The Role of the Neuromuscular System on Work and Exercise - Essay Example

Methodology The neuromuscular systems consist of the nerves and the muscles. The nerves control the functioning of the muscles by initiating their contraction and relaxation. This affects movement. The brain plays a major role in by controlling movement of skeletal muscles through specialized nerves. Ehen one wants to move a particular part of the body, the message is sent to the spinal cord which is a part of the central nervous system and the response is sent via the motor neuron to the effectors organ to cause movement. Each muscle is served by around 50 t0 200 motor neurons (Blottner & Salanova 2010). A nerve impulse from the brain travels through the nerve and cause the release of acetylcholine at the nerve junction. This chemical is picked by chemical receptors in the muscle that effect the movement. Question 1 Hypertensive individuals are treated with calcium blockers and catecholamine blockers. These drugs protect the hart from heart attacks by neither blocking the action of nor adrenaline which initiates the flight or fight response. They block the reception of stress hormones such as epinephrine weakening their effects. This reduces hypertension. Nevertheless, this also has some adverse effect on the individual because it blocks the absorption of calcium to the ones. As a result, the individual taking the treatment has a high risk of developing ostereoporosis. The motor skills of the patients are also adversely affected because of reduced calcium in the bones. As a result, this type of medicine is not good for physically active individuals or athletes as it affects their performance. This is because they block the uptake of oxygen and make exercise to be more strenuous. Some patients may even stop taking the drugs. Calcium channel blockers also have adverse effects on skeletal movements. They inhibit the movement of calcium inwards by slowed channels into the heart, blood vessels allowing the heart to pump blood more easily and increasing the width of the blood vessels. As such, the heart doe not strain in pumping blood lowering the blood pressure. Increase in intercellular concentration of calcium results in eccentric contraction that causes damage in the skeletal muscles by damaging the muscle protein structure (Blottner & Salanova 2010). The damage arises from increased resting calcium, profound loss of involuntary ad voluntary muscles and increase in intracellular calcium concentration. Question 2 Caffeine is a mild stimulant. It effects as a stimulant and affects brain activity. Caffeine is quickly absorbed by the body the moment it reaches the stomach. Once in the blood stream, it causes a number of responses. The pulse rate, blood pressure, and acid production in the stomach are increased. Stored fats are broken down ad released into the blood stream. However, after regular use, the body become tolerant to the use of caffeine and does not elicit these responses. Caffeine is reported to increase activity in athletes because of its ability to help I metabolism of glycogen. Glycogen is the second used source of energy during exercise. Caffeine encourages the use of fat as source of energy during exercise. This reduces the depletion of glycogen stored in the muscles and allows for prolonged exercise. As a result of the physiological effects of caffeine, it reduces the rate of fatigue during exercise. Athletes are advised to take caffeine before working out. The effectiveness of caffeine in exercise is during the first 15 minutes where it slows down the utilization of glycogen in the muscles by 50%. This amount og glycogen that is saved at this time is available for utilization during the later stages of exercise. On the other hand, caffeine has been reported to reduce performance in some athlete because it is a mild diuretic causing dehydration. Some individuals may also experience diarrhea and abdominal cramps caused by contractions of the large intestines. Since caffeine stimulates the production of adrenaline that causes the flight or fight response, it has serious side effect when it wears off the body. It causes headache, confusion, irritability and fatigue. As a result, one as to take additional caffeine to overcome these side effects (Moffat 2009). The more caffeine one takes, the less time it takes for the drug to wear off. The coding of caffeine this reduces with increase in usage. After using caffeine for a long time, the body reaches a state of adrenal exhaustion because of repeated stimulation. The adrenal gland may even burn out. The effect of caffeine in the body is similar to the effect of using drugs making Question 3 There are three main reasons that cause the feeling of lethargy in diabetes patients. This kind of exhaustion interferes with a person’s daily life. One of the most common causes of fatigue is low or high blood sugar level. Presence of high level of sugars in blood makes the blood impure. This reduces the uptake of oxygen in the body which is utilized to oxidize glucose to release energy. Moreover, high levels of sugar in blood cause fatigue through increased inflammation. A high level of sugar in blood inflames the blood vessels. During such an occurrence, oocytes which are the immune cells migrate to the brain causing fatigue. The reduced energy production makes one feel lethargic (Lu 2008). Low blood sugar level on the other hand has the same effect. Presence of reduced amount of glucose in the blood implies that there is no enough substrate for respiration hence the body produces reduced amounts of energy. Caffeine stimulates the production of adrenaline that causes the flight or fight response, it has serious side effect when it wears off the body. The withdrawal symptoms of using caffeine are bad and include severe headaches. A third major reason for increased fatigue is infection. People with diabetes are prone to different infections that they may not know about. It is possible that Dr. Hermann had a certain infection. As the immune system try to fight the infection, it causes fatigue to the body and may result in a raise in the blood sugar level. A good example of an infection that may go unnoticed is the urinary tract infections. Although these infections sometimes hurt, they often go unnoticed and have no symptoms except fatigue (Moffat 2009). Other causes that may have caused fatigue include the diabetes medication. Most diabetes medication cause fatigue and is usually indicated in the drug label. Poor sleeping habits and lack of sleep is also a source of fatigue. Sometimes a person may be too busy or too stressed to sleep and this causes general body lethargy. Taking too much carbohydrate, stress depression and overworking are other common causes of fatigue. Question 4 The two main components of power are muscular endurance and strength. Muscle endurance arises from the ability of the muscles to withstand resistance many times. Resistance arises from the body itself. Muscle endurance is measure by repeating a strenuous activity many times. The endurance of the upper part of the body is different from that of the lower part of the body. Strength involves the ability of the body to apply muscular force to overcome resistance during movement. It can be measure by the amount of weight that a person is able to life. The strength of the lower part of the body and the upper part of the body are measured differently. Strength is measured by comparing the weight of the body and the weight of what is being lifted. This is called the relative strength (Kraemer & Spiering 2008). For instance, if two people with different weight are able to lift the same weight, the person with lesser weight is said to have more strength. Athletes are curious to know the type of training that would maximize generation of force from muscles. Different researches have been conducted on animals such as horse. The mRNA in the muscles of a horse before training, during training and after training is examined in both acute and chronic forms of exercise. There has been reported significant differences in the amount of actins which shows that exercise factors have influence on delayed and immediate myofilament response to exercise. Researchers have also been conducted on human resistance to training. However, no correlation has been reported on myofilament production. These researches have however concluded that increase in muscular strength is as a result of fiber size and not increase in number of myofilament or number of muscle fibers (Kraemer & Spiering 2008). Acute exercise produces stiffer muscles that have greater strength and endurance due to increase in fiber size. In conclusion, different factors affect the neuromuscular systems. These includes factors that affect the functioning of the nerves, such as drugs, factor that influence the production of energy since the muscles are powered by energy and factor that influence the strength and endurance of the muscles such as exercise. Proper functioning of the neuromuscular system is thus achieved when all these factors are considered and perfected. References Blottner,Dieter & Salanova, Michele (2010). The NeuroMuscular System: From Earth to Space Life Science - Neuromuscular Cell Signalling in Disuse and Exercise. Springer Science and Business Media. Ju Lu. ( 2008). Connectomic Studies in Mammallian Neuromuscular System. Havard University: New York Kraemer, William & Spiering, Barry. (2008). Skeletal Muscle Physiology: Plasticity and Response to Exercise. Karger Miedical and Scientific Publisher: New York. Moffat, Marylln (2009). Neuromuscular Essentials: Applying the Preferred Physical Therapist Practice. Slack Incoporated: New York. Read More