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© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy
There is a well known rumor that the chemicals in your body are worth about $24. Do you believe that? Even ignoring inflation, that seems ridiculous. Well, the original estimate was based upon the chemical elements in your body, not the chemicals into which they are combined. You have lots of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, calcium, sodium and chlorine. And then there are small amounts of other elements. You may have plenty of gold attached to your teeth.
But most of the chimicals are not in the form of elements. Sodium and chlorine are mostly in the form of salt, not very valuable, unfortunately. Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are mostly in the form of carbohydrates and water. Then we start to find valuable chemicals in there, hemoglobin, proteins, enzymes, hormones, and stuff that I don't know about. In the end, these chemicals are worth a great deal. It is hard to say how much, but a lot more than $24.