Anatomy

• Ligaments appear as crisscross bands that attach bone to bone and help stabilize joints.
• Tendons, located at each end of a muscle, attach muscle to bone.
• The Achilles tendon is the largest tendon in the body. It attaches the calf muscle to the heel bone. 
• When a ligament is overstretched or torn, it results in what’s technically known as a sprain. Sprains commonly happen in the ankle, knee, or wrist.
• When a tendon is overstretched or torn, it’s known as a strain. Common areas affected by strains are the leg, foot, and back.
• largest organ of the human body

  skin
• smallest organ of the human body

  pineal gland
• largest cell in the female human body

  
  

  ovum
• largest cell in the male body

  neuron
• largest internal organ


  liver
• largest gland in the human body

  liver
• the smallest gland in the human body

  pineal gland
• longest nerve


  sciatic nerve
• smallest nerve


  trochlear nerve
• the longest and strongest bone

  femur
• spleen


  RBC graveyard
• Homeostasis


  Existence and maintenance of a relatively constant environment within the body despite fluctuations in either the external/internal environment
• Most body cells are surrounded by a small amount of fluid, and normal cell functions depend on the maintenance of the cells' fluid environment within a narrow range of conditions (temp, volume, chemical content)
• Variables


  Conditions whose values can change
• Homeostasis


  • Maintenance of a variable, such as body temperature, around an ideal normal value, or set point
  • The value of the variable fluctuates around the set point to establish a normal range of values
• Homeostatic mechanisms


  1. Sweating or shivering

  2. Normally maintain body temperature near an ideal normal value/set point
• Most homeostatic mechanisms are governed by the nervous system or the endocrine system
• Homeostatic mechanisms are not able to maintain values precisely at the set point, instead they produce a normal range of values
• Anatomy


  Scientific discipline that investigates the structure of the body
• Physiology


  The scientific discipline that deals with the processes or functions of living things
• Physiology


  • Important to recognize structures as dynamic rather than fixed and unchanging
  • Major goals are to understand and predict the body's responses to stimuli and to understand how the body maintains conditions within a narrow range of values in the presence of continually changing internal and external environments
• Subdivisions of Physiology


  • Cellular Physiology
  • Systemic Physiology
• Structural levels of the human body

  • Chemical
  • Cell
  • Tissue
  • Organ
  • Organ system
  • Organism
• Chemical level


  Involves how atoms, such as hydrogen and carbon, interact and combine into molecules
• Cells


  • Basic structural and functional units of organisms
  • Molecules form organelles, such as the nucleus and mitochondria, which make up cells
• Tissue


  • Group of similar cells and the materials surrounding them
  • The characteristics of such determine the functions of the tissue
• Four primary types of Tissue

  • Epithelial
  • Connective
  • Muscle
  • Nervous
• Organ


  Composed of two or more tissue types that together perform one or more common functions
• Organ system


  Group of organs classified as a unit because of a common function or set of functions
• Eleven Major Organ Systems

  • Integumentary
  • Skeletal
  • Muscular
  • Lymphatic
  • Respiratory
  • Digestive
  • Nervous
  • Endocrine
  • Cardiovascular
  • Urinary
  • Reproductive
• Organism


  Any living thing considered as a whole – whether composed of one cell (bacterium) or of trillions of cells (human)
• Six essential characteristics of life

  • Organization
  • Metabolism
  • Responsiveness
  • Growth
  • Development
  • Reproduction
• The coordinated activity of the organ systems is necessary for normal function
• The most important feature of all organisms is life
• Living things are highly organized