Category Human Body

Every month or so, a woman’s body goes through the process of preparing for a possible pregnancy. This sequence is called the menstrual cycle.

Phase 1

Egg ripens: Prompted by hormones, an immature egg starts to grow inside a soft casing called a follicle. Your period may last 2 – 7 days, with most fluid being lost in the first two days.

Phase 2

Egg is released: The uterus lining thickens to prepare to receive an egg. Meanwhile, the follicle bursts and releases a ripe egg into the fallopian tube.  During this phase, due to the oestrogen, your skin could be smoother, your breasts a little bigger and any discharge will be clear.

Menstrual cycle: This shows a typical 28-day menstrual cycle. In fact, it can take from 21 to 35 days to complete, and the times between stages vary a good deal.  

Phase 3

Egg arrives in the uterus: At this point, if the egg is fertilized, it embeds itself in the uterus wall and starts to grow. You may feel slightly ‘bloated’ as this phase can trigger fluid retention throughout your body – but it’s not dangerous and doesn’t last.

Phase 4

Menstruation: If the egg is not fertilized, both the egg and the uterus lining fall apart and leave the body along with some blood. This is called menstruation, or having a period. This sudden change can cause mood swings (also called PMS Pre-Menstrual Stress) and you may also experience cramps as the uterus contracts in readiness to shed the built-up layer – which takes you back to Phase 1; having your period.

 

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From her teenage years to about her mid-fifties, the role of a woman’s reproductive organs is, combination with a man’s sex cells (sperm), to create a new human life – a baby.

A woman’s main reproductive organs are her ovaries and uterus. The two ovaries are where eggs are stored, then released at regular intervals. If an egg is fertilized by male sperm, the job of the uterus is to nurture and protect the egg as it develops – first into an embryo, then a foetus, which grows into a baby, ready to be born.

The vast majority of the eggs within the ovaries steadily die, until they are depleted at menopause. At birth, there are approximately 1 million to 2 million eggs; by the time of puberty, only about 300,000 remain. Of these, only about 500 will be ovulated during a woman’s reproductive lifetime. Any remaining eggs gradually die out at menopause.

 

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The water inside our bodies is salty – in fact, it is as salty as seawater. Salt, or sodium, help maintain the body’s water balance – the amount of salt dissolved in the blood tells the hypothalamus how much water the kidneys should release as urine, and how much to keep. Alongside potassium, salt also plays an essential role in helping nerve cells make signals.

The human body contains many salts, of which sodium chloride (AKA common table salt) is the major one, making up around 0.4 per cent of the body’s weight at a concentration pretty well equivalent to that in seawater. A child’s body contains the equivalent of 28 teaspoons of salt, while an adult’s body has 40 teaspoons.

So a 50kg person would contain around 200g of sodium chloride – around 40 teaspoons. Since we lose salt whenever we sweat, it has to be continually replaced.

While excessive consumption of it has been linked to high blood pressure and stomach cancer, salt is a vital part of body chemistry, playing a key role in many functions, from the quality of blood to transmission of nerve signals.

 

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The hypothalamus in the brain is responsible for monitoring water level. If it detects too little or too much water, it responds by telling the pituitary gland to release hormones that communicate with me kidneys and other organs.

Too little water

A shortage of water in the body is called dehydration. The body needs to take in more water and also to conserve the water already inside it.

• Low water alert: The pituitary gland releases a hormone into the bloodstream.
• Feeling thirsty: The hormone triggers an urge to drink.
• Dry mouth: The mouth feels dry, as water is sent to areas that need it more.
• Kidneys: The kidneys receive instructions to remove less water from the blood, so the body produces less urine.

Too much water

Too much water in the body is called overhydration. This condition is rare, but can be caused by illness or by drinking a large amount very quickly. Cells become too waterlogged to work and the blood pressure becomes too high.

• High water alert: The hypothalamus orders blood vessels to widen, which reduces blood pressure.
• Kidneys: The kidneys are ordered to extract more water from the blood, making more urine.

 

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Urine can provide valuable clues about health. Dark urine is a sign that a person is dehydrated and needs to drink more. Tests can also detect pregnancy, some infections, hormone changes, and diabetes.

To test urine, a testing strip is dipped into a sample. The coloured bands react to different chemicals in the urine, revealing any abnormalities.

Urine is 94 per cent water. The rest is made up of dissolved substances the body has no use for. They include sodium, which is excess salt, and urea, the waste produced by the liver.

At the microscopic level, your body is constantly working to keep you healthy, even while you sleep. Complex chemical processes take place throughout the body, including the breakdown of proteins known as amino acids. When your body breaks down amino acids, ammonia is left over as waste. That’s not something you want in your body for long—ammonia is toxic to human cells.

Since ammonia is toxic to your body, you need a way to remove it. That happens partly in the liver, where the ammonia is broken down into the less-toxic chemical, urea. Urea then combines with water and gets flushed into your bladder through the kidneys as urine, protecting your body from its own chemical processes.

 

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Water does many different jobs. It helps provide a transport system around the body. It also regulates body temperature, and lubricates parts so they work better.

Blood

Blood is mostly water, so it flows easily through blood vessels. Your blood is 92% water. Water carries nutrients and oxygen to all cells in the body.Water is required for breathing.Water moistens oxygen for breathing

Lymph

Watery lymph flows around the body, recycling chemicals and fighting germs. The lymphatic system works to keep body fluid levels in balance and to defend the body against infections. It is made up of a network of lymphatic vessels that carry lymph — a clear, watery fluid that contains proteins, salts, and other substances — throughout the body.

Saliva

Saliva moistens foods to help with eating and also kills germs in the mouth. Saliva is 99% water and 1% protein and salts. The normal daily production of saliva varies between 0.5 and 1.5 liters. The whole unstimulated saliva flow rate is approximately 0.3-0.4 ml / min. 

Sweat

Sweat is released through skin pores to help cool the body down. Composed of about 99 percent water, sweat evaporates on the skin’s surface, cooling the body and keeping it from overheating.Sweat secretions help you in other ways, too. They include dermcidin, an antibiotic peptide that appears to regulate bacteria growth on the skin and may fight infection.

Urine

Urine is a mix of excess water and chemicals from the blood. This colorless urine is sometimes due to drinking an excess of water, while other times it can signal a problem with the kidneys. If your urine is consistently clear or absent of color, you should see a doctor.

Joints

Many moving joints have a lubricating layer of liquid, called synovial fluid. With its egg white–like consistency, the principle role of synovial fluid is to reduce friction between the articular cartilage of synovial joints during movement. Synovial fluid is a small component of the transcellular fluid component of extracellular fluid.

Tissue fluids

Body tissues contain water, with lean tissue holding more than fatty tissue. Water is also contained inside organs, in gastrointestinal, cerebrospinal, peritoneal, and ocular fluids. Adipose tissue contains about 10% of water, while muscle tissue contains about 75%.

Cell cytoplasm

Cells need water for the chemical reactions that take place inside them. Water is also in the environment outside the cell. For example, water inside cells makes up about 46 percent of your body’s mass, and water outside the cells in body fluids accounts for another 23 percent.

 

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