Body Fluids
Question 1. Composition of body fluids.
Answer.
Total water in the body is about 40 L. It is distributed into two major compartments:
- Intracellular fluid (ICF): Its volume is 22 L, and it forms 55% of the total body water.
- Extracellular fluid (ECF): Its volume is 18 ,L and it forms 45% of the total body water.
ECF is divided into 5 subunits:- Interstitial fluid and lymph (20%)
- Plasma (7.5%)
- Fluid in bones (7.5%)
- Fluid in dense connective tissues like cartilage (7.5%)
- Transcellular fluid (2.5%) that includes:
- Cerebrospinal fluid
- Intraocular fluid
- Digestive juices
- Serous fluid – intrapleural fluid, pericardial fluid, and peritoneal fluid
- Synovial fluid in joints
- Fluid in the urinary tract.
Body Fluids: Types, Functions, and Composition
Volume of interstitial fluid is about 12 L. Volume of plasma is about 2.75 L. Volume of other subunits of ECF is about 3.25 L. Water moves between different Compartments.
Question 2. Functions and requirements of water.
Answer.
Importance (Functions) of Water
- It acts as a carrier of nutritive elements to tissues and removes waste materials from tissues.
- It provides the media in which chemical reactions of the body take place.
- The fluidity of blood is because of water.
- It is the solvent for electrolytes and regulates the electrolytic balance of the body. It maintains the equilibrium of osmotic pressure extended by the solutes dissolved in water.
- It is a regulator of body temperature, because of its high specific heat, it can absorb or give off heat without any appreciable change in temperature. Also, because of its high latent heat, it provides the mechanism for the regulation of heat loss by sensible (sweating) and insensible (through the respiratory tract) perspiration.
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