Heart

A muscle that pumps blood around the body. See more at “Muscles” below.

Arteries / Veins

The blood vessels are the distribution network that supply the nutrients (remember that they enter the blood from the intestines) and oxygen (this enters the blood from the lungs) to all organs, glands, muscles, etc. in your body. One might also bear in mind that toxins are filtered out of the blood by the liver and kidneys. There will be a test later!

Eyes

All the better to see you with, my dears.

Ears

A couple holes for vibrations in the air to bounce off our eardrums, vibrating those little inner-ear bones, thereby sending an electrical signal to our brains that is perceived to be something called sound.

Mouth

A hole for you to stuff food and drink in to start the digestive process. It is also the hole that expels the air that was modulated by the vocal chords in a form we call speech. I am told that the reason Gawd gave us two eyes and two ears is so we would look and listen twice as much as we talk. Someone should have taught this to politicians and lawyers.

Nose

A couple holes for air to enter the nasal cavities. After we perceive the air to have a distinct odor (WARNING! Dangerous hydrogen sulfide emissions coming from anal orifice of large lazy Labrador Retriever - darn that dawg farts a lot!), we pass this air on down to the lungs. OK, back to a brief moment of seriousness...

Lungs

Air, which is inhaled through the nasal passages and/or mouth, travels through the windpipe or “trachea” into two main air passages. These divide into smaller branches that separate into even smaller “twigs” like an upside-down tree. The respiratory system is mainly contained in two lungs. The little air sacs at the end of the twigs comprise the fruit of the tree, and through its thin walls gasses pass into and out of the blood. The right lung is made up of three compartments, each of which contain a branch and each of which stems off into smaller “twigs,” which hold the air sacs that process the oxygen in the air to be released into the blood and expel carbon dioxide, which is exhaled through the nose and/or mouth. The left lung cavity contains only two sections (each with its own branches, twigs, and fruit) and encloses the heart, which processes the oxygenated blood and returns deoxygenated blood into the lungs to be refilled. Breathing is an automatic process that comes from the brain stem and is so strong a force that the involuntary reflexes will not allow us to consciously stop breathing for any great length of time.

The passageways in the respiratory system are lined with various types of epithelia to prepare the air properly for utilization and with hair-like fibers called cilia that move in a wave-like motion to sweep debris out of the lungs for expulsion.

Historical Note: The women in ancient Greece and Rome wore corsets of linen to restrain their figures. The female waistline has been moved up and down over the passage of time, but this became a real health hazard when whalebone corsets came into use during the last part of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries, because they constricted the vital organs in the body – especially those of the respiratory and digestive systems. Women with “wasp-like” waists fainted so often that those who were well-off purchased “fainting” couches; and when a woman “swooned,” the cry, “Cut her laces!” often allowed her enough air to recover.

It’s interesting to note that when tissues and organs are deprived of oxygen, blood will actually turn blue. We all have heard this cliché before ... “I’m going to hold my breath until I turn blue.”

Brain

Your brain is a jelly-like substance, which, in adults, weighs about three pounds. It is divided into three parts: the brain stem, which is an extension of the spinal cord, the forebrain (which consists mainly of the cerebrum), and the cerebellum. Your forebrain and cerebellum are divided into two hemispheres that are linked by a thick band of nerve fibers and these hemispheres have areas, called “lobes,” which perform specific functions. Your brain’s surface lies in rather ugly, wrinkled folds. Traditionally referred to as one’s “gray matter,” it does, indeed, contain gray nerve cell bodies that surround a smaller mass of white nerve fibers. Your brain, like your heart, is protected by a buffer zone. This, in the form of fluid, may be the source of “water on the brain,” but it is very necessary to our survival. Only these pools of fluid and the skull protect the brain from the bumps and grinds of daily living that would otherwise damage this fragile organ. With them, we are able to think, reason, love, forgive, create and remember, as well as to survive through automatic processes such as breathing and digesting, and we have reflexes that signal in case of “fight or flight” emergencies, which activates a few glands to supply parts of the body with extra energy while shutting down other parts that are considered unnecessary during such emergencies. More on that in a later newsletter.

The philosopher side of me would like to point out, at this particular juncture... whoa, that sounds like some politician we got rid of already. Anyway, the brain is often also called the “mind.” This is so very wrong!!! The distinction is easy to see if you think about the computer you are reading this on. There is a brain in your computer that is commonly called the CPU (central processing unit). This is an IC (integrated circuit) and, by itself, it is nothing but a maze of silicon paths. The CPU is a piece of hardware and that is all it is. So is the brain. So what’s a mind? Software. The mind is the gestalt of all the programs running inside your brain. Some of those programs are under conscious control and many of them are autonomic functions, programmed during gestation, presumably by your DNA. Add to them all the stored data on your hard drive (memories, learned habits, techniques, etc.) and you create an aspect called “personality.” OK, enough Plato for awhile. Back to the anatomy data.

Brain – Organ Interaction: The Nervous System (an overview – much more later)

The lungs, liver, digestive organs and most of the other vital systems are concentrated in a particular part of the body, but the peripheral nerves travel out from the spinal cord, branching time after time to form a network that extends throughout the body. The autonomic nervous system consists of the sympathetic system (which all arise from the spinal cord) and the parasympathetic system, which includes four cranial nerves stemming from the brain. Many body actions are automatic. We do not have to consciously remind our hearts to beat or our gastric juices to flow after we have eaten our junk food.

Direction of these functions is the responsibility of the autonomic nervous system. This system has two separate sections: the sympathetic and the parasympathetic systems, which differ in the routes they take in the body. The neurons for the parasympathic system take a direct route. They start at the base of the brain and run directly to the organ, where instructions are carried out. An impulse in the sympathic system comes from the spinal column and runs to a gap between nerve endings, where it meets a second nerve cell, each working as a relay station until it reaches the relevant organ. Most of the body’s organs are connected to both the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nerves. Sympathetic nerves tend to “turn on” activity, as in the instance of stress or an emergency, while the parasympathetic nerves usually “turn off” activity, so that these nerves tend to restore calm to the body. The actions and reactions of an organ can be carefully balanced in this way.

All this, then, is the wiring that connects every part of your body to your CPU. It is, however, not gold wiring because tissue versions of wiring only transmit messages to/from the brain at speeds of 180 miles per hour. The same electromagnetic signals can move through a vacuum at the speed of light. Makes you feel a bit sluggish, huh?

Bones / Skeletal System (brief overview)

This is the erector set that keeps you from being an amoeba-like puddle instead of a fine upstanding human. Other than the fact that these things hold you up and create your blood (in the marrow), they serve as the attachment point for most of your muscles (via ligaments), which allow you to move the skeletal system and its contents (all those organs we’ve been talking about) from Point A to Point B. When you were born, you had 350 distinct bones in your body, but after childhood 144 of these bones fused together.

Muscles

A muscle is composed of bundles of specialized cells capable of contraction and relaxation to create movement. There are three types of muscle in the body: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac. There are only three basic types of muscle: the striped (also called striated) skeletal muscles that move the bones; the smooth, involuntary muscles that line the blood vessels, stomach, digestive tract, and other internal organs; and the cardiac muscles, which are a cross between the smooth and the striped muscles. If you were to slice through a muscle diagonally, you would find that it resembles a telephone cable. Inside is a bundle of smaller cables and each bundle surrounds still smaller ones. The first and largest bundle is made up of muscle fibers in which there are nerves, blood vessels, and connective tissue. Each fiber is built up from smaller strands, called myofibrils, and each myofibril contains interlaced filaments of muscle proteins. There are over 650 muscles in your body.

Skin

Skin is the outside covering of body tissue, which protects inner cells and organs from the outside environment. The skin is the largest organ of the body, and its cells are continuously replaced as they are lost to normal wear and tear. The skin totals between 12-20 square feet in area and accounts for 12% of body weight. It is composed of three integrated layers: the epidermis, the dermis, and the subcutis. The thickness of the epidermis and the dermis varies over different parts of the body. It is thickest on the palms of the hands and feet, where friction is needed for gripping, and it is thinnest on the eyelids, which must be light and flexible. The epidermis also grows into fingernails, toenails, and hair. The dermis, or true skin, is thick, sturdy, rich in nerves, blood vessels, and in sweat glands. It shields and repairs injured tissue. This layer consists mostly of collagen, which originates from cells called fibroblasts and is one of the strongest proteins found in nature. It gives skin durability and resilience. The subcutis, joined to the bottom of the dermis, is the deepest layer of the skin. It contains “lipocytes,” which produce lipids for the subcutaneous tissue to make a fatty layer that cushions the muscles, bones, and inner organs against shocks. It also acts as an insulator and source of energy during lean times. The skin registers sensation constantly and supports a teeming, unseen population of tiny organisms. Not only does the skin harden from use, but it molds into varied shapes, and it responds to the most delicate touch, becoming an organ of communication - sometimes more eloquent than words. So tough and durable is the skin that when a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy was fingerprinted, the ridges were perfectly preserved.

Fun Facts: Did you know that your skin is infested with mites? As awful as that sounds, it is a symbiotic relationship. They are invisible to the naked eye. If you scrape your eyebrow with a sturdy card, then place the card in a dish with some water, you should be able to see these mites through a strong magnifying glass. These mites help to keep the follicles and glands clear.

Glands

You have hundreds of these. At the moment, they are not overly important to our discussion, but we might discuss certain glands later with respect to fixing them or how their output can fix other things.

My Body Diagram

Note that no matter how the internal organs are hooked together, they all have one thing in common: they get their nutrients from the blood and they get their directions from the brain (via nerves). So all failures of those organs (barring direct ingestion of poison or bullets passing through) must come from either a crazy directive or something bad in the blood (food – and blood contains the “food” for your organs).

The organs shown in yellow are those most likely to introduce bad bugs into your blood. Your either breath it in, eat/drink it, or absorb it through your skin. Future newsletters will focus on how that happens and what you can do to fix it.