Download Cherstie Meskey 11/26/10 Chemistry Elements of Your Body

Cherstie Meskey
11/26/10
Chemistry
Elements of Your Body
Physiology is the study of function. This simple definition holds a far more dense, complicated
area of study. Physiology is ultimately how our bodies, the most complex machines known to man,
works. How something works may be shown on the surface, but there is far more going on inside.
Understanding the body requires us to travel down the the most microscopic level of most organs, cells,
or elements. Although physiology, anatomy, and chemistry are all different subjects in school, they
relate, and must coincide with each other throughout our whole life.
The main elements that occur naturally in our bodies are oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen,
calcium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, sulfur, magnesium, and chlorine. The prevalent elements of
these are oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen. This is somewhat obvious in consideration of the
fact we breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide. Hydrogen is also a very important element in
our bodies. Each person is approximately 60% water. There are many more reasons for these elements
to exist, as well as some very important reasons we have the other elements not including water or
oxygen or carbon.
The first body function that comes to mind is the actions of sodium and potassium in our cells.
If anyone reading this has taken a crash course in physiology, you know how important these two
elements are. Each cell of our body has a resting membrane potential, this means that the inside and
outside of the cell are at their opposing positive and negative charges. The inside of a cell is higher in
potassium while the outside of the cell is higher in sodium. We also have sodium-potassium pumps on
our cell membranes that regulate the flow of the elements and maintain the resting membrane potential.
This is necessary because sodium and potassium both with flow with their concentration gradients; this
means they will automatically move from an area of higher concentration to an area of low
concentration. This is a passive movement, and therefore disrupts our membrane potential. The pumps
use active transport to pump the ions back into where they came from, creating a constant cycle of
sodium and potassium movement across cell membranes. The pump also uses adenosine tri-phosphate,
commonly known as ATP (energy) to assist in the pumping movement. This is active transport.
Each cell can have a lot of pumps all around its membrane. Sodium and potassium also play a role in
action potentials, which are the cause of every neuron and muscle excitatory action. Whenever a
movement or something similar happens in the body, it was only allowed to happen because sodium
channels were opened, allowing a potential to depolarize, which causes an excitatory response. During
relaxation, depolarization turns into re polarization due to the presence of potassium channels opening.
Along with the topic of movement. Muscles must have a supply of the element calcium in
order to contract, or shorten. This occurs deep in the muscle, in each muscle cell called a muscle fiber.
After using sodium to become excitatory, in order for a muscle to move, calcium must bind to a tiny
protein in the muscle cell which acts like a key to open the lock that allows a contraction to take place.
Muscles usually always have a store of calcium located in something called the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
This calcium is usually replaced during relaxation so that it will be available for the next time the
muscle needs to contract or move.
We take in sodium, calcium, and potassium in our diet as well. Sodium obviously comes a lot
from table salt and the many, many foods that have salt in them. Sodium is necessary, but can be overconsumed easily. We should avoid food products that contain more than 200mg of sodium. Too much
sodium intake over a period of time can put you at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, and
kidney disease. We need to eat sodium because it lets our bodies to undergo muscle contractions,
keeps us hydrated, and controls our blood pressure levels. This is why starving children in third world
countries are given re-hydration salts to battle dehydration and diarrhea which will kill them if not
treated. Potassium is also easily found in the diet, and if maintaining a healthy diet, should have
enough potassium intake. It is found in red meats, and salmon, flounder, and sardines. Potassium is
also in many citrus fruits, and broccoli, potatoes, and tomatoes. Too much potassium in the body is
known as hyperkalemia, and too little potassium is called hypokalemia. The effects of hyperkalemia
may eventually result in death. An extreme example of this is the process of death by lethal injection.
Lethal injection is done by a solution of potassium chloride, this is because hyperkalemia can cause
heart attacks or even cardiac arrest (stopping of the heart). Potassium chloride is also sometimes used
in real life in the operating room. During open heart surgeries, or other procedures where surgeons
may need to stop the patients heart, they can simply pour potassium chloride straight on the open chest
and the heart will stop beating. Too little of potassium (hypokalemia) can also cause heart
abnormalities, but also may push the body towards paralysis, even paralysis of the lungs. Hypokalemia
may be caused by lack of nutrients in the diet, or too much urine output. Calcium is found mainly in
your bones. Bones are able to produce and also store calcium. This is regulated by the hormone
calcitonin, which is released from the thyroid gland. Calcitonin is released in response to high blood
calcium levels. Calcitonin “tones down calcium”. The parathyroid hormone opposes calcitonin and is
therefore released in response to low blood calcium levels, parathyroid hormone raises the amount of
calcium in the blood by targeting the osteoclasts (bone cells) and reducing calcium storage in the bone.
Besides the bones, calcium is found in the diet as well. Besides milk, calcium is present in broccoli,
shellfish, and some canned fish that contain the fish’s “soft bones”. A well known result of too little
calcium is osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is more prevalent in women than it is in males.
Nitrogen is found in the body inside amino acids, which are the units that make up proteins. So
eating proteins regulates nitrogen. Nitrogen is also in nucleic acids, which are the units that make up
our DNA. Animal products like eggs, meat, and cheese provide adequate protein and nitrogen (amino
acid) intake. A positive nitrogen balance exists when the body has taken in protein faster than it has
expended it. Negative nitrogen balance is a level too low in proteins, the body breaks down proteins
faster than it can replace them. Lack of enough nitrogen can suppress the body's immune system, cause
anemia, and may pose a risk for infections.
Phosphorus is the second most widespread mineral element in our bodies. Similar to calcium, it
is found in our bones and teeth. Phosphorus is used in repairing and growing tissues. It also applies
directly to all the energy we use in our body. ATP, adenosine tri-phosphate is energy, its used a
million times just to move our muscles back and forth. So, it is essential to have phosphorus so that it
can make up the "phosphates" combined with the amino acids that makes our energy storage and use.
So, when people die, a state known as rigor mortis occurs. This is when the body turns stiff and is
unmovable and sometimes locked in unusual positions. This is because there is no more phosphorus,
or ultimately no more ATP being made and this causes the muscles to lock in contraction because the
lack of energy prevents ATP from detaching the muscle from its locked state. This element also is
used in filtration in the kidneys. We can get phosphorus in our diets through proteins and grains.
Diabetes, Crohns disease, and some medications the make people urinate more can cause a drop in
phosphorus levels. Elemental phosphorus is toxic and not recommended to use, so doctors will usually
use a inorganic phosphate to treat some conditions.
Chloride (a form of chlorine) works alongside with sodium and potassium in regulating cell
fluid volume and what goes in and out of the cell. It works with blood volume and pH levels of the
blood as well. We consume most chloride from table salt because it is sodium chloride. Chloride
levels increase and decrease when sodium increases or decreases. Other uses of elemental chlorine in
life that eventually affect the body are used. We all know that chlorine is what gives swimming pools
that weird smell that makes us want to shower after getting out. It is used in pools and drinking water
supplies, and bleach as well because chlorine is a good chemical for bacteria disinfecting. Although it
is used as chloride in our bodies, elemental chlorine is toxic when breathed in as a gas. It was used as a
poisonous gas in world war one but was replaced by mustard gas. It was used again more recently in
the 2007 bombings in Iraq. It was used by filling trucks with chlorine and exploding them, making
people very ill and killing some of Iraq's people.
Carbon is the second most abundant element in the human body. As we all know, this comes
from the expiration of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide. The ability for us to breath in as much
oxygen as we do comes from the ability of plants to "breathe in" carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen
and nutrients, such as glucose. This is called photosynthesis and the reaction is 6CO2 + 6H2O =
C6H12O6 + 602. After plants have done this, we breathe in the oxygen and eventually breathe out
carbon dioxide, and the plants start over using the carbon dioxide we produced. Cellular respiration is
the chemical equation opposite of photosynthesis C6H12O6 + 602 = 6CO2 + 6H20. One of the main
ways cellular respiration is controlled is by our bloodstream and our heart. The cardiac cycle (
pumping of the heart) starts in the right ventricle where blood goes through a valve and to the lungs.
Once in the lungs, oxygen is picked up by the blood and goes back to the heart then out the aorta and is
delivered to our cells of all the tissues of our body. Once in the tissues, blood provides them with
oxygen and the tissues release their carbon dioxide waste into the blood. The blood then travels back
to the heart and the process starts over again, releasing the carbon dioxide to the lungs and picking up
the oxygen from the lungs.
Most of the human body is made of oxygen. It makes up 65% of all elemental ingredients in
the body. The only living things that do not require oxygen are anaerobic bacterium. Oxygen is
carried in the blood by hemoglobin (this is what gives blood its red color). The oxygen is attached to
hemoglobin on the "heme" section, while carbon dioxide may be present on the "globin" section.
Oxygen also helps with removing waste products from the body, a termed called oxidation. Too little
of oxygen can kill a person very fast. The brain receives 20% of the total body oxygen, and you can
become brain dead within nine minutes without oxygen. The individual brain cells begin to die within
five minutes without oxygen. Drowning and carbon monoxide poisoning can cause loss of oxygen in
the brain, even though we still have blood flow. As people get older, like some of our parents or
grandparents, lungs may become weaker. Oxygen treatment is required for many elderly people, or
people suffering from Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.
In conclusion, all this information on elements of our bodies is just a fraction of what our bodies
really do. The human body is the most intricate and hard to understand machine. There are many more
elements that take action in our body, and also some unnatural elements that people may put in their
body artificially. There are many elements that scientists are not even sure why they are in the body or
what they do. There are chemical changes and reactions happening in the body all the time, and
sometimes things go wrong. Diseases and unexplained diagnoses may lead to more, less, or artificial
elements to occur. Elements in the body usually all act on a chemical level, and pertain to real life as
well. Although not everyone understands chemistry, they can do some things to help it work. Things
such as eating right, taking the right medications, and exercising and breathing can all help the
chemistry of our bodies to stay on the right track.