In the new study, scientists focused on calculating how much saliva you and I produce daily, per year, and even throughout our lives.
In their research, scientists often throw themselves seemingly extremely strange challenges. In a new study, for example, they focused on how much saliva you and I produce per day, year, and even for a lifetime, writes IFLScience.
So, studies show that on average a person produces from 0.5 to 1.5 liters of saliva per day. Next, the scientists took an average of 0.7 liters per day and calculated that the average person produces about 255 liters of saliva per year. And with an average life expectancy of 80 years, during our entire life on Earth, we will produce about 20 thousand liters of saliva. Neither more nor less, would be enough for a small pool full of human saliva.
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Agree, this is a fairly large amount of saliva in a lifetime, but scientists are sure that we have good reasons for that. After all, saliva, in fact, is a complex bioliquid that performs many important functions in our mouth. For example, it contains the enzyme amylase, which breaks down starch, and also contains calcium and phosphates, which are necessary in order to remineralize our tooth enamel. In addition, it is saliva that plays an important role in protecting against pathogens that enter through the oral cavity.
It is known that saliva is 99% water, the remaining 1% are mixtures of proteins, electrolytes and digestive enzymes. The researchers note that saliva is produced by various glands – three large and numerous minor ones, which are located in the mouth.
90% of saliva produced comes from three main glands:
parotid; submandibular; sublingual.
The secondary ones account for the production of the remaining 10% of all saliva. The researchers note that at the moment of rest, when we do not eat, two-thirds of all saliva is produced by the submandibular glands, the parotid comes into play during chewing, and then it accounts for about 50% of the saliva produced. However, it is the sublingual glands that secrete a small percentage of saliva in both unstimulated and stimulated states.
Note that in many cultures, saliva was considered healing, and sometimes completely capable of scaring away snakes and bad luck. Of course, we no longer believe in it as a healing substance, but it is still widely used in modern medicine. For example, today it plays an important role as a diagnostic tool for detecting, monitoring and progressing diseases.
Previously, Focus wrote that French kissing can cause allergies.
