RESPIRATORY system QUESTION??!
Question: Runners are competing in a long-distance marathon. During the marathon, oxygen requirements and carbon dioxide production change. Explain how the respiratory system maintains the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood.
Answers: Runners are competing in a long-distance marathon. During the marathon, oxygen requirements and carbon dioxide production change. Explain how the respiratory system maintains the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood.
Many people today are interested in exercise as a way of improving their health and physical abilities. But there is also concern that too much exercise, or exercise that is not appropriate for certain individuals, may actually do more harm than good. Exercise has many short-term (acute) and long-term effects that the body must be capable of handling for the exercise to be beneficial. When we exercise, our heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and cardiac output (the amount of blood pumped per heart beat) all increase. Blood flow to the heart, the muscles, and the skin increase. The body's metabolism becomes more active, producing CO2 and H+ in the muscles. We breathe faster and deeper to supply the oxygen required by this increased metabolism. Eventually, with strenuous exercise, our body's metabolism exceeds the oxygen supply and begins to use alternate biochemical processes that do not require oxygen. These processes generate lactic acid, which enters the blood stream. As we develop a long-term habit of exercise, our cardiac output and lung capacity increase, even when we are at rest, so that we can exercise longer and harder than before. Over time, the amount of muscle in the body increases, and fat is burned as its energy is needed to help fuel the body's increased metabolism.