The Circulatory System Functions Of The Heart Physical Education Essay

The Circulatory System Functions Of The Heart Physical Education Essay Circulatory System is the combined function of the heart, blood, and blood vessels to transport oxygen and nutrients to organs and tissues throughout the body and carry away waste products. The circulatory system increases the flow of blood to meet increased energy demands during exercise and regulates body temperature. Also, when foreign substances or organisms invade the body, the circulatory system quickly sends disease-fighting elements of the immune system, such as white blood cells and antibodies, to places under attack. In the case of injury or bleeding, the circulatory system sends clotting cells and proteins to the affected site, which quickly stop bleeding and promote healing. The heart, blood, and blood vessels are the three main elements that make up the circulatory system. The heart is the engine of the circulatory system. It is divided into four chambers, the right atrium, the right ventricle, the left atrium, and the left ventricle. The walls of these chambers are made of a muscle called myocardium, which contracts to pump blood. The pumping action of the heart occurs in two stages for each heartbeat. Diastole, when the heart is at rest, and systole, when the heart contracts to pump deoxygenated blood toward the lungs and oxygenated blood to the body. There are typically about 60 to 90 beats per minute. If the heart stops pumping, death usually occurs within four to five minutes. Blood consists of three types of cells, red blood cells that carry oxygen, disease-fighting white blood cells, and blood-clotting platelets, which are all carried through plasma. Plasma is yellowish and consists of water, salts, proteins, vitamins, minerals, hormones, dissolved gases, and fats. Three types of blood vessels make a network of tubes throughout the body. Arteries carry blood away from the heart, and veins carry it toward the heart. Capillaries are tiny links between the arteries and the veins where oxygen and nutrients spread to body tissues. The inner layer of blood vessels is lined with cells that create a smooth passage for the transfer of blood. This inner layer is surrounded by connective tissue and smooth muscle that help the blood vessel to expand or contract. Blood vessels expand during exercise to meet the increased demand for blood and to cool the body. Blood vessels contract after an injury to reduce bleeding and also to conserve body heat. Arteries have thicker walls than veins so they can withstand the pressure of blood being pumped from the heart. Blood in the veins is at a lower pressure, so veins have one-way valves to prevent blood from flowing backwards away from the heart. Capillaries, which are the smallest of blood vessels, are only visible by microscope. The arteries, veins, and capillaries are divided into two systems of circulation, systemic and pulmonary. The systemic circulation carries oxygenated blood from the heart to all the tissues in the body except the lungs and returns deoxygenated blood carrying waste products, such as carbon dioxide, back to the heart. The pulmonary circulation carries this blood from the heart to the lungs. In the lungs, the blood releases its carbon dioxide and absorbs oxygen. The oxygenated blood then returns to the heart before transferring to the systemic circulation. The heart gets rid of oxygen-rich blood under high pressure out of the left ventricle, through the aorta. Smaller arteries branch off from the aorta, leading to various parts of the body. These smaller arteries in turn branch out into even smaller arteries, called arterioles. Branches of arterioles become progressively smaller in diameter, eventually forming the capillaries. Once blood reaches the capillary level, blood pressure is greatly reduced. Capillaries have extremely thin walls that allow dissolved oxygen and nutrients from the blood to become a fluid, called the interstitial fluid, that fills the gaps between the cells of tissues or organs. The dissolved oxygen and nutrients then enter the cells from the interstitial fluid by diffusion across the cell membranes. Meanwhile, carbon dioxide and other wastes leave the cell, diffuse through the interstitial fluid, cross the capillary walls, and enter the blood. In this way, the blood delivers nutrients and removes wastes without leaving the capillary tube. After delivering oxygen to tissues and absorbing wastes, the deoxygenated blood in the capillaries then starts to return to the heart. The capillaries merge to form tiny veins, called venules. These veins in turn join together to form progressively larger veins. Ultimately, the veins converge into two large veins, the inferior vena cava, that brings blood from the lower half of the body, and the superior vena cava, that brings blood from the upper half. Both of these two large veins join at the right atrium of the heart. The circulatory system plays an important role in controlling body temperature. During exercise, working muscles generate heat. The blood supplying the muscles with oxygen and nutrients absorbs much of this heat and carries it away to other parts of the body. If the body gets too warm, blood vessels near the skin enlarge to disperse excess heat outward through the skin. In cold environments, these blood vessels constrict to retain heat. The pressure generated by the pumping action of the heart propels the blood to the arteries. Blood pressure, for instance, enables a person to rise quickly from a horizontal position without blood pooling in the legs, which would cause fainting from deprivation of blood to the brain. Normal blood pressure is regulated by a number of factors, such as the contraction of the heart, the elasticity of arterial walls, blood volume, and resistance of blood vessels to the passage of blood. Blood pressure is measured during systole, the active pumping phase of the heart, and diastole, the resting phase between heartbeats. Blood pressure varies between individuals and even during the normal course of a day in response to emotion, exertion, sleep, and other physical and mental changes. The average normal blood pressure is about 120/80 mm Hg. Higher blood pressures that are sustained over a long period of time may indicate hypertension, a damaging circulatory condition. Lower blood pressures cou ld signal shock from heart failure, dehydration, internal bleeding, or blood loss.

Effects of Smoking Cigarettes

tJonathan Manning ENG 103 Professor Brookins October 10, 2012 Effects of Smoking Cigarettes In this life many addictions or temptations can jump their way into the paths of many people. For example, some people get addicted to drugs, alcohol, and also money. Staying away from these day to day temptations is tough but is crucial to having a healthy lifestyle. Being a little more specific, people can get addicted to smoking cigarettes. Cigarettes contain nicotine, which is what people get addicted to and makes them want to have more. Smoking cigarettes can take a huge toll on someone’s life.People who smoke cigarettes have no idea how harmful it can be towards their life. It may not be known, but smoking can also lead to more than diseases, it could even lead to death. Cigarette smoking can affect a person’s life physically, financially, and socially. First of all, smoking cigarettes definitely has an affect on a person’s body as a whole. Also, many sicknesses or d iseases can result from smoking such as bronchitis, coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, prostate cancer, stomach cancer, bladder and kidney cancer, leukemia, cervical cancer, pancreatic cancer, etc.Also, by smoking a person is causing damage to their lungs, which will make it harder for them to breathe in the future, maybe even leading to live on the support of oxygen. They do not realize every time they bring that cigarette up to their mouth and smoke it, they are basically breathing in cancer and just throwing their lives away. Also, smoking can mess up a person’s physical appearance such as their teeth turning yellow, and also always having smoky breath, and smoky clothes, etc. People that smoke are so addicted that they become blind to what they are doing to their bodies and most importantly, to their health.Secondly, the addiction of smoking cigarettes can take a financial toll on a person, maybe a toll that takes control over their spending budget. Cigarettes are not cheap in today’s economy; the prices of cigarettes vary in price, but can and will eventually put people into bankruptcy. If someone were to by one pack of cigarettes every single day, the money yearly would add up to thousands and thousands of dollars. Finally, smoking can also cause damage to others and a person’s social life. Second hand smoke is a common disease that is affecting people’s lives today.Second hand smoke is when a non-smoking person inhales the pollution of a smoking person, taking in, unintentionally, the same fumes of nicotine and other toxic chemicals as the person actually smoking. Also, sometimes non-smokers reject smokers because they do not want to get affected by second hand smoke. From being rejected, smokers will end up friendless, stuck buying and smoking cigarettes, and maybe even stuck in depression. Getting out of depression is not an easy thing to do, it might even get a person think ing of committing suicide because they cannot keep smoking and throwing their life away.In conclusion, smoking cigarettes can harm a person in several different ways. A person’s physical life, financial life, and social life can all be affected by cigarette smoking. Another effect that smoking can cause to people is a mental disability. With so much toxic acid going into the bloodstream, which enters throughout the body and the mind, people could end up mentally ill. It is hard to grasp why people can still smoke even though they know the effects that are possible to come into play.

Alternative Health

Medical intervention is a continuous quest for health care management. Whether conventional, complementary or alternative medicine, the aim of   health care provider is to give relief to pain or to cure illness of   their patients temporarily or permanently .Alternative medicine is a practice of medicine that prevents or treats disease or ailments without the use of drugs or undergoing diagnostic procedures. It includes chiropractic, acupuncture, yoga, use of medicinal plants, homeopathy, meditation, massage and anything that requires self awareness and belief   that the body can heal itself.The use of alternative medicine is fast growing despite the result of many clinical studies showing its side effects and adverse reactions especially when combined with other procedure. It is therefore important that health care seekers should inform their health care provider of their present condition and current treatment to prevent unfavorable interaction of different treatment modality .DISCUSSIONThe world of medicine faces a continuous challenge on how to uplift the level   of health care in the country. There are organizations that spend a lot of money to provide the best drug that can cure certain illness. Several funding companies are   searching for the best medication. Clinical trials are continuously conducting studies for the drug development. A variety of medical methods have been accepted by medical practice due to many scientific explanations for their effectiveness and most often than not,   these procedures cost a lot of money.However, absence of side effects and adverse reactions is not an assurance. There are also incidents of unsatisfied medical treatment outcome. Medical lawsuits are becoming rampant nowadays resulting to decline in conventional health visits. In accordance, several health care methods are becoming more accepted as a way of battling ailments. These factors add to the popularity of alternative medicine.Although many people in less developed countries have used alternative medicine, it has not proven to cause 100% therapeutic effect. Many medical literatures have been discussing alternative medicine with complementary medicine. It should be remembered   that alternative medicine is a practice used in place of conventional medicine while complementary medicine is an alternative medicine with concurrent use of conventional medicine.Conventional medicine is medicine practiced by professionals such as Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and other allied health professionals like physical therapist, psychologist and registered nurse. It is also known as Western medicine, orthodox, biomedicine or regular medicine.In a study conducted by Barnes and colleagues (2002), the use of complementary and alternative medicine among adults in United States has been revealed. They collected data from the noninstitutionalized population using a computer-assisted personal interview among adults age 18 and ab ove.They found out that 60% of the adults were using some form of complementary and alternative medicine. The   most commonly used   therapies were use of prayer for   health , natural products, deep breathing exercises,   meditation, chiropractic care, yoga , massage , and diet-based therapies. Ernst (2000) revealed in his research the 9% to 65% prevalence of use of complementary/alternative medicine. The given form for treatment was chiropractic in the USA but showed considerable discrepancies.The study suggests that complementary/alternative medicine therapies are frequently used and increasing. â€Å"The true prevalence of use of complementary/alternative medicine in the general population remains uncertain†.Alternative medicine has been practiced from eastern to western part of the world from 2,000-6,000 years of history (Dworkin, 2006). The definition and scope of alternative medicine is so broad that falls into one definition; a   practice of medicine which r equires self-awareness, treatment or prevention of disease without the use of expensive drugs and need not undergo through the   high cost   of   diagnostic procedures. It includes all healing approaches that do not use the conventional Western medicine.Alternative medicine includes acupuncture, aromatherapy, Ayurveda medicine, Chinese medicine, chiropractic, herbal medicine, homeopathy, massage, meditation, naturopathy, therapeutic touch and Yoga.   

College Should Take At Least A Few College Classes

Devin Mahoney Professor Jones English 165 13 July 2015 Lets Go to College I believe that everyone should take at least a few college classes throughout their life. College is for everyone, even for those who did not go to a college right after high school. College might not be a top priority in everyone s life. Even though it may not be a top priority, going to college is a very selfless act in which the national community benefits from. Even as a parent, a growth and developmental psychology class can help a parents realize why their child are acting a certain way, and even develop methods to boost a child s confidence. If someone is unhappy with their career choice, college is a great way to learn what career choices are more†¦show more content†¦This will mean that the child will most likely need a tutor, and the child will most likely struggle if he/she does not have one. In other words, a parent needs to be a teacher. We can not educate others with knowledge that you do not have. Robert T. Perry, an executive director of the South Dakota Boar d of Regents state s, â€Å"Higher education allows people of all backgrounds to hone their writing, reading, cognitive, and critical thinking skills that enable them to actively participate as citizens.† When someone has certain skills they are able to educate others. When one is educated they are actively bettering themselves and their own community. Even if that means just making sure that your kids are educated. Even a simple math class class at the local junior college can help a parent educate themselves, therefore they are able to educate their child. This will help raise a healthy and confident child because they are succeeding in school, and a confident child is more likely to go onto higher education. An educated community results in being active in society. This is good for economic growth and the overall health of a community. It is financially advisable to go to school because a degree shows that graduates have the skills needed for a higher paying job. David Autor, an M.I.T. economist, came to the conclusion that it actually costs the average person 500,000 dollars to not go to college (in Leonhardt). This means that