muscle tissue stores more water. Because women have more fat cells, they tend to be a bit drier because fat cells aren’t as moist. The water that lubricates your joints, flushes your waste, and absorbs shocks to your bones slowly dwindles as you age. The odd thing is, our wet parts aren’t where you would think. Our brains, lungs, heart, liver and kidneys contain the wettest tissue — between 65% and 85% water. Bones, of course, are drier, but still 31% water. Although you would think most of the water inside us is stored in our veins, it’s actually in our 100 trillion tiny cells. We’re an assemblage of water packets. On the day we’re born, we’re at high tide. After that — very quietly — the sea within us ebbs and ebbs, and as it goes……so do we.
