Pulse blood system blood distribution blood pressure

THE PULSE You have undoubtedly noted physicians-and perhaps you have done the same yourself-place a finger on the radial artery ,It the wrist to "take" the pulse. The pulse is caused by the impart of blood on the arteries as the heart beats. It provides useful information about the strength and regularity of blood flow. Generally, for a person in good health, the pulse may speed up from around 70 a minute to more than 120 after vigorous exercise, but then, within three minutes, should return to the original value. There may be some quite normal deviations from average beat, deviations too from the beat with vigorous exercise, and deviations from the average interval required for return to the pre-exercise rate. If you have any doubt in your own case, you should check with your physician.

BLOOD PRESSURE Blood pressure is the force exerted against the walls of arteries as blood flows through. With each contraction of the ventricles, which is called a systole, there is a spurt of blood and this increases blood pressure. During the art of the cycle when the ventricles are not contracting, called the diastole, the pressure decreases. Thus, there is always pressure of blood, highest during systole and called the systolic pressure, lowest during diastole and called diastolic pressure. These pressures can be readily measured with an instrument, the sphygmomanometer (see page 24). And, as the discussion under high blood pressure indicates (page 596), measurement of pressure is an important means of determining the health of the heart and circulatory system.

BLOOD DISTRIBUTION The circulation of blood-so often dismissed as "blood from the heart into the arteries, to the tissues, then back to the heart through the veins" -is, in the human body, a really intricate and marvelous process. For it is remarkably adaptable. When blood moves from the heart into the aorta, it is at a speed of about 15 inches a second. Almost immediately, distribution around the body begins through arteries branching off from the aorta. From the smallest arteries, even smaller vessels called arterioles branch out. From the arterioles, blood flows to the smallest of all vessels, the capillaries. The capillaries transport blood to individual cells; and through microscopic spaces in the capillary walls, oxygen and other supplies are diffused to the cells and, in return, waste materials move into the blood- stream. The capillaries connect with venules, tiny vessels of the venous return system, which run into veins. The veins carry the blood to the great venae cavae, large vessels which empty into the right atrium of the heart.  

The Skull and Spinal Column

THE SKULL The skull is made up of 22 flat or irregular bones. Fourteen are facial, including those for cheeks, jaw, and upper bridge of the nose. Air spaces, or sinuses, in many of the facial bones serve to reduce the weight of the skull. Eight bones form the cranium, which protects the brain. There are additional bones in the head area: the hyoid, to which are attached the muscles that move the tongue; and the auditory ossicles .

In the middle ear-hammer, anvil and stirrup-which respond to sound waves hitting the eardrum with a lever action that transmits the waves to the inner ear.

THE SPINAL COLUMN The spinal column-a flexible stack of vertebrae-serves to support the head and trunk and also to protect the spinal cord, which extends down- ward from the brain. Each vertebra is shaped like a circle with the back side of the circle made up of a solid cylinder of bone. Running through the hollow part of the circle, the spinal cord shoots out branches of nerves that go to various parts of the body. As they stack toward the skull, the vertebrae gradually decrease in size. The vertebra just above the sacrum at the base is a heavy, large bone with large projections on each side and at the back, to which muscles and ligaments are attached. At the base of the skull, the top vertebra is a delicate bony ring with small protuberances. Between each vertebra and the next is a spinal disk-a circular cushion of connective tissue and cartilage about one-half-inch thick. Each disk has several layers of tough, fibrous rings and a softer nucleus in the center. 

Addictive smoking and how to quit it? dangers of addictive smoking

ADDICTIVE SMOKING

If you are this type of smoker, you are in- variably aware any time you are not smoking. The lack of a cigarette even briefly builds need, desire, and discomfort. You may enjoy a cigarette only very briefly, if at all, but suffer for lack of one. Tapering off may not work. The only solution may be to quit cold.

Once you have gone through the pain of breaking your psychological addiction, you are not likely to go back to smoking again. Some addictive smokers find it helpful to do just the reverse of tapering off during the week before the day, actually doubling their smoking, forcing themselves to smoke until their bodies revolt against the double dose of tar and nicotine. 

That Last Week In the week before Q day, go over your reasons for not smoking: the disease risk, the cost, the cough, the bad breath, the bad taste, etc. Each evening, before falling asleep, concentrate on one dire result of smoking: repeat and repeat that fact and another the next night, etc.

Remind yourself all during the week of some clearly established facts: that if you keep on smoking, you risk losing six and a half years of life; if you smoke heavily, and you have twice the chance of dying between 25 and 65 as a nonsmoker. 

Are the six minutes of pleasure, if such they really be, in a cigarette worth six fewer minutes of life? Consider that 100,000 American doctors have quit cigarette smoking. Q day On Q day, you get up-and' don't smoke. You may find it helpful to drink water often; to nibble fruit, celery, carrots; to suck candy mints or chew gum. You may resort mild good if it helps-to chewing bits of fresh ginger or biting a clove when you start reaching for a cigarette.