Nutrients: Respiratory System and Body Essay

Submitted By styriana
Words: 3119
Pages: 13

Acquiring and Transporting Nutrients

There are many important factors that are vital to the functioning of the human body. Three important components are the digestive system, cardiovascular system, and the respiratory system. Without these three systems we would not be able to breathe, transport nutrients, or dispose of waste.
The cardiovascular system is a very unique system of the body that deals with the heart, blood vessels, and blood. The functions of the cardiovascular system are to: transport oxygen and nutrients to parts of the body, and to export carbon dioxide from the lungs. The cardiovascular system is also responsible for regulating body temperature, and helping fight disease. Blood is an essential fluid in the body that sustains life. Males have about 5-6 liters of blood, and woman contain about 4-5 liters of blood in the body. Blood cells are produced inside of the bone marrow, and once they have matured are released into the blood stream. The blood consists of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma. The red blood cells are also called erythrocytes and are responsible for the delivery of oxygen to body parts. Hemoglobin in red blood cells carries the oxygen throughout the body, and also carries carbon dioxide through capillary beds into the lungs to be exhaled. White blood cells also known as leukocytes, are responsible for helping regulate the body’s immune system. The white blood cells help defend the body against foreign microbes and substances in the blood. There are five different types of white blood cells: Eosinophils, Basophils, Neutrophils, Monocytes, and Lymphocytes all carrying out vital functions of protecting the bodies immune system. Plasma is the fluid portion of the blood that consists of proteins, water, and other solutes. Some proteins in the blood are antibodies which will attack foreign pathogens inside of the body. Platelets are small cell fragments that have enzymes important in the clotting of blood.
The heart is responsible for pumping blood efficiently through the blood vessels of the body. There are a few different types of vessels that make up the highway system for blood. Arteries are the largest and are responsible for pumping blood away from the heart and into the body. Veins are smaller and are responsible for delivering blood to the heart. Capillaries are the smallest vessels of the body and capillary beds can be found throughout many organs of the human body, delivering nutrients and picking up waste.
The heart is a very important and complex structure of the human body. It is a four chambered structure and circulates blood throughout the systemic and pulmonary circuits of the body. The four chambers consists of a left and right atrium, and a left and right ventricle. The heart chambers are separated by a muscular area called the interatrial septum and act as separate pumps. The heart is surrounded by the pericardial cavity and lining this cavity is the pericardium. The complex network of fibers found throughout the pericardium are responsible for stabilizing and positioning of the heart. There are two different nodes found in the heart that help contract the blood throughout the heart. Nodes are a specialized tissue that act as muscle and nervous tissue. When the nodal tissue contracts like a muscle it acts as a nerve signal pumping the blood throughout the myocardium. The sinoatrial and artioventricular nodes are the electrical system of the heart responsible for the “Lub-dub” sound in the heart. The sinoatrial node contracts in the atrium, and the artioventricular helps pump the blood into the ventricles.
The systemic circuit is responsible primarily for delivering oxygen-rich blood to the body. Oxygen rich blood enters the Left Atrium of the heart, and when the Mitral valve also known as the Bicuspid valve, contracts it pumps the blood in the Left Ventricle. Blood then goes into the Aorta where it is either ejected into the ascending aorta