The more we learn about the human body and organs, we realize just like the psalmist David that we are such a wonderful creature. “I praise you that I am such a wonderful creature” (Psalm 139: 14) exclaimed the psalmist David. And if we examine this statement simply by looking at the structure of the human body. In this article, we will discuss mainly the subject of the functions of the human body.
The Human Body And Organs
An organ is a structural and functional entity composed of different tissues endowed with complementary capacities and exerting a specific function but having meaning only within a system called apparatus.
A bone is a hard structure, composed of many minerals and constituting the skeleton of all vertebrates, including the human being.
Let’s now focus on the functions of the human body. We will see 6 functions.
1 – The Human Body And Organs – Excretion
Excretion is the action by which certain organs of the body reject solids or liquids.
Our body has a body that can evacuate mainly solids (feces).
This organ is the anus; it is located at the end of the rectum which is the terminal part of the large intestine.
The liquid matters are evacuated by the kidneys and more secondarily by the skin and the lungs.
The kidneys truly ensure the internal balance of the liquids that circulate in the body.
By urinary analysis, we will be able to have a fairly accurate idea of the internal functioning of the body.
The kidneys will remove certain substances from the blood such as urea, uric acid, ammonia, sodium, potassium, calcium.
On the other hand, other substances such as carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins will normally be stored in the blood.
Both kidneys will permanently filter the blood. They will see every minute about 1.2 liters of blood and after one day will reject between one and two liters of urine depending on individual consumption.
The functions of excretion are absolutely necessary for the survival of man. Indeed, if for example the kidneys stop working, in a few hours the blood will be “poisoned” and the person will die, if no care is brought to him.
The Principle of Balance
The principle of balance is simple. We must keep the elements and substances that are necessary for life and reject those that are useless or that will encumber and then harm the different functions of the body.
This equilibrium principle is to be transposed to our emotional and mental bodies. I must bring them the elements that are necessary for their well-being.
Feelings like love, friendship, joy will tend to reinforce the balance of the emotional body.
Logic thoughts, well ordered, deeply meditated will strengthen the balance of the mental body.
However, these bodies will have to do a job of eliminating, rejecting emotional or mental “substances” that are harmful to my balance.
Example
If, for example, a person is physically or verbally assaulted, there will be a significant emotional discharge because of the fear that will be generated or the emotional mechanisms that will be mobilized to respond to this aggression.
After this aggression, for a while, the person will not feel quite well, quite on his plate. She will have to do a job of cleaning the emotional body by rejecting outside herself these feelings of fear, anger, desire for revenge …
This work will be completed if the previous balance has been fully recovered. In the case of trauma, it can take weeks or even years to eliminate the emotional consequences of certain events.
One of the means used by psychoanalysts is to orient and make their patients talk to bring back to the surface of consciousness the traumas that have been buried in their memory, their subconscious.
These traumas, which are passed to the background of consciousness, will continue to generate a person’s pain, which will be hard for them to accept and explain. This may be the case with unexplained phobias such as claustrophobia, fear of spiders, destructive behavior, or self-destruction …
To ensure a good balance of our emotional and mental bodies, it will be necessary to bring them the right necessary and avoid cluttering them with useless solicitations.
2 – The Human Body And Organs – Digestion
In the Middle Ages, the human body was poorly known, but now the discoveries of medicine have revealed to us the inner workings of the human “machine”.
I will try to show the relationships that exist between the great functions of the body and the parallel that can be established with the emotional, mental, and spiritual development of each individual.
Digestion starts from the mouth with foods that are chewed and then swallowed and ends with the anus with feces.
The problem with our digestive organs is that we can separate the nutrients from the food and the things that are not necessary for us and that has to be rejected. Nutrients are separated by different chemical processes (acids, bases, enzymes, bile …) into simpler elements and directly assimilated to the level of the intestine.
The Comparison of Digestive Function with Our Emotional and Mental Bodies
We can draw the parallel of this function with respect to our emotional and mental bodies that receive a flow of information through our senses and who must assimilate them by separating this information by usable units of information and rejecting those that do are not in agreement with the individual or who cannot help him in his task.
The information that will be assimilated will be classified and integrated into the emotional and mental memory of the person.
An Example of an Old Lady Event
An old lady is in the street and sees a young child cross the road distractedly without looking around.
A car that is right in front tries to avoid the child and gives a sudden brake and steering wheel.
This reflex is insufficient and the car hit the side of the child. The child is projected a few meters and seems inanimate.
The young woman in the car gets out of her trembling vehicle and heads for the child on the ground. Everyone who has been to the scene is running for first aid. A few minutes later the police arrive and try to clear the road and organize the rescue. An ambulance arrives and two men come out with a stretcher and quickly take the child to the nearest hospital.
The old lady who attended the whole scene is still all pensive and in shock. She tries to replay in her memory the entire course of this event by trying to understand.
This child was at most three years old, how is it that the parents are not there? What drove this child to cross the road?
Did I have time to intervene, to shout to avoid this tragedy?
We see through this emotionally charged example, all the observation work of this old lady who attends the helpless stage, then we guess the inner work of this person to try to find meaning, explanations to all that she just lives.
This work will not stop there. For long days, the old lady will remember the event and integrate somehow the emotional shock. She will need to talk about it to her family. She will also try to hear from this child by interviewing people in the neighborhood.
We Also Note in a Number of Cases Dysfunctions of the Digestive System
These problems can have different origins:
– Excess food
– Absorption of food or harmful substances.
– Defects of food preservation with bacterial or viral contamination.
– Problems of allergy or intolerance…
Our emotional and mental bodies can be as indisposed or sick by the nature of the information that solicits them.
A child, for example, can be greatly disturbed if his senses are overworked as with certain computer games; if he attends a fight between his parents, or if he sees horror or violent films. He may be momentarily “tainted” by television commercials that will push him to scream for the latest fashionable toy.
There may be forms of intolerance, called phobias, like fear of spiders.
3 – The Human Body And Organs – the Circulation
We have just seen digestion whose main function is to bring the necessary energy to our body.
These energy elements will enter the blood and will be distributed throughout the body, thanks to a central organ that is the heart.
We can make an analogy between the heart and the sun which distributes the light and heat on earth as well as to all the planets of the solar system.
The entire network of veins, arteries, and heart is only present to ensure the use of this energy by all the cells of our body. Organs like the liver and pancreas will work together to store the energy and then distribute it gradually as needed.
Glucose, under the action of insulin, will undergo a transformation and will be stored as glycogen mainly in the liver and muscles. The glucose will then be used, then transformed into mechanical energy by the muscles or heat by all the cells. It will eventually be degraded into water and carbon dioxide.
If glucose is insufficiently present, then it is the fats and proteins that will be used and degraded to produce the necessary energy.
The Parallel with the Emotional Body and the Mental Body
We will now look at the parallel between the emotional body and the mental body. We can observe that if the external solicitations cross the barrier of the senses and the consciousness of waking then these solicitations will interfere with the present emotional and mental state. They will be at the origin of the emotional and mental “wave” circulation in the whole envelope of the corresponding bodies.
These waves will vary in intensity, frequency, and duration and will be integrated into the person’s memory as an additional life experience.
An Example of a Woman Whose Husband Is on a Military Mission
I will take the example of a woman who has just received a letter from the man who is dear to her and whom she has not been able to see for several weeks because he is a soldier and was sent on a mission to Chad.
This letter she was waiting for, she discovered it in the mailbox and took a little time before opening it; she looks at writing; yes, it is “his” writing no doubt and the stamp indicates that this letter comes from Africa. She rushes to her home, beating her heart and takes a knife, and delicately cuts the envelope. She sits down, pulls the letter out of her envelope, unfolds it, and begins reading the text on the first sheet. “Gisele my love, I take a little time to write to you, I cannot bear this distance and I hope with all my heart to be able to return in less than a fortnight… Charles who loves you »
Gisèle is now reassured because all is well for Charles but the time seems still very long, too long; she does not know if she can wait; but what to do?
We can easily imagine the emotional states that Gisele goes through when she discovers the letter, then when she becomes aware of its content.
The Heart Is in Close Relationship with Your Emotions
She knows first the surprise, then the joy, the curiosity to discover this new letter; she participates in reading Charles’s feelings when he wrote his text. Then at the end of the reading, these feelings are mixed, she is happy that everything goes well for him, but the time, the waiting that is necessary plunges her into a sadness, a gloom. It will take a little time before she finally manages to get back on top to do her daily tasks.
The heart, this central organ is also in close relationship with our emotions. The heart will beat faster if we have a sudden fear; if we are calm without special solicitation the heart rate will slow down.
In case of emotions such as shame or a feeling of guilt, an influx of blood will be done to the brain and make the person blush.
Fear, on the other hand, can make a person livid and cause discomfort, such as some people who see bleeding wounds.
Our Circulatory System Is Actually Strongly Associated with Our Emotions
If our emotions are strong, they will not spare our heart and if these emotions are repeated too often, we may eventually have heart problems.
Consequently, for our well-being, we must learn to regularize our positive or negative emotions so that they rarely exceed our individual limits.
4 – The Human Body And Organs – Reproduction
One of the great functions of the human body is the possibility that we have from a certain age, to procreate and thus to create a human being with a completely new body.
This creation normally requires the participation of people of both sexes, male and female.
These intimate people will conceive a child who will have half of the genetic heritage of each parent and who will be unique except in the case of true twins.
A sperm of the man will meet a woman’s egg and merging, the entire process of development of this new individual will begin. The fertilized egg will settle in the uterus and will cause a whole hormonal revolution in women.
For this reason, we can check quite quickly that the woman is pregnant by analyzing the urine that will contain the desired hormones.
A first cell will divide into two and this process of cell multiplication will proceed with a wonderful organization until the appearance of the fetus in the third month and continue until birth.
The Most Amazing in the Principle of Reproduction
What is amazing in the principle of reproduction is that two human beings with “old” cells will succeed in generating a being with “new” cells.
From an initial cell, the child will eventually have billions of cells all specialized in the body.
Another interesting aspect is that this little human being in the making will be fed, housed, protected for nine months in the breast of his mother.
His life will be closely associated with that of his mother.
I will now use the term “baby” rather than the term “fetus” which seems to be much less poetic.
If her mom uses harmful substances such as cigarettes or alcohol, the baby will suffer the consequences.
On the other hand, if the mother leads a balanced life, compared to her food, her activity, her sleep … then the baby will grow harmoniously.
The Baby Is Susceptible to All Aspect of the Environment
We also know that the baby is sensitive not only to the physical environment of the mother but also to the emotional and emotional environment that makes the future mother happy or unhappy, relaxed or stressed.
This will also be true if the mother at birth gives breast to her baby.
All this process of generation of a living being is a process of creation that is no longer under our control once the initial conception is made.
We can influence the growth of the baby well or badly, but we are not really in control.
The sex of the man is at one end of the spine, at the other end of the spine is the brain.
These two extremities form poles of vital energy of which we will speak a little later. Either the negative pole for sex and the positive pole for the brain.
With the brain, we also have creative possibilities, but these are the first mental, in the imagination, before materializing.
We can thus bring this faculty of imagination closer to the reproductive function that makes us creators both physically and mentally.
5 – The Human Body And Organs – Breathing
Breathing is the function that lets air in our lungs through inhalation and then makes us air a few seconds later by exhaling.
We have an incessant movement of inspiration and expiration from the beginning of our life from birth to death.
We will have had during our lifetime about 420 million breathing cycles (80 years of life) and 7 times more heartbeats.
From a physiological point of view, breathing will take the necessary oxygen and reject useless gases such as carbon dioxide or nitrogen.
The Oxygen Will Momentarily Bind to the Red Blood Cells
These will take up oxygen through the presence of iron in the hemoglobin of red blood cells.
Thanks to the blood oxygen will be transported throughout the body and will participate in a large number of biological processes. It will notably be at the origin of a process of “combustion” of the energy reserves of the body; this process will generate heat, water, and carbon dioxide, which will be partially evacuated by the lungs.
Instinctively we know how to regulate our breathing. If we voluntarily slow down this breathing then we have the impression of choking; if we speed up the breathing then we end up having vertigo and discomfort.
Our Breathing Will Accelerate Automatically
Our breathing will accelerate automatically in case of muscular effort because the oxygen demand is high if for example we run or we climb the steps of a staircase.
The rhythm of breathing will slow down as soon as we are calm or asleep.
The sensations and emotions that will go through us can in many cases affect the rhythm of breathing.
We will live for example a momentary stop of the breath in case of surprise or acceleration in case of fear.
On the mental aspect, the rhythm of breathing is fundamental; if we want to think with concentration, it is better to slow down breathing by inhaling and exhaling more deeply.
If we want to make a decision and act quickly it will accelerate breathing.
These movements of breathing are usually automatic, instinctively, without the need to participate consciously.
Unlike digestion, breathing can still be fully under our control during waking consciousness.
It becomes completely automatic during sleep.
The amount of oxygen that will feed our brain will have a strong influence on our mental abilities.
The Needs of the Brain for Oxygen Are Significant
The needs of the brain for oxygen are important; they account for about 20% of the total oxygen consumption while the weight of the brain is only 2% of the body weight.
Similarly, energy intake is given to the brain almost exclusively by glucose; the consumption of this sugar will represent the brain about 25% of the total consumption.
We can now understand that brain functions will be optimal if we have good oxygenation and correct maintenance of the blood glucose level. If we have significant variations in one of these two factors then we will “hurt” our brain and it will not return us the desired services.
6 – The Human Body And Organs – Locomotion
Locomotion is the faculty that allows moving from one place to another.
This locomotion is the result of the combined action of the nervous and muscular systems, which receives the voluntary electrical impulses, as well as the skeleton which is made mobile by these muscles.
Locomotion requires a long learning and complex coordination of movements and balance. For example, it is rare for children to walk confidently before the age of 12 months.
We have the ability to acquire reflexes that are managed in part by the spinal cord. These reflexes will greatly facilitate locomotion because we will not have to think every time to coordinate our movements, it will become automatic.
The Automatism of Movements Can Be Partially Lost If We Remain Lying down for Several Days
This automatism can be partially lost if for example we remain lying down for several days, it will then be necessary to redo exercises, a training to completely recover the former faculties.
Between the moment when the will is expressed to move for example in a room and the realization of this voluntary act, many seconds elapsed. We realize every time we want to move and take action, that it takes time, energy. To ride a hill on a bicycle, I will have to coordinate my movements on the pedals and activate the muscles of my legs with energy. After a few minutes, I will feel my body heat rise, also feel sweating manifest.
All movements and locomotion require voluntary impulses on the part of the person that requires special effort.
I know I have to give some energy to the bike so I can climb and climb the top of that hill.
All this shows me that any voluntary act is confronted with inertia, ie a time, an energy that must be spent before reaching its goal.
Every Act Is Conditioned Originally by a Desire
The absence of desire also implies the absence of any voluntary act.
So we have three steps in the action:
– The desire that surfaces on our emotional or mental bodies
– The action is taken to achieve the objective set
– Obtaining or not obtaining satisfaction or pleasure sought.
On the emotional level, we can guess the process quite well.
For example, a child sees a lollipop in another child’s mouth. He will want to suck a lollipop too because he guesses the pleasure that it could give him. He goes to the act, reaches out, pulls the pacifier to the other child, and finally the door to his mouth.
He will feel a certain pleasure until, of course, the other child makes him feel his discontent.
I Can Have a Similar Approach on the Mental Plane
I wonder what does 45 x 112; I take action and put the numbers on paper and run the process of calculation. I finish the operation and contemplate the result. This result is in line with my expectations and gives me the desired satisfaction. Of course here the notion of pleasure is much more subtle.
Movement and locomotion will be the means to bring about the will of an individual. If the will is weak, the person will have a lot of trouble satisfying his desires. If the will is strong, the person will be able to implement actions in the long term and will be able to satisfy in more or less time ambitions personal, family, professional…
If our wishes once expressed were satisfied immediately then we would not need to exercise that will. Fortunately, this is rarely the case; life will thus “arrange” to push us to develop our will and also our patience.
In relation to movements and locomotion, it will also seek a balance because any exaggeration will generate significant fatigue and any lack of activity may make us lymphatic, lazy, without enthusiasm.