When most people think of insulin, they think of diabetes - a disease that arises when, for one reason or another, insulin can't do the critical job of helping the body process sugar. But the hormone has another, less well-known function. It's also necessary for muscle growth, increasing blood flow through muscle tissue, encouraging nutrients to disperse from blood vessels and itself serving as a biochemical signal to boost muscle protein synthesis and cell proliferation.

The medical term for nosebleed is epistaxis. We can also say nasal hemorrhage. The human nose, and those of many animals are rich in blood vessels. Because of the position of the nose - right in the middle of the face - and all its blood vessels, most of us will have had at least one nosebleed at some time during our lives. According to Medilexicon's

A higher density of blood vessels and other unique physiological features in the flight muscles of bar-headed geese allow them to do what even the most elite of human athletes struggle to accomplish - assert energy at high altitudes, according to a new UBC study. Named for the dark stripes on the backs of their heads, bar-headed geese are native to South and Central Asia.

Dehydration (from the Greek hydor (water)) and the Latin prefix de- (indicating deprivation, removal, and separation) occurs when more water and fluids are exiting the body than are entering the body. With about 75% of the body made up of water found inside cells, within blood vessels, and between cells, survival requires a rather sophisticated water management system.