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The systems could be divided in to the following categories:
| Standing and Moving | Skeletal | Muscular | ||
| Creating Energy and Waste Disposal | Digestive | Respiratory | Circulatory | Urinary |
| Coordination and Control | Nervous | Sensory | Endocrine | |
| Producing Life | Male Reproductive | Female Reproductive | ||
There are trillions of different types of cells in the human body. None of these cells function well on there own. They are part of the larger organism that is of course YOU.
Cells group together in the body to form tissues - a collection of similar cells that group together to perform a specialized function. There are 4 primary tissue types in the human body: epithelial tissue, connective tissue, muscle tissue and nerve tissue.
1.Epithelial Tissue - The cells of epithelial tissue pack tightly together and form continuous sheets that serve as linings in different parts of the body. Epithelial tissue serves as membranes lining organs and help to keep the body's organs separate, in place and protected. Some examples of epithelial tissue are the outer layer of the skin, the inside of the mouth and stomach, and the tissue surrounding the body's organs.
2.Connective Tissue - There are many types of connective tissue in the body. Generally speaking, connective tissue adds support and structure to the body. Most types of connective tissue contain fibrous strands of the protein collagen that add strength to connective tissue. Some examples of connective tissue include the inner layers of skin, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bone and fat tissue. In addition to these more recognizable forms of connective tissue, blood is also considered a form of connective tissue.
3.Muscle Tissue - Muscle tissue – of which there are three types - is a specialized tissue that can contract, becoming shorter and thicker. Muscle tissue contains the specialized proteins actin and myosin that slide past one another and allow movement. Examples of muscle tissue are contained in the muscles throughout your body.
4.Nerve Tissue - Nerve tissue contains two types of cells: neurons and glial cells. Nerve tissue has the ability to generate and conduct electrical signals in the body and carry messages to your brain. These electrical messages are managed by nerve tissue in the brain and transmitted down the spinal cord to all parts of your body.
There are different organs for each system of the human body that carry out the functions of each system. These would include the heart, the brain, the spinal cord and nerves, the esophagus and stomach, small and large intestines, liver and pancreas.
Organs are the next level of organization in the body. An organ is a structure that contains at least two different types of tissue functioning together for a common purpose. There are many different organs in the body: the liver, kidneys, heart, even your skin is an organ. In fact, the skin is the largest organ in the human body and provides us with an excellent example for explanation purposes.
The skin is composed of three layers: the epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous layer. The epidermis is the outermost layer of skin. It consists of epithelial tissue in which the cells are tightly packed together providing a barrier between the inside of the body and the outside world. Below the epidermis lies a layer of connective tissue called the dermis. In addition to providing support for the skin, the dermis has many other purposes. The dermis contains blood vessels that nourish skin cells. It contains nerve tissue that provides feeling in the skin. And it contains muscle tissue that is responsible for giving you 'goosebumps' when you get cold or nervous. The subcutaneous layer is beneath the dermis and consists mainly of a type of connective tissue called adipose tissue. Adipose tissue is more commonly known as fat and it helps cushion the skin and provide protection from cold temperatures.
The main role of the skeletal system is to provide support for the body, to protect delicate internal organs and to provide attachment sites for the organs.
The 29 bones of the skull are formed so as to protect your brain, eyes and the sensitive parts of your ears. The breastbone and 24 ribs attached to the spinal column protect your heart and lungs. The 26 vertebrae that make up the spinal column protect the nerves of the spinal canal.
All in all, the skeleton of an adult consists of 206 bones.
The main role of the muscular system is to provide movement. Muscles work in pairs – for example the biceps and the triceps - to move limbs and provide the organism with mobility. Muscles also control the movement of materials through some organs, such as the stomach and intestine, the heart and circulatory system. On average, the skeletal muscles make up more than 40% of the weight in a man’s body. The ratio of muscle tissue to fat tissue in a woman is lower than that in a man. There are three types of muscle tissue: Skeletal muscles which are striped (striated). These are under your own voluntary control. There are continuous messages being sent to and from the brain. The more you use certain muscle groups, the more efficient they become in performing those tasks. Cardiac muscle has a less striped appearance. Smooth muscles have no striping. Both the cardiac and smooth muscles are not under your voluntary control. Your control over their reactions is limited. In the digestive tract, there are muscles in the walls of the esophagus, stomach and intestines. In the respiratory system, smooth muscles are arranged in a circular pattern to help control the width of the passages. Your circulatory system is regulated by smooth muscle in the walls of your blood vessels. The cardiac muscle cells of the heart keep the blood flowing through the circulatory system throughout life. The smooth muscles in the urinary system keep urine flowing from the kidneys to the bladder. Exercise will increase the size of individual muscle cells, but will not increase the number of cells.
The main roles of the digestive system is to breakdown and absorb nutrients from food that you eat, which are necessary for growth and maintenance. This takes place in what is called the alimentary canal, which is some 27 feet long beginning at the lips and ending at the anus. Besides the organs making up this canal, the pancreas and the liver perform extremely important roles in the digestive process. The major organs involved are the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, pancreas and liver. The chewing process is very important and the breakdown of the food needs to be as complete as possible. This will make it much easier for the rest of the organs to handle their respective rolls as intended – to change the food in to what is called bolus, then to extract and send the nutrients in to the blood stream. The liver produces a thick green fluid called bile, which assists in the digestion of fats by allowing them to dissolve in water. This bile is stored in the gall bladder until it is needed by the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine. The partly digested food passes from the duodenum in to the next two sections of the small intestine. It is there that the production of additional digestive juices takes place from millions of glands in their walls – about five pints (2.1 liters) a day. Only when the food is broken down in to the basic components being amino acids, simple sugars and fatty acids, will they be small enough to be absorbed in to the bloodstream. The nutrients are captured by millions of very small projections called villi. These villi wave around capturing the nutrients as the soupy paste passes through the small intestine. Then what follows is another amazing set of functions. Each villus has a network of capillaries and a larger vessel connected to the lymphatic system (another system through which fluids circulate). Amino acids and simple sugars (glucose) pass through the walls of the villi and in to the capillaries. Fat nutrients pass through into the lymph vessels, whilst minerals and vitamins pass from the intestine in to the blood or the lymph unchanged. Many of the absorbed nutrients then travel in the bloodstream to the liver. The liver is the body’s largest organ and weighs between 3 – 4 pounds. Its supply of blood is made up of about 20% of oxygen-rich blood from the heart and 80% nutrient rich blood from the small intestine. The liver processes some of the nutrients such as amino acids. The liver stores some nutrients such as vitamins and releases them when required. The liver stores carbohydrates in the form of glycogen, which can be converted in to glucose as and when needed as energy for the brain, muscles and other organs. The brain cannot store glucose and therefore depends on its supply from the liver. The formation of glycogen is turned on by the hormone insulin, which is poured in to the blood by the pancreas. An inability to produce insulin leads to diabetes, a disease involving excessive glucose in the blood. The liver also breaks down old red blood cells and processes potential poisons (such as an excess of alcohol and discarded drugs). Indigestible food moves in to the large intestine, where water and chemicals are absorbed back in to the bloodstream for recycling. The remaining waste travels on to the rectum for excretion from the anus.
Heart and Lungs – These are the Suppliers of Oxygen to the body.
The main role of the respiratory system is to provide gas exchanges between the blood and the environment. Primarily, oxygen is absorbed from the atmosphere into the body and carbon dioxide is expelled from the body.
Major Organs are the nose, trachea and lungs.
The main role of the circulatory system is to transport nutrients, gases (such as oxygen and CO2), hormones and wastes through the body. It is also involved in regulating body temperature.
Major Organs are the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves.
The main role of the nervous system is to relay electrical signals through the body. The nervous system directs behavior and movement and, along with the endocrine system, controls physiological processes such as digestion, circulation, etc.
The various Sensory Systems include the Tongue, Nose, Eyes, Ears & Skin. Your brain relies on information that is transmitted to it from these sources.
Odors are chemical particles floating in the air. The receptor cells that react to odors are in the upper half of each nostril and within the nasal cavity. They occupy an area about the size of a postage stamp
The receptors have small hairs that lie in mucus. Odors become absorbed in mucus, where they come into contact the receptor cells, called olfactory rods. These send electrical signals to the nerve cells in the olfactory bulb, which sits just above the roof of the nasal cavity, which is protected by a sieve-like plate of bone.
The human tongue can be classed as the commander-in-chief of the chewing / mastication process. In addition, let us list some of its other duties:
Taste through the taste buds, cleaning the mouth of food particles, speech and shapes the sounds made, blowing, sucking and whistling, kissing, its color can be a sign of sickness, and many more invaluable functions.
It is estimated that 80% of everything that is sent to the brain is sent by the eyes. The human eye is enormously complicated - a perfect and interrelated system of about 40 individual subsystems, including the retina, pupil, iris, cornea, lens and optic nerve. For instance, the retina has approximately 137 million special cells that respond to light and send messages to the brain. About 130 million of these cells look like rods and handle the black and white vision. The other seven million are cone shaped and allow us to see in color. The retina cells receive light impressions, which are translated to electric pulses and sent to the brain via the optic nerve. A special section of the brain called the visual cortex interprets the pulses to color, contrast, depth, etc., which allows us to see "pictures" of our world. Incredibly, the eye, optic nerve and visual cortex are totally separate and distinct subsystems. Yet, together, they capture, deliver and interpret up to 1.5 million pulse messages a milli-second! Nothing can relate or compare to its ingenuity.
The human ear has three main sections, which consist of the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. Sound waves enter your outer ear and travel through your ear canal to the middle ear. The ear canal channels the waves to your eardrum, a thin, sensitive membrane stretched tightly over the entrance to your middle ear. The waves cause your eardrum to vibrate. It passes these vibrations on to the hammer, one of three tiny bones in your ear. The hammer vibrating causes the anvil, the small bone touching the hammer, to vibrate. The anvil passes these vibrations to the stirrup, another small bone which touches the anvil. From the stirrup, the vibrations pass into the inner ear. The stirrup touches a liquid filled sack and the vibrations travel into the cochlea, which is shaped like a shell. Inside the cochlea, there are hundreds of special cells attached to nerve fibers, which can transmit information to the brain. The brain processes the information from the ear and lets us distinguish between different types of sounds.
So what is skin?
Skin is another miracle organ. It is soft, pliable, strong, waterproof, and self-repairing. It's the largest organ of your body, and without it, all your delicate organs would not be held in place.
Along with a layer of fat underneath, it insulates you against all kinds of damage, wear and tear. It keeps germs and water OUT (unless you have a break in your skin) and keeps your body's fluids and salts IN.
Your skin also contains glands which manufacture sweat. With sweat, not only does your body get cooled by its evaporation, but it has a convenient way to get rid of chemicals it doesn't need.
Skin is alive. It's made of many thin sheets of layers of flat, stacked cells in which you'll find nerves, blood vessels, hair follicles, glands, and sensory receptors. Your skin is constantly being regenerated and replaced.
Each individual hair is formed inside a hair bulb deep in one of the 100,000 hair follicles. The follicle is a tiny but powerful factory, which throughout many people's lifetime hardly ever stops working. It takes in its stride all the shampoo, conditioner, cutting, drying, exposure to sun and wind, colorings and perms. Eventually the hair falls out and, after a short rest period, the follicle starts to produce yet another new hair for up to as many as 20 times
The main role of the endocrine system is to relay chemical messages through the body. In conjunction with the nervous system, these chemical messages help control physiological processes such as nutrient absorption, growth, etc.
Many glands exist in the body that secretes endocrine hormones. Among these are the hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid, pancreas and adrenal glands.
This system cleans the Blood and regulates the amount of Water in the body
The main role of the excretory system is to filter out cellular wastes, toxins and excess water or nutrients from the circulatory system.
Major Organs are the kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra.
The main role of the reproductive system is to manufacture cells that allow reproduction. In the male, sperm are created to inseminate egg cells produced in the female.
Major Organs are:
Female - ovaries, oviducts, uterus, vagina and mammary glands.
Male - testes, seminal vesicles.
The main role of the immune system is to destroy and remove invading microbes and viruses from the body. The lymphatic system also removes fat and excess fluids from the blood.
Major Organs are the Lymph, lymph nodes and vessels, white blood cells, T- and B- cells.
- Imagine purchasing the most extremely sophisticated and modern machine imaginable.
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- Activity, similar to the requirement of any machine, is critical.
- There are also a few “Do’s and Don’ts” that will need to be put in to place, none of which will be invasive, but would in fact make everything in your life easier to handle, more enjoyable, pain-free and worthwhile
Surely it is worth checking the instructions in order to get the best performance possible from your machine?
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