^{Caution: A shockingly good read up ahead. Image: Pixabay, CCO.}

Hello Steemstem, it's Pan here, and this is my first stem-related article in a couple of weeks. Well, i've been away for a while due to a lot of things I needed to tend to on the offline. I hope this article is worth your time. Should be fun, regardless.

First, I would like to start with a question this time. Did you know that the human body can also be regarded as an electric system? I mean, it sure doesn't look like your regular TV set, but is there a slight chance that the answer to that question is in the affirmative? Let's find out, shall we?

To do that, we will have to clarify how electricity works, and then relate that to the human body. Also, we will get to actually exactly how electric shocks can harm a human. If one should ask, I bet a lot of people would simply have nothing to say, other than pointing out the fact that direct exposure to electricity is dangerous. I feel it's okay if we know these things.

A bit about electricity. --- Static and Current electricity

^{What is that thing anyways? Oh, it's lightni... zap!..
Hello, hello, are you there?... Houston, I think we lost him. Image source: Pexels, CCO.}

So here's a bit about electricity in a glance. Electricity is considered the continuous flow of energy in the form of charges through an electric conductor. It occurs when there is a potential difference between two points in that conductor. These conductors aren't just wires and solids alone, no. there are also liquids and gases that have been known to conduct electricity as well. Such fluids are termed Electrolytes.

When electricity gathers at a place, it is considered static electricity and when it moves from one point to another, it is called current electricity. Static electricity is quite easy to come by, and you can get it all prepped up by simply rubbing say, a balloon a couple of times on a wool cloth you're wearing. You'll discover that the balloon sticks to you somehow, because of accumulated electric charges in the balloon and an accumulation of the reverse type of charge on your pullover too. Hence, following the rules of attraction and repulsion of charges that says Like charges repel, and unlike charges attract, your balloon sticks.

As for current electricity, these created charges are carried from one place to another as long as there is a continuous push (current) for the charges to keep moving or flowing. Current electricity is the most common type of electricity used worldwide for doing work, and Some common sources of current electricity include solar power, Hydro-power, burning of fossil fuels, nuclear power, and the likes.

Electricity in the body -- Neurones, dendrites, gates.

Don't we find it rather ironical that although electricity is greatly feared and regarded as a huge threat when it's live conductor is touched, inside us resides electric charges, and our bodies as it is, are only able to function because it's got bits and pieces of charges? Sure, it could be really daunting to the unlearned, but the facts align, so, science rocks, again! Woot!!

There are elements such as Calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium in the human body that have specific electric charges in them. These elements carry out a number of very important functions in us. For example, I'm pretty sure just about everyone who's read science or watched some chocolate energy drinks commercial on the TV should know that Calcium helps in the development of strong teeth and bones and that sodium has to do with anything salt and the balance of body fluid. Their importance is real-time enough. However, they carry charges called ions, and they are used to generate small amounts of electrical energy through the breakdown of food and some chemical processes, very much unlike your regular batteries and wires.

Come to think of it, without the electricity in you, you wouldn't be able to read this article, let alone understand it. In fact, you wouldn't be able to do anything at all, and that's because your brain cannot function without electricity. By the terms Nerves, and signals and synapses and impulses, we mean that these electrical charges is the only way the brain can do it's many functions, and send messages to any part of your body at such an incredible speed. These charges are simply electrical synapses that link two close/adjacent neurons to pass nerve impulses at light speed until it gets to where it is required. The entire nervous system is autonomous and works because the right amount of synapses with electrical pulses are flowing through and through.

^{An electrocardiogram reading of a patient with TCA. Image by James Heilman, MD CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons}

There are a lot of examples on how this works. The heart rhythm, for example, pumps blood to every part of the body when the cells generate the exact correct electricity that makes the muscles of the heart contract with precise timing. These signal changes are so fast that they allow for almost instantaneous response to stimuli.

One way we could measure these signals are through the use of a device called The Electrocardiogram [ECG], and the results obtained from display looks like the picture above.

How electricity in the body works.

So we know these charges come as a result of the chemical changes in vital substances in our bodies, but how exactly does it happen? Hol' up, I'll tell ya.

First off, the cells in your body that aren't actually sending any nerve impulses at the moment are slightly negatively charged, and it gets pretty much interesting from there. Our cells' natural resting state is negativity, and it is partly due to the slight difference or imbalance between the concentration of potassium and sodium ions that are within and without a cell respectively. The potassium ion is mostly negatively charged and that explains why a neutral cell is negative. Whereas, the sodium ions are positively charged and mostly outside the cell membrane. This imbalance makes it possible for your body to have some sort of electrical capacity, and the cell membrane does something we call The Sodium-Potassium gate.

So, with a positively charged surrounding, and a negatively charged cell, it's easy for one to see that an electric current can be created. When the body needs to send a signal, the Sodium-Potassium gate opens and these unlike charges move towards each other at incredible speed. This results in a switch in concentration which in a way, can be very much likened to the 'flip' between 0 and 1 in basic computing. This 'flip' of course, generates electricity.

But hey, that sure sounds like it's static electricity. How's it maintained?

Good question me readers. You see, the flip generates an electric flip that triggers the Sodium-Potassium gate of the next cell to open, thus causing a rapid succession of an electric signal to the point where your brain senses the stimuli. Hence, our bodies are indeed some complex electrical device.

How electricity harms people. --- Shocks

^{Image source: Pxhere, CCO.}

We've established the facts that our bodies have electricity inside of it that keeps us alive and kicking, and then we went on to explain how this electricity is generated in the first place. Let's get to know why you'd most likely hurt when you receive shocks.

By definition; An electric shock is a sudden discharge of electrical energy through a body. It occurs when a person/animal comes in contact with an unprotected source of electrical energy.

Since electricity could flow through the human body, that simply makes it somewhat of a conductor. However, like most conductive materials are, the human body isn't a perfect conductor. Hence, it offers resistance to the passage of electrical charges from external sources just like a normal conductive material with known resistivity value would. And from what we know about current electricity, one pretty powerful effect of resistance (as seen in the tungsten light bulb in your living room) is the heating effect. Judging by the voltage supplied by mainstream power distribution companies (which is about 220Volts to 240Volts here in Nigeria), this voltage cruising through a human would definitely encounter some resistance by the body which leads to heat loss and severe burns.

The burn can be so deep that it damages the cells and tissues, so much that limbs might have to amputated to reduce the risk of deadly diseases like Cancer and Necrosis.

Also, since our muscles rely on little amounts of electrical signals to function, shocks could lead to muscle spasms, contraction or total paralysis in serious cases.

Are we getting serious yet? maybe not. How about death? How serious is that? Bringing it back home, perhaps the most lethal blow is the part where it gets to the heart. The heart, the grand engine which also relies on very precise electrical signals to keep beating. With the human body only ever able to produce as little as 100 millivolts, such overload of electrical charge causes an imbalance in the heart's rhythm, or totally frying the entire body's electrical system, rendering the heart and every other part, useless. Hence, death. This is called Electrocution, and in my opinion, is probably the worst way to go.

Conclusion.

This has been a pretty interesting read thus far, and is getting weirdly long for a grand re-entry post at that, but yeah, call this body whatever you will, without all the wires, transistors and I.Cs that are present on a modern day computer, our bodies are very much an electrical system as much as they are biological. Nature made that fact clear by installing in us the same lethal electricity you see in overhead electrical lines and in transformers, the only difference being that it is controlled by chemical processes, and also comes in a very harmless magnitude. Considering a max. electrical capacity of about 100 millivolts, one would say it's very small, but then it gets the job done.

Saying no to electric shocks and possibly electrocution? Then the answer is safety and alertness. Be sure you aren't appearing too "friendly" or overstepping boundaries first by using the correct protective equipments and right tools if you're working with these sorta things. And if you aren't, stay the hell away! please.

So, if ever someone asks why electricity shocks people, you've at least got a very clear understanding of how this goes. Also, if you happen to see some jackass who's trying to get himself killed, call him to order. If he's adamant, well then, show him this article, walk away, and hope to God he read and understands.

Thank you for reading.
I'm back!

@pangoli

References.

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Wiki-- Electric shock

Maryland--How the human body uses electricity

Britannica--Electrical injuries and shocks

HSW--The Human Nervous system