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Briefly Describe the Importance of the Interaction Between the Respiratory and Cardiovascular Systems in Maintaining the Body’s Internal Balance

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Oxygen is vital to give the body energy. This energy giving process, respi-ration, results in an unwanted bi-product-carbon dioxide (CO2), the build-up of which would be harmful to the body.
Collecting oxygen and excreting CO2 is the function of the respiratory system (made up of the lungs and chest cavity). The chest cavity containing with the lungs expands and contracts, inhaling external, oxygen rich air and exhaling CO2 rich air.
At the microscopic or molecular level, respiration needs to take place within (almost) every cell, for each cell needs its own supply of energy.
So the respiratory system collects the oxygen in the lungs, the cardiovas-cular system (heart, blood vessels and blood) transports the oxygen to every cell in precise quantities and takes the carbon dioxide back to the lungs. Throughout life, the heart beats to keep up the flow of the transportation, and in a matching rhythm, the lungs expand and contract, maintaining the initial collection of oxygen and the final release of CO2. The two systems need each other to perform their own functions.
When the body’s activities change, for instance during sustained exercise, oxygen is used up quicker than usual. Receptors throughout the body will detect a faster depletion of oxygen in the muscles. (Sherwood, C.,2013) The nervous system will be activated to increase breathing rate and in turn heart rate will increase because more oxygen will be deposited into the blood. This shows how the two systems interact.
The interaction is vital to maintain the internal balance (homeostasis) of oxygen and CO2 molecules.
The smallest parts of the cardiovascular system are the capillaries (ap-proximately as narrow as a red blood cell is wide). Capillaries are tiny blood vessels that bathe every cell. Red blood cells contain haemoglobin, a protein which easily loses its oxygen in areas lacking

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