Human Body: Ultimate Machine

The human body is a fascinating machine. If you want to get a clear understanding of how to maintain a healthy human body, you will need to learn the anatomy and physiology of the body. This information will educate you on how to prevent or treat diseases, make use of facts on how to stay healthy, and just to know the workings of your body.

Anatomy studies the structure of the body parts and their relationships to one another.

Physiology concerns the function of the body, in other words, it is not necessary to image how they look.

Anatomy and physiology goes hand and hand, because function always reflects structure. That is, what a structure can do depends on its specific form. This is called the principle of complementarity of structure and function. For example, bones can support and protect body organs because they contain hard minerals, and blood flows in one direction through the heart because the heart has valves that prevent back flow.

1. Chemical level: tiny building blocks of matter, combine to form molecules such as water and proteins.

2. Cellular level: cells are the smallest units of living things. All cells have some common function, but individual cells vary widely in size and shape, reflecting their unique functions in the body.

3. Tissue level: groups of similar cells that have a common function. The four basic tissues types in the human body are epithelium(skin), muscle, connective tissue, and nervous tissue. Each tissue type plays an important role in the body.

4. Organ level: extremely complex functions become possible. (Example: stomach)

5. Organ system level: organs work together to accomplish a common purpose make up an organ system. (Example: cardiovascular system, skeleton, muscular, etc)

6. Organismal level: "highest" level, represent the sum total of all structural levels working together to promote life.

Now that you know the structural levels composing your body, the question you may be asking is "Why do I need to know this?"Like all complex animals, human beings maintain their boundaries, move, respond to environmental changes, take in and digest nutrients, carry out metabolism, dispose of wastes, reproduce themselves, and grow.

Organ systems do work in isolation; they work cooperatively to promote the well-being of the entire body.

Human Body Nutrition

Complementary of Structure and Function of human body

Maintaining Boundaries Every living organism must maintain it boundaries so that its internal environment(inside) remains distinct from the external environment surrounding it (outside).

Movement includes the activities promoted by the muscular system, such as propelling ourselves from one place to another by running or swimming, and manipulating the external environment.

Responsiveness or irritability, is the ability to sense changes (stimulus) in the environment and they respond to them.

Digestion is the breaking down of ingested foodstuffs to simple molecules that can be absorbed into the blood.

Metabolism "a state of change" is a broad term that includes all chemical reactions that occur within body cells. It includes breaking down substances into their simpler building blocks and using nutrients and oxygen to produce the energy-rich molecules that power cellular activities.

Excretion is the process of removing or waste, from the body. If the body is to operate the way we expect it to, it must get rid of non useful substances produced during digestion and metabolism.

Reproduction can occur at the cellular or organismal level. Reproduction of the human organism, or making a whole new person, is the major task of reproduction.

Growth is an increase in size of the body part or the organism. It is usually accomplished by increasing the number of cells.

The ultimate goal of human body and all the body systems is maintain LIFE.