Relationship Between Respiratory And Circulatory System

The Relationship between Circulatory and Respiratory Systems Your Name Your Institution of Affiliation April 22, 2018 The combination of the Respiratory and the Circulatory Systems functions as a crucial pathway for the exchange of gases within our body. On one hand, it helps absorb oxygen and distribute all over the body in a process more commonly known as Inhalation. On the other hand, it also functions as a way to release Carbon Dioxide, which is a by-product of cellular respiration outside of the body, a process which we refer to as exhalation. While this comprises the general overview of the whole process, the specifics of it are rather complicated. Thus, in this paper a more specific discussion would be made on how the two systems help each other in completing this process. Other aspects such as Fick’s law and Oxygen loading would also be discussed in the succeeding sections. Lastly, these particularities would be used to analyze some of the common applications of knowledge about how respiration works, that is, respiration and oxygen loading before exercise. All in all, the author of this paper knows that by having a thorough knowledge about how respiration works, it could then be applied towards daily practices to improve one’s life. The Gas Exchange Despite of the numerous functions that the respiratory system has such as speaking and smelling, its most critical function is breathing. This process called respiration starts as the expansion of the person’s diaphragm – a dome-shape muscle beneath the lungs – causes the pressure in the lungs to decrease and let air flow from the nostrils towards it. As the decrease in pressure causes the air to fill-up the lungs, thousands of small air sacs called alveoli, facilitates the entry of the oxygen into the bloodstream CITATION Smi16 \l 1033 (Smith, 2016). The crucial function of the alveoli lies in its very structure and composition, which makes it easier for the diffusion of both gases from within and towards the outside of the system. As governed by Fick’s law, these structures which are comprised of thin permeable membrane makes it possible to exchange gases through the differences in concentration between both sides of the alveoli walls CITATION Oxy \l 13321 (BBC.co.uk, n.d.). In turn, these sacs are connected to larger structures such as the bronchioles and bronchi, respectively. However, despite being a part of the respiratory system, the alveoli’s functions are greatly helpful for the Circulatory system, for it is the structure where oxygen enters the blood stream. Consequently, oxygen’s entry into the ...