Wednesday, October 26, 2005

testing 1,2,3

i have an exam this thursday.. and i'm not quite ready for it.. so i should be studying. and i'm not.. because i don't want to..
this stuff is pretty interesting...
we learned that you can't give someone who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) more then 2 liters of oxygen per minute.. there's an interesting reason why.... in normal people the level of carbon dioxide is what gives us our instinct to breath.. people who have COPD have abnormally high amounts of carbon dioxide in their blood... since these people always have higher levels, their body no longer breaths in response to the levels of carbon dioxide... so.. it's low levels of oxygen that trigger the breathing response in COPD patients.. if we were to give them high levels of oxygen, their breathing response would no longer be triggered.. and they would stop breathing..
i know this seems stupid.. but it's great.. just think of how adaptable the body is..
the body is always trying to maintain balance.. and when something is broken.. a back up system kicks in.. it's amazing.. nerdy.. but amazing..

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