In this assignment I will be addressing how the digestive system and the respiratory are linked to energy metabolism in the body. I am addressing this to explain what the energy system is and how it functions the only way I can describe it is through explain the digestive, respiratory and cardiovascular system work and how they link together. This topic is really important as without energy we would be able to function or survive.
There are 3 body systems involved with energy. The first system is the digestive system, the teeth mash up the food which is moisturised by the saliva then your tongue sends the mashed up food down your throat. The pharynx then sends the food to the esophagus which is connected to the stomach .Your stomach then mixes your foods together breaking it all down into tiny pieces then mixes an acid called hydrochloric acid which kills all the bacteria, the stomach then uses its muscles to flip the food around breaking the food into smaller particles. The small intestines is where the most digestion occurs after the food leaves the small intestine 90% of all the nutrients have been extracted from the food that entered it, the small dissolvable molecules are ready to be absorbed into the blood stream and taken to the cells and tissues where they are needed. We also use the respiratory system to create energy. The respiratory system starts off at the mouth and nose it then travels to the pharynx and then to the trachea (windpipe) where it goes down the bronchi (two tubes that branch off of the trachea) and into the lungs when this happens a gas exchange happens as you breath in oxygen and breath out carbo dioxide the gas exchange happens in the capillaries. When the air that you've just breathed in reaches these air sacs, the oxygen in the air passes through the air sac walls into the blood in the capillaries. At the same time, carbon dioxide (a waste gas) moves from the capillaries into the air sacs. This process is called gas exchange. The oxygen also goes into the alveoli which inflate and deflate with inhalation and exhalation. The lungs act much like balloons in that there is some effort involved to inflate them, but when the inflating pressure is released, the recoil of the elastic walls provides the pressure necessary to deflate them. The lungs are suspended in the thoracic cavity which is normally at a slight negative pressure. When the diaphragm is lowered, that pressure becomes more negative and the lungs expand into the cavity. Air from the atmosphere moves into the resulting partial vacuum and inflates the alveoli. Once the alveoli are fully inflated, exhalation can be accomplished by merely relaxing the diaphragm, since the wall tension in all the tiny alveoli will act to force the air out of them. By forcing the diaphragm upward, we can exhale forcefully by adding the diaphragm effort to the recoil of the elastic alveoli. The respiratory and the digestive system are an important contribute to energy as without them we wouldn’t be able to create energy.
We get oxygen around our body through the cardiovascular system. First the glucose and the oxygen enters the heart. The heart then pumps the glucose and the oxygen around and out to the right cell where it needs to be the cell then changes the glucose and oxygen to create energy. The cell does this by the mitochondria. The cells starts off being ADP (Adenosine diphosphate) this is the product left behind after the high energy bond has been used to do work, when the cell then receives energy form glucose oxidation the cell then creates the 3rd bond and turns into ATP (Adenosine triphosphate). When the cells has its 3rd bond it has reached its full power, the bond then breaks and releases energy and that is used to power the cell. The cell the goes back to ADP and repeats that cycle.
We use energy in all different types of ways the larger processes are things like movement such as walking and running, breathing and digestion. The smaller processes are things like creating new cells and electric signals in the nervous system. We also need energy for metabolism. This is where the body builds up and breaks down things in the body. We build up and break down a huge range of things within our bodies such as water, dry food, oxygen, carbon dioxide and sweat. If we don’t have energy in our body we won’t be able to function properly, certain organs would start to fail. This is life threating and would affect your body in different ways. Such as dizziness, could course breathing problems. It can also cause headaches and seizure, loss of consciousness, sleep and visual disturbances, muddled thinking and even mood changes
In conclusion energy is important as without it we wouldn’t be able to survive or function efficiently. I have learnt that you need 3 systems to create energy and that every one of them is important in its own way. The cardiovascular is important as without it the glucose and the oxygen wouldn’t be able to get to the cell to create energy. And without respiratory and the digestive system we wouldn’t get glucose and oxygen into our bloodstream and without glucose and oxygen we would be able to make energy as they are the 2 main ingredents.
References
http://www.gosh.nhs.uk/digestive-system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_system http://www.indepthinfo.com/biology/atp-adp-cycle.shtml http://www.bnssgformulary.nhs.uk/2-Cardiovascular-System/ http://www.uhs.nhs.uk/OurServices/Bloodandcirculation/Bloodandcirculation.aspx