Introduction (Hook and Bridge)
Think for a minute about anything you know about your body systems, any system. What do you know about the function or components of it?
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Phase one: Description
Body Systems
Use the Description Organizer below to make notes as you read the text.
Cardiovascular SystemCriteria Respiratory System
System Functions
Major Components
Related Disorders
How do you keep it healthy?
Cardiovascular System:
Your heart is an amazing organ. It continuously pumps oxygen and nutrient-rich blood throughout your body to sustain life. This fist-sized powerhouse beats (expands and contracts) 100,000 times per day, pumping five or six quarts of blood each minute, or about 2,000 gallons per day!
How Does Blood Travel Through the Heart?
As the heart beats, it pumps blood through a system of blood vessels, called the circulatory system. The vessels are elastic tubes that carry blood to every part of the body.
Blood is essential. In addition to carrying fresh oxygen from the lungs and nutrients to your body's tissues, it also takes the body's waste products, including carbon dioxide, away from the tissues. This is necessary to sustain life and promote the health of all the body's tissues.
There are three main types of blood vessels:
- Arteries. They begin with the aorta, the large artery leaving the heart. Arteries carry oxygen-rich blood away from the heart to all of the body's tissues. They branch several times, becoming smaller and smaller as they carry blood farther from the heart.
- Capillaries. These are small, thin blood vessels that connect the arteries and the veins. Their thin walls allow oxygen, nutrients, carbon dioxide, and other waste products to pass to and from our organ's cells.
- Veins. These are blood vessels that take blood back to the heart; this blood lacks oxygen (oxygen-poor) and is rich in waste products that are to be excreted or removed from the body. Veins become larger and larger as they get closer to the heart. The superior vena cava is the large vein that brings blood from the head and arms to the heart, and the inferior vena cava brings blood from the abdomen and legs into the heart.
This vast system of blood vessels -- arteries, veins, and capillaries -- is over 60,000 miles long. That's long enough to go around the world more than twice!
Blood flows continuously through your body's blood vessels. Your heart is the pump that makes it all possible.
Diseases:
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), and the resulting complications, is the main cause of death for both males and females in the United States and other technologically advanced countries of the world. It usually is in the top five causes of death in lesser-developed countries. Diseases of the cardiovascular system include those that compromise the pumping ability of the heart, cause failure of the valves, or result in narrowing or hardening of the arteries. In addition, toxins and infectious agents may damage the heart and blood vessels. Injury or failure of the cardiovascular system, especially the heart, also will affect the peripheral tissues that depend on the delivery of nutrients and the removal of wastes through the blood vascular system. CVD is a family of diseases that includes hypertension,atherosclerosis,coronary heart disease, and stroke.
The following are some of the ways you can keep your cardiovascular system healthy:
• Reduce the amount of fat in your diet.
• Reduce the amount of salt in your diet.
• Exercise regularly to strengthen your heart muscles.
• Avoid using tobacco products because they increase blood pressure.
• Maintain a healthful weight.
• Practice stress management skills.
Respiratory System:
You usually don't even notice it, but twelve to twenty times per minute, day after day, you breathe -- thanks to your body's respiratory system. Your lungs expand and contract, supplying life-sustaining oxygen to your body and removing from it, a waste product called carbon dioxide.
The Act of Breathing
Breathing starts at the nose and mouth. You inhale air into your nose or mouth, and it travels down the back of your throat and into your windpipe, or trachea. Your trachea then divides into air passages called bronchial tubes.
For your lungs to perform their best, these airways need to be open during inhalation and exhalation and free from inflammation or swelling and excess or abnormal amounts of mucus.
As the bronchial tubes pass through the lungs, they divide into smaller air passages called bronchioles. The bronchioles end in tiny balloon-like air sacs called alveoli. Your body has over 300 million alveoli.
The alveoli are surrounded by a mesh of tiny blood vessels called capillaries. Here, oxygen from the inhaled air passes through the alveoli walls and into the blood.
After absorbing oxygen, the blood leaves the lungs and is carried to your heart. Your heart then pumps it through your body to provide oxygen to the cells of your tissues and organs.
As the cells use the oxygen, carbon dioxide is produced and absorbed into the blood. Your blood then carries the carbon dioxide back to your lungs, where it is removed from the body when you exhale.
Diseases and disorders of the respiratory tract include:
Asthma
Is an allergic reaction that causes constriction of the bronchiole muscles, thereby reducing the air passages, thus the amount of air that can get to the alveoli. Interestingly, many of the treatments for asthma are similar to treatments used for hypoglycemia. That and the fact that diabetics rarely also have asthma have led some authors to suggest that asthma may be related to hypoglycemia, and that a hypoglycemia diet may aid in alleviation of asthma symptoms.
Emphysema
Is a progressive loss of elasticity in the lungs due to rupture of some alveolar walls, coalescing of alveoli, and formation of scar tissue.
Lung cancer
Has been shown to be more common in people who smoke cigarettes and/or who are constantly forced to inhale someone else’s side stream smoke. A number of pamphlets from the American Cancer Society and biology textbooks have featured pictures that show what smoking can do to a person’s lungs. Typically, there is a photograph of a robust, healthy, pink lung next to a photograph of a shriveled, diseased, blackened lung from a smoker. Similarly, people who work around substances like asbestos fibers, coal dust, flour dust, or dry, crumbled, dusty bird droppings for much of their lives, frequently show signs of lung diseases caused by these substances.
Laryngitis
Is an inflammation of the vocal cords in which the person partially or totally loses his/her voice.
Bronchitis
Is an inflammation of the bronchi, causing them to over-secrete mucus, which in turn, causes coughing to get it up.
Hiccups
Are spasms of the diaphragm thought to be caused by not enough CO2 in the body. Thus, hiccups are frequently cured by breathing into a paper bag.
The following are ways to keep your respiratory system healthy:
• Do not smoke.
• Avoid breathing secondhand smoke.
• Do not inhale harmful drugs.
• Avoid breathing polluted air.
• Exercise regularly.
• Avoid inhaling harmful chemicals.
• Seek medical help for respiratory infections
The
Body
Systems
Guide
Phase two: Comparison
Now that you’ve read about both theCardiovascular System and the Respiratory System, complete the Top Hat Organizer that follows:
Similarities of the Systems
Cardiovascular SystemRespiratory System
Phase Three: Application
You are the oxygen in the air that is about to be inhaled by ______.
- You’re task is to create a story of how you (oxygen) will be used throughout the body, by way of the Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems, to accomplish RESPIRATION (the act of breathing…inhaling & exhaling)
Explain the roles of the following characters in the plot of your story:
- Lungs
- Heart
- Blood vessels (which ones?)
- Waste/Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
**You may add any additional characters that you think help tell your story**
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Phase Four: Conclusion
While both the Cardiovascular System and the Respiratory System each have a different function, both are very important for our overall health. Please use the information that you have to answer the following conclusion statement:
- If you were a physical and health education teacher,how would you promote a healthy lifestyle to your students?
- Must use information from the packet regarding cardio/respiratory health
- Must include real world examples to completely answer the question. (think of ways that YOU like to learn & explain)
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