Medical mysteries BITE YOUR TONGUE

WRITER: FRED HILTON

THE

MUSCLE IN YOUR

There is a common trivia question that most of us have heard, and we will all be pretty sure we know the correct answer. If asked, “What is the strongest muscle in the body?” you most likely will answer, with total confidence, it’s the tongue.

Not so fast, my friend.

Writing for HowStuffWorks.com, Sarah Dowdey squashes that answer quickly and decisively: “There’s a famous myth that the tongue is the body’s strongest muscle. It’s not really true — and not by any definition of strength.”

(Accessed Feb. 25, 2014)

This doesn’t diminish the work of the tongue. “Everyday Mysteries” says “the tongue is a tough worker… it helps in the mixing of foods… binds and contorts itself to form letters.” It also helps filter out germs.

Sources: “Is the Tongue the Strongest Muscle in Your Body?” www.ask.com/question/is-the-tongue-the-strongest-muscle-in-your-bod y; “How Your Tongue Works,” by Sarah Dowdey. science.howstuffworks.com/life/human-biology/tongue.htm; “What is the strongest mu scle in the human body?” The Library of Congress. www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/muscles.html; “What Is the Strongest Muscle in Your Body?” zidbits.com/2011/02/what-is-the-strongest-muscle-in-your-body; “What’s the Strongest Muscle in the Human Body?” by Lily Norton. www. livescience.com/32823-strongest-human-muscles.html; “Strongest Muscle in the Human Body.” www.buzzle.com/articles/strongest-mus cle-in-the-human-body.html

One problem with the tongue’s “strongest” claim is there are three types of muscles: smooth, skeletal, and cardiac. You can’t really compare them. It’s like comparing apples and oranges and kumquats. There are also several different ways of measuring strength.

The human body has from 640 to 850 muscles (the experts disagree).There really isn’t any single muscle that can legitimately be called the “strongest,” but at least a half dozen have a better claim to the title than the tongue.

The hardest working muscle is clearly the heart. It pumps two ounces of blood with every heartbeat — about 2,500 gallons a day. It can beat more than 3 billion times during a person’s lifetime.

The muscle that exerts the most pressure is the masseter, which works the jaw. It can close the teeth with a force of up to 200 pounds. A good case for “strongest” can also be made for the muscles of the calf (the soleus and the gastrocnemius). Without them, we couldn’t “stand, walk, run or shake our bodies on the dance floor,” Lily Norton wrote on LiveScience. com. The muscles of the uterus also show great strength by the ability to force a baby through the birth canal.

The external muscles of the eyes are easily the strongest relative to their size and weight. They are also the “busiest” muscles and can make some 10,000 coordinated movements in an hour of reading a book. There is also the largest muscle, the gluteus maximus. It has the job of keeping the trunk of the body erect, serving as the chief antigravity muscle and making J.Lo famous.

If you disagree with any of this, don’t complain. Just hold your tongue.

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