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RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
Main Function = gas exchange from O2  CO2
Other functions: speech (sounds) regulation of pH of blood.
1. NOSE: This is made of cartilage. Nose jobs involve taking a mallet, breaking the
nasal bone and shaving the cartilages.
a. NASAL CAVITY: This is where the nostrils are. They have hairs which
filter large particles in the respiratory tract. (insects, etc).
The functions of the nasal cavity is for the air you breathe:
1. Warm (cold air can freeze lungs); warmed by superficial veins
2. Clean (dirty air can clog lungs); mucous is sticky, and cilia will move
that dirt down the back of the throat, then it’s swallowed.
3. Humidify (dry lungs can crack). The fluid secreted by glands makes
the moisture, even on windy days the air goes to 100% humidity by the
time it gets to the lungs.
When you have a cold and get extra fluid (edema)  stuffed up or runny nose,
and the pressure can cause sinus headaches.
2. PHARYNX is where the nasal passages join with the oral passages. The
AUDITORY TUBE from the ears is located here.
A. SOFT PALATE: move your tongue along the roof of your mouth, and
going from the front to the back you’ll feel the hard part turning into a
soft part on the roof of your mouth.
B. UVULA: located at the end of the soft palate (seen in cartoons).
The function of the soft palate and uvula is to move upward when swallowing, to
prevent food from going into nasal cavities. When you vomit, they don’t close, and
food and stomach acids go into nasal cavity and cause problems. Can also see tonsils
(lymph nodes) and vocal cords.
3. LARYNX
This is a very complex structure. Made up of cartilages
It has two functions:
1. Produce sounds (vocal cords are located in the larynx)
2. Prevent food from entering lungs
What is the Adam's apple and what does it do?
It’s really a part of the larynx or voice box. When boys go through puberty, hormones
cause the larynx to grow rapidly, deepening their voices and causing the bulge to form.
Girls' voices also deepen with puberty, but since their larynxes don't tend to grow as
much, they don't usually develop an "Eve's apple." The protrusion is actually composed
of thyroid cartilage. Your larynx is surrounded by a skeleton of cartilage plates that
prevents it from collapsing. Some folks undergo cosmetic surgery to make it less
prominent.
Definition of Adam's apple
Adam's apple: A familiar anatomic feature in the front of the neck that is due to the
forward protrusion of the thyroid cartilage, the largest and most prominent cartilage of
the larynx.
The thyroid cartilage tends to enlarge at adolescence, particularly in males. Enlargement
of the Adam's apple is considered, like pubic hair growth, one of the secondary sexual
characteristics.
Origin of the term: It is usually said that Adam's apple takes its name from the biblical
story about Adam, Eve. The serpent and the apple. A piece of the forbidden fruit stuck in
Adam's throat and created the anatomic Adam's apple. So the story goes. However, it
may be wrong.
Adam's apple in Latin is "pomum Adami." This may have been a mistranslation of the
Hebrew "tappuach ha adam" which also means male bump. Between Latin and English
there's many a slip.
Why does your voice sound funny after you inhale helium from a balloon?
A healthy 13-year-old boy who suffered a cerebral gas embolism after inhaling helium
from a pressurized tank at a party. A word to the wise: Pressurized, industrial tanks are
not for human consumption! Repeated inhalation of helium can hinder your ability to
breathe.
Helium is an inert gas that is lighter than air. Sound is produced by vibration, the
movement of air around our vocal chords. Because helium gas is lighter than the usual
oxygen/nitrogen blend, it changes the resonant frequency of the human vocal tract,
causing a faster vibration and a higher-pitched, cartoon-character sound.
A. EPIGLOTTIS closes when you swallow so nothing will go into the trachea and
lungs. When you get hiccoughs, it’s from a sudden movement of air into the lungs, so the
epiglottis closes to prevent more air from going in. It’s unknown why you get hiccoughs.
All the treatments you can try involve interrupting the normal breathing patterns.
B. GLOTTIS is the opening.
C. VOCAL CORDS
Vocal cords are attached to cartilage. If these cartilages move, the vocal cords open.
The type and pitch of sounds you make depend on how far apart the vocal cords are.
Way open = no sound (like when breathing)
Mostly closed = sounds
Men: their thyroid cartilage is larger, so their vocal cords are longer = deeper voice.
LARYNGITIS: inflamed vocal cords (↓ sound production).
Singers can get scar tissue nodules, requires surgery.
The number one sign that a person is lying is voice irregularities.
4. TRACHEA This is a tube that carries air from the larynx to the lungs. (See model)
It’s fairly rigid from about 16 rings of cartilage.
The purpose of the cartilage rings is to keep the trachea open like a hollow tube.
Otherwise, when you inhale, the trachea would collapse like when you suck hard on a
straw. That’s why your vacuum cleaner has rings on the hose.
The trachea is lined with epithelium interspaced with goblet cells, which are the cells that
produce mucous to trap dirt. The epithelial cells also have little hairs on them called cilia
which sweep dirt to larynx  swallowed. In this way, the respiratory passage is filtered.
Therefore, the cilia have several functions: they move the mucus, remove debris and
harmful organisms, and circulate the air.
The trachea branches out into smaller tubes called BRONCHI.
Bronchi branch out into smaller tubes called BRONCHIOLES.
Bronchioles branch out into smaller tubes that empty into a sack = ALVEOLI (overhead
picture). This sac is like a balloon surrounded by a capillaries. The alveoli are where the
gas exchange occurs: oxygen goes from the air in the lungs into the red blood cells
passing by there, and carbon dioxide diffuses out of the cells and into the air in the lungs
where it is exhaled. Therefore, inspired air (breathe in) contains oxygen, and expired air
(breathe out) contains more carbon dioxide than oxygen.
By the time these air tubes are this small, they don’t have any more cilia, so any particle
that gets down that far has to be eaten by macrophages or just stay there. Therefore,
within the alveoli are macrophages to eat the foreign object.
A cough can be expelled at 60 mph.
DIAPHRAGM is a muscle on the floor of the chest cavity. It is involved in breathing.
Exactly what happens when you get the wind knocked out of you?
It’s all about your diaphragm. This dome-shaped muscle sits below your lungs, and it
helps your windbags inhale and exhale. When you get hit in the abdomen, this can cause
a pressure difference that makes your diaphragm spasm for a few seconds. You can't
catch your breath until the spasm stops.
MYTH: Cover your head or catch a cold: Although 90% of the heat lost from the body is
lost from the head, covering your head will not prevent this heat loss. The heat is lost
from the warm air that you exhale.
PROBLEMS WITH THE LUNGS
In allergic conditions, bronchioles will constrict, blocking air flow to the lungs =
ASTHMA. This can also be caused by irritants in the environment, especially by
pollution in the city.
SMOKING
Smoking destroys cilia, and smoke of any kind is toxic. Particles in the lungs can’t clear.
Cigarettes contain tar, which is the same kind of tar used to pave roads. When there is a
thin lining of tar on the alveoli, there is no oxygen exchange to the lungs there. Large
chunks of the lung become useless. Damage to the lungs shows up several ways.
If a person smokes for 10 years and then stops, the damage will repair. If they have been
smoking longer than 10 years, they may have some residual damage. It takes 7 years for
lungs to repair. Smoking right after exercise is worse because you are breathing more
deeply, so the particles go in deeper. Pollution in the air can also cause particles in the
lungs, and the ozone can damage the lungs. Living in southern California is like smoking
one pack a day.
A mother who smokes during pregnancy will give birth to a baby with a lower birth
weight. Smoking also is associated with heart disease, cancer of the lung, bladder,
and pancreas. It also causes emphysema, pneumonia, and bronchitis. Some people try
to quit smoking by smoking less, trying not to inhale, or switching to chewing tobacco,
but there is no safe way to use tobacco.
CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE (COPD)
Number 5 killer in the USA.
It is a combination of two conditions:
1. CHRONIC BRONCHITIS: inflammation of the bronchi, produces mucous, the
openings become smaller = obstructed.
2. EMPHYSEMA: loss of elastic tissue on the bronchioles and alveoli, which
collapse now during exhalation. Alveoli lose their shape and their surface area.
When you see someone at the mall with an oxygen tank, they probably have
emphysema, and need pure oxygen.
LUNG CANCER
There are many types of lung cancers. About 150,000 die each year from them. It is the
#1 or #2 most deadly form of cancer. 85% of lung cancer is caused from smoking.
The problem is that it starts as a hard nodule deep in the spongy tissue of the lung, where
it has no symptoms until it presses against a structure. By then, it has also
METASTASIZED (bits of it break off and travel to another location in the body, lodge
there, and start multiplying).
Surgery on the lung cancer of a smoker won’t work because the lungs are too weak, and
they can’t do without the lung tissue. There are no good screening procedures for lung
cancer.
SURFACTANT is a slippery agent that is made by the alveoli, which coats it and keeps
the walls of the alveoli from sticking together when they collapse during exhalation. If
you have two wet pieces of paper and stick them together, they are hard to pull apart
without ripping. Put soapy water between them, and you can pull them apart.
The reason this is important is because surfactant is not produced in a fetus until the ninth
month, so premature babies don’t have enough surfactant  RESPIRATORY
DISTRESS SYNDROME, which is the #1 cause of death in premature babies. You
know how hard it is to blow up a brand new balloon? Imagine a baby having to do that
with every single breath. You get tired. The treatment is to spray artificial surfactant into
the lungs, and put them on a respirator to push air in. The more distal regions are still
collapsed, so there are still problems.
PNEUMONIA is when there is fluid in the lungs, usually from a viral or bacteria
infection of the bronchi and alveoli. Blood plasma leaks out and fills the lungs, making it
difficult to breathe. Needs hospitalization with iv antibiotics.
TUBERCULOSIS is an infection of a really bad bacteria that get in the lungs and
make themselves a capsule to hide in, where antibiotics can’t reach. They set up shop
in the lungs and reproduce. Soon, the lungs fill up with these hard nodes and make it
difficult to breathe. It causes extreme coughing, and then lots of these bacteria break off
and get spewed into the air, where someone else can inhale them. It is extremely
contagious and very deadly.
If a person gets TB, the State Health Department has to be notified. They will show up at
your house every morning for six months and stand there and watch you take your pills.
If you don’t accept this, they have the right to haul you away to a lock-up facility and
force the medicine in you for six months. There are only a few diseases where the State
Health Department will step in like this: anthrax, typhoid fever, and bubonic plague are
other diseases where you don’t get a choice; you are forced into isolation. Diseases like
TB and the plague have almost wiped out Europe! A TB test will be positive if you have
been exposed to the organism at any point in your life. Then you’ll have to go in for an xray to see if it is an active case of TB or not. Once you recover from TB you will always
have a positive TB test, so tell the nurse that in advance.
You may have to provide documentation that you have been treated for it already. Most
employers require TB tests before hiring. I had to take one to work here.
URINARY SYSTEM
This system consists of the KIDNEYS, URETERS, URETHRA, and BLADDER.
Not many structures, but very important.
Functions:
1. Regulate electrolytes (K, Na, etc) in body
2. Regulate pH in blood
3. Regulate blood pressure
4. Regulate blood volume
5. Removing metabolic wastes (chemicals produces by chemical reactions in the
body are excreted). This is the least important of the kidney’s functions. You can
survive for a few weeks without excreting waste products in the urine, but hour by
hour, the other functions are more important.
LOCATION OF THE KIDNEYS
They are toward the back side of the body, partly protected by the lower border of the
ribcage.
STRUCTURES WITHIN THE KIDNEY
The kidney is surrounded by a capsule and some loose connective tissue which anchors
the kidney to the abdominal wall. Not very strong. Jumping up and down can cause
tearing. The term “renal” refers to the kidney.
MICROSCOPIC ANATOMY OF THE KIDNEY
You can’t understand how the kidney works until you understand how blood flows in the
kidney. A large artery supplies the kidney, and it continues to get smaller and smaller
until its branches become capillaries that end in a structure called the nephron.
Just like the unit of function of the liver is the lobule, the unit of function of the kidney
(forms the urine) is the NEPHRON. Each kidney as about 100,000 nephrons. They
carry out all of the various functions of the kidneys.
GLOMERULUS-CONVOLUTED TUBULES-LOOP OF HENLE-COLLECTING
DUCT
FUNCTION OF THE NEPHRON
Blood comes into the capillary bed, and plasma leaks out and enters the glomerulus. The
plasma contains good stuff like nutrients, and bad stuff like waste products. As the
plasma moves through the convoluted tubules and Loop of Henle, all of the nutrients, and
most of the water, are absorbed back into the blood. Everything that is not reabsorbed
(the waste products) goes into the collecting duct and is excreted as urine. This is also
how the water-salt balance is maintained, as well as the acid-base balance.
Diuretics are medicines that increase the amount of urine that is produced. People who
have high blood pressure might be prescribed diuretics to decrease the blood volume.
Alcohol is a diuretic and this is what contributes to the symptoms of a hangover.
Caffeine is also a diuretic, so coffee and regular Coca-cola are diuretics.
UREA
Urea is a waste product of amino acid metabolism. Remember, proteins are made of
amino acids, so when you break down proteins, you break down amino acids, and the
waste product left over is urea. This is the main waste product in urine.
COLOR OF URINE
When you urinate, it should be mostly clear with almost no yellow color. The more
yellow the urine is, the more dehydrated you are. If the urine is very dark yellow, you are
burning too much protein (as in food deprivation).
URETERS
These are long tubes that transport urine from the kidney to the urinary bladder. It comes
in at the base of the urinary bladder, not the top. As the bladder fills, it presses down on
the ureters to prevent urine from backing up into the kidneys.
URINARY BLADDER
The function is to store urine to permit controlled urination. The structure has folds =
RUGAE which allow for expansion. You can hold up to one liter of urine, although at
500ml, you’ll be dancing. The function of the urinary bladder is just to store urine.
There is a sphincter that keeps the urine in, and it’s made of skeletal muscle, so it is under
voluntary control.
The URETHRA connects the urinary bladder to the outside of the body. Don’t get
urethra and ureters mixed up!
The length differs from males to females:
Females: 4cm
Males 20 cm (varies with mood)
Because females have a much shorter urethra, they are more susceptible to bladder
infections.
PROBLEMS WITH THE URINARY TRACT
UTI (urinary tract infection) needs to be treated, or infection can reach the kidney.
Prevent UTI by drinking water, cranberry, or blueberry juice.
URETHRITIS = infection of the urethra
CYSTITIS = infection of the urinary bladder.
PROBLEMS WITH THE KIDNEY
Things can happen to the kidney: infection, excess proteins, pH change, blood pressure
drops, and can lead to kidney failure.
Treatment is DIALYSIS, which removes blood, sends it through a filter, and returns it
without the wastes. Done three times a week. Ideally, need a kidney transplant because the
kidney has other functions as well.
The brain, heart, and kidney are the only three organs in the body that have to get oxygen to
sustain life.
KIDNEY STONES
These develop for unknown reasons.
Stones are made out of a variety of things: uric acid, calcium, etc.
They keep growing.
They can block the urethra, causing the kidney to enlarge. As the kidney stretches, it
causes excruciating pain in cycles of hours. As pressure builds up around the stone, urine
can pass, and the kidney stone moves down the urethra slowly.
Symptomatic kidney stones are pea sized or larger (up to 1 ½ inches).
Treatment is ULTRASOUND: Put a powerful speaker on the outside of the kidney,
sends a shock wave which the tissues absorb, but the stones shatter so the pieces can pass
easier. To help prevent kidney stones, drink enough fluid so your urine stays clear and
light colored.
URINARY TRACT FUN DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Can you drink your own urine?
Although urine is pretty clean, the exit tube (urethra) is not, so as it comes out, it gets
contaminated like a garden hose with mud on the tip.
Is it more sanitary to be spit on or peed on?
If you are stranded on a desert island, should you drink seawater or your own urine?
Why do I have to go to the bathroom immediately after a cup of coffee?
Why do you have to pee when you hear water dripping?
If you stick a sleeping person's hand in warm water, will he or she wet the bed?
Does cranberry juice cure urinary tract infections?