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The Skeletal System
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The skeletal system is essentially our
bones. When held together with muscles
and ligaments, the bones help to give
structure to our physical bodies. They
keep the physical body in shape so that
the organs of the body may be held in
the correct place.
Some bones are joined by flexible parts,
called moving joints, which give the
physical body some flexibility and the
ability to move as well as supporting the
body structure.
The smallest bones are in the ear whilst
the largest bone, the femur, is found in
the thigh.
Some of the larger bones are hollow and
contain bone marrow, a substance
which manufactures blood cells.
Bones store useful minerals such as
calcium and iron.
The skull protects the very delicate
tissue of the brain in a case of bone.
The spine helps to give central physical
support to the body and protects the
nerves running through it.
The rib cage protects the delicate tissue
of the lungs and the heart.
The layout of the bones in what is called
the pelvic girdle (the pelvis area) gives
support to a woman when she is
carrying a baby.
The medical names for various bones
are shown on the following pages. The
first page shows the skeleton from the
front followed by a picture of a skeleton
from the rear
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The Muscular System
As noted in the previous section, muscles hold the bone structure of the human body
together as shown in the following diagrams from Gray’s Anatomy. They connect
themselves to bones through the tendons which are a kind of stretchy tissue material.
 Muscles also enable the human body to move. They are made up of bundles of
cells and fibres that can shorten (tighten up) or lengthen (relax), this resulting
in movement. Many bones in the human body have two sets of muscles
attached to them. When the muscles shorten, they pull on the tendons which
pull on the bones and cause our limbs to move. Muscles only have a pulling
effect. They never have a pushing effect.
 Muscles are connected to the brain through the nervous system. The brain
sends messages to the muscles through the nerves to initiate tightening and
relaxation of the muscles.
 There are 630 active muscles in the human body acting in groups to facilitate
big bone movements such as walking or moving into a sitting opposition.
 Muscles are defined as being voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary muscles are
those that are controlled by intention, such as the arms and legs. Involuntary
muscles are those which are controlled automatically by the brain, such as the
action of the heart, which is a muscle, and the movement of the muscles
associated with the breathing mechanism.
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The three following diagrams show different cross sections of muscle formation in the
abdomen. If you look carefully, you can see how the muscles shown in brown weave
around the ribs in the rib cage structure to hold the ribs in place. This enables the rib
cage to protect the lungs and also to flex as the lungs breathe in and out.
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Sometimes ruptures occur in the muscular system and the body parts that would
normally lie behind the rupture such as a body organ start to protrude through the
rupture in what are known as hernias. Usually, simple surgical procedures can treat
hernias quickly by pushing the protrusion back into place and by mending the rupture,
sometimes including the insertion of materials such as meshing to strengthen the
weakened muscle tissue. If there is risk of something serious like restricted blood
flow, blocks in digestive passages, etc., resulting from hernias, they should be treated
as quickly as possible.
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The term ligament is given to a type of tissue that connects bones to other bones at
bone joints. Ligament tissue is not the same material as muscle tissue. Torn and
damaged ligaments impact upon the ability of bone joints to function correctly.
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This diagram tries to depict the extent to which the muscle system extends throughout
the body under the skin, holding everything together and in place.
At the open end of the rib cage where there is an absence of bone structure, the
muscle system of the rectus abdominus holds all the vital organs in this area in place.
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The Nervous System
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The human body has an extensive network of nerves which enables the brain
to communicate with every other part of the body. Some nerves carry
information from the brain to the muscles to control the movement of our
bodies. Nerves also transmit information from one area of the body to another
and to the brain. This network of nerves enables us to experience our main
senses of seeing with our eyes, hearing with our ears, smelling with our noses,
tasting with our tongues, and the sense of touch all over the surface of our
bodies.
The brain is at the centre of the nervous system and is connected with the
spinal cord. The spinal cord is a thick bundle of nerves which runs down the
centre of the spine. From the spinal cord, smaller bunches of nerves branch
out. These smaller bunches of nerves keep branching out into smaller branches
of nerves the nervous system has branched out into all areas of the body.
The central nervous system controls a gland called the hypothalamus, which in
turn controls another gland called the pituitary. The cells of the pituitary gland
secrete growth hormone which triggers the liver to produce a material which
stimulates growth in a range of body tissues (body material) including muscle,
cartilage, bone, liver, kidney and skin.
There are around 30,000 million nerve cells in the human body. Each
individual nerve cell can transmit 1,000 nerve impulses each second.
Information transmission within the nervous system is usually very fast and
can exceed 100 metres per second. This means that each of us is carrying a
very highly engineered internal information system.
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The front view of the head in the last diagram can be used to understand the concept
of how the nervous system works.
Different nerves in the head connect to the brain so that it can receive information and
control different body functions as follows:
 The Offactory Nerve carries the sense of smell to the brain.
 The Optic Nerve carries visual information to the brain.
 The Oculomotor Nerve enables the brain to direct the movement of the eyes.
 The Trochlear Nerve is also related to the movement of the eyes.
 The Facial Nerve is related to movements of the face muscles, to the secretion
of saliva in the mouth and to the sense of taste from the front part of the
tongue.
 The Auditory Nerve carries the sense of sound, movement and gravity to the
brain which is related to keeping one’s physical balance.
 The Glosspharyngeal Nerve carries the sense of taste from the back part of the
tongue to the brain.
 The Vagus Nerve travels down into the upper abdomen and connects the brain
to key parts of the body like the heart and the lungs.
 The Hypoglossal Nerve enables the brain to direct the movement of the tongue
muscles.
 The Accessory Nerve enables the brain to direct the movement of the muscles
of the neck.
The diagram on the next page shows the nerves (in yellow) in the arm.
Nerves can be damaged due to accidents such as cuts or involvement in car crashes.
Medical experience has been that nerve cells do not usually have the same repair
ability as do most other cells in the body. Consequently, substantive damage to part of
the nervous system such as fracture of the spinal column can often leave part of the
nervous system broken permanently with a loss of body function such as movement.
Nerve malfunction can also be of a more temporary nature. For example, swelling due
to bruising might put physical pressure on a nerve and result in feelings of pain or
numbness. As long as the cause of the pressure on the nerve is temporary, there is
usually no long term effect on the nerve.
We have a brief look later in this chapter at the chemistry behind information
transmission through the nervous system.
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The Respiratory System
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The respiratory system is what
we use to breathe in fresh air
and to expel used air. We
breathe in by contracting our
rib muscles to pull the ribs up
and out and by contracting the
diaphragm muscle to pull
down the lungs in our chest.
We breathe out by relaxing
the rib muscles and diaphragm
muscle and releasing the air
from our lungs.
 This muscle movement causes
air to be sucked in through the
nose or mouth and down
through
the
windpipe
(trachea). The windpipe is a
pipe shaped by rings of
cartilage which divides into
two tubes called bronchi,
(singular form – bronchus) one of which goes into the left lung and the other
of which goes into the right lung. Inside each lung, the bronchi split into
smaller and smaller tubes called bronchioles. At the end of the bronchioles are
small air balloons or air sacs called alveoli. The alveoli are surrounded by a
very high density of very fine blood vessels (capillaries) with very thin walls.
The alveoli are able to absorb into the blood cells in the bloodstream the
oxygen from the air around that is needed to oxidise the food that we eat,
thereby releasing the energy of the food. Oxygen is also needed by the cells in
the body. Carbon dioxide is created as a by-product from the oxidisation of
our food, and is carried in the blood stream to the alveoli where it is processed
out into the lungs and expelled with our out breaths.
On the next page is a diagram showing the bronchioles in what is often referred to as
the bronchiole tree. This is followed by a diagram of the horizontal cross section of
the abdomen through the lungs and heart. This shows the flow of the blood being
pumped through the heart and around the lungs. The red indicates blood rich in
oxygen that has been received through the alveoli and the blue indicates blood rich in
carbon dioxide to be expelled through the alveoli. The final diagram is a
representation of the process of receiving oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide
through the alveoli.
Damage to the very fine blood vessels occurs through the breathing in of poisonous
gases such as those released by cigarettes. This affects the effectiveness of receiving
oxygen into the blood stream and the release of carbon dioxide.
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