What are the parts of the nervous system?

The nervous system has two main parts:

1 – Central nervous system (CNS): Your brain and spinal cord make up your CNS. Your brain reads signals from your nerves to regulate how you think, move and feel.

2 – Peripheral nervous system (PNS): Your PNS is made up of a network of nerves. The nerves branch out from your spinal cord. This system relays information from your brain and spinal cord to your organs, arms, legs, fingers and toes.

Your peripheral nervous system (PNS) is that part of your nervous system that lies outside your brain and spinal cord. It plays key role in both sending information from different areas of your body back to your brain, as well as carrying out commands from your brain to various parts of your body.

Some of those signals, like the ones to your heart and gut, are automatic. Others, like the ones that control movement, are under your control.

What’s the difference between the peripheral and central nervous systems?

Your nervous system consists of two main parts: your central nervous system and your peripheral nervous system.

Your central nervous system includes two organs, your brain and spinal cord.

Your peripheral nervous system is everything else and includes nerves that travel from your spinal cord and brain to supply your face and the rest of your body. The term “peripheral” is from the Greek word that means around or outside the center.

There are two parts to your peripheral nervous system:

• The somatic nervous system guides your voluntary movements.

Your somatic nervous system is a subdivision of your peripheral nervous system, which is all of your nervous system except your brain and spinal cord. Your somatic nervous system allows you to move and control muscles throughout your body. It also feeds information from four of your senses — smell, sound, taste and touch — into your brain.

• The autonomic nervous system regulates the activities you do without thinking about them (involuntary movements).

Your autonomic nervous system is a network of nerves throughout your body that control unconscious processes. These are things that happen without you thinking about them, such as breathing and your heart beating. Your autonomic nervous system is always active, even when you’re asleep, and it’s key to your continued survival.

Your autonomic nervous system is a part of your overall nervous system that controls the automatic functions of your body that you need to survive. These are processes you don’t think about and that your brain manages while you’re awake or asleep.

What does the nervous system look like?

Nerve cells (neurons) are the basis of your nervous system. There are 100 billion neurons in your brain. These cells connect throughout your entire body.

Imagine your nervous system as a tree. Your central nervous system is the trunk of the tree that contains your brain and spinal cord. The tree branches are your peripheral nervous system (nerves). The branches extend from the truck (brain and spinal cord) to reach all parts of your body.

Signs and symptoms of nervous system conditions vary by type but may include:

• Movement and coordination changes.
• Memory loss.
• Pain, numbness or a pins and needles feeling.
• Behavioral and mood changes.
• Difficulty with thinking and reasoning.
• Seizures.

Some conditions, like a stroke, are medical emergencies that need treatment quickly. If you notice the following symptoms, contact 911 or your local emergency services number:

• Muscle weakness or paralysis in one side of your body.
• Sudden vision loss.
• Slurred speech.
• Confusion.

“The nervous system is the major controlling, regulatory, and communicating system in the body. It is the center of all mental activity including thought, learning, and memory. Together with the endocrine system, the nervous system is responsible for regulating and maintaining homeostasis. Through its receptors, the nervous system keeps us in touch with our environment, both external and internal.

Like other systems in the body, the nervous system is composed of organs, principally the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and ganglia. These, in turn, consist of various tissues, including nerve, blood, and connective tissue. Together these carry out the complex activities of the nervous system.”

National Cancer Institute (https://training.seer.cancer.gov/anatomy/nervous/)

Your nervous system is your body’s command center. It’s made up of your brain, spinal cord and nerves. Your nervous system works by sending messages, or electrical signals, between your brain and all the other parts of your body. These signals tell you to breathe, move, speak and see, for example. Your nervous system keeps track of what’s going on inside and outside of your body and decides how to respond to any situation you’re in.

Your nervous system regulates complicated processes like thoughts and memory. It also plays an essential role in the things your body does without thinking, like blushing, sweating and blinking.

Your nervous system’s main function is to send messages from various parts of your body to your brain, and from your brain back out to your body to tell your body what to do. These messages regulate your:

• Thoughts, memory, learning and feelings.
• Movements (balance and coordination).
• Senses (how your brain interprets what you see, hear, taste, touch and feel).
• Wound healing.
• Sleep.
• Heartbeat and breathing patterns.
• Response to stressful situations, including sweat production.
• Digestion.
• Body processes, such as puberty and aging.

How does the nervous system work?

Your nervous system uses nerve cells called neurons to send signals, or messages, all over your body. These electrical signals travel among your brain, skin, organs, glands and muscles.

The messages help you move your limbs and feel sensations, like pain. Your eyes, ears, tongue, nose and the nerves all over your body take in information about your environment. Then, nerves carry that data to and from your brain.

There are different types of neurons. Each type of neuron has a different job:

• Motor neurons take signals from your brain and spinal cord to your muscles. They help you move. They also assist with breathing, swallowing and speaking.
• Sensory neurons take information from your senses (what you see, touch, taste, etc.) to your brain.
• Interneurons communicate between motor and sensory neurons. These neurons regulate your movement in response to sensory information (like moving away from a hot surface) and play a role in how you learn, think and remember.

“Endometriosis is derived from the word “endometrium,” which is the tissue that lines the uterus. Patients with endometriosis have endometrial-type tissue outside of the uterus.

Endometriosis Risk Factors:

Research shows that there are some things that put a person at higher risk of developing endometriosis, including having:

• A mother, sister or daughter who has endometriosis
• An abnormal uterus, which is diagnosed by a doctor
• Early menstruation (before age 11)
• Shorter menstrual periods (less than 27 days on average)
• Heavy menstrual periods lasting more than seven days

Some things that can lower the risk of endometriosis include:

• Pregnancy and breastfeeding
• Having your first period after age 14
• Eating fruits, especially citrus fruits

Endometriosis prevention:

Endometriosis is an idiopathic condition, meaning there is no known cause. There are also no specific ways to prevent endometriosis. However, being aware of the symptoms and whether you could be at higher risk can help you know when to discuss it with a doctor.

Endometriosis Stages:

Doctors classify endometriosis from stage 1 to stage 4. The stages are based on where endometrial tissue occurs in the body, how far it has spread and how much tissue is in those areas.

Having a more advanced stage of endometriosis does not always mean you will have more severe symptoms or more pain. Some women with stage 4 endometriosis have few or no symptoms, while those with stage 1 can have severe symptoms.

“Endometriosis affects roughly 10% (190 million) of reproductive age women and girls globally.

It is a chronic disease associated with severe, life-impacting pain during periods, sexual intercourse, bowel movements and/or urination, chronic pelvic pain, abdominal bloating, nausea, fatigue, and sometimes depression, anxiety, and infertility.

There is currently no known cure for endometriosis and treatment is usually aimed at controlling symptoms.

Access to early diagnosis and effective treatment of endometriosis is important, but is limited in many settings, including in low- and middle-income countries.”

World Health Organization WHO (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/endometriosis)

What is Endometriosis?

The uterus is a female reproductive organ located between the bladder and the rectum, in the pelvic area. The uterus has three layers: the inner lining (endometrium); the middle muscular layer (myometrium); and the outer layer (perimetrium). The uterus is connected to the fallopian tubes, the cervix and (via the cervix) the vagina.

Endometriosis is a painful, chronic disease that affects at least 6.3 million women and girls in the U.S., 1 million in Canada, and millions more worldwide. It occurs when tissue like that which lines the uterus (tissue called the endometrium) is found outside the uterus.  The symptoms occur during menses and the endometrial tissue outside the uterus will be painful like the uterus cramps due to the period.

What Causes Endometriosis?

The cause of endometriosis is unknown. The retrograde menstruation theory (transtubal migration theory) suggests that during menstruation some of the menstrual tissue backs up through the fallopian tubes, implants in the abdomen, and grows.  Some experts believe that all women experience some menstrual tissue backup and that an immune system problem or a hormonal problem allows this tissue to grow in the women who develop endometriosis.

Another theory suggests that endometrial tissue is distributed from the uterus to other parts of the body through the lymph system or through the blood system. A genetic theory suggests that it may be carried in the genes in certain families or that some families may have predisposing factors to endometriosis.

Surgical transplantation has also been cited in many cases where endometriosis is found in abdominal scars, although it has also been found in such scars when accidental implantation seems unlikely.

Another theory suggests that remnants of tissue from when the woman was an embryo may later develop into endometriosis, or that some adult tissues retain the ability they had in the embryo stage to transform reproductive tissue in certain circumstances.

Research by the Endometriosis Association revealed a startling link between dioxin (TCCD) exposure and the development of endometriosis. Dioxin is a toxic chemical byproduct of pesticide manufacturing, bleached pulp and paper products, and medical and municipal waste incineration. The EA discovered a colony of rhesus monkeys that had developed endometriosis after exposure to dioxin. 79% of the monkeys exposed to dioxin developed endometriosis, and, in addition, the more dioxin exposure, the more severe the endometriosis.

Endometriosis tissus found outside of the uterus:

• Outside and back of your uterus.
• Fallopian tubes.
• Ovaries.
• Vagina.
• Peritoneum (the lining of your abdomen and pelvis).
• Bladder and ureters.
• Intestines.
• Rectum.
• Diaphragm (a muscle near the bottom of your chest that plays an important role in breathing).
• Less commonly they are found in the lung, arm, thigh, and other locations.

This misplaced tissue develops into growths or lesions which respond to the menstrual cycle in the same way that the tissue of the uterine lining does: each month the tissue builds up, breaks down, and sheds. Menstrual blood flows from the uterus and out of the body through the vagina, but the blood and tissue shed from endometrial growths has no way of leaving the body. This results in internal bleeding, breakdown of the blood and tissue from the lesions, and inflammation — and can cause pain, infertility, scar tissue formation, adhesions, and bowel problems.

Pain before and during period: Pain with sex, Infertility, Fatigue, Painful urination during periods, Painful bowel movements during periods and Other Gastrointestinal upsets such as diarrhea, constipation, nausea.

In addition, many women with endometriosis suffer from:

• Allergies
• Chemical sensitivities
• Frequent yeast infections

Diagnosis:

Diagnosis is considered uncertain until proven by laparoscopy, a minor surgical procedure done under anesthesia. A laparoscopy usually shows the location, size, and extent of the growths. This helps the doctor and patient make better treatment choices.

“U.S. adult women age 18 and older (33%) are more likely than men (27%) to wake up every night and more likely to stay up late every night (31% vs. 20%).

How well do you sleep? 

When you go to bed do you wake up to the slightest noise (car going by the house, a dog barking outside, the heat going on or the cat fight outside)?  I know I do and have for years; unfortunately the slightest noise wakes me up, even a pin dropping to the floor. I probably live on 5 to 6 hours of sleep a day.  Some people even feel when they are scrambling to meet the countless demands of their day, cutting back on sleep might seem like the only answer. Who can afford to spend so much time sleeping, anyway? The truth is you can’t afford not to. Even minimal sleep loss takes a toll on your mood, energy, and ability to handle stress. By understanding your nightly sleep needs and what you can do to bounce back from chronic sleep loss, you can finally get on a healthy sleep schedule or pattern.

Sleep deprivation

Many of us try to sleep as little as possible. There are so many things that seem more interesting or important than getting a few more hours of sleep, but just as exercise and nutrition are essential for optimal health and happiness, so is sleep. The quality of your sleep directly affects the quality of your waking life, including your mental sharpness, productivity, emotional balance, creativity, physical vitality, and even your weight. No other activity delivers so many benefits with so little effort!

According to the National Institutes of Health, the average adult sleeps less than seven hours per night. In today’s fast-paced society, six or seven hours of sleep may sound pretty good. In reality, though, it’s a recipe for chronic sleep deprivation.

Remember sleep deprivation can affect you like a drunk.  This could be many symptoms like fatigue, lethargy, lack of motivation, moodiness and irritability, reduced creativity and problem-solving skills, inability to cope with stress, reduced immunity; frequent colds and infections, concentration and memory problems, weight gain, impaired motor skills, increased risk of accidents, difficulty making decisions to even increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems.

 On your average sleep schedule there is a big difference between the amount of sleep you allow yourself to get so you can make it through each day compared to the amount you need to function optimally. Just because you’re able to operate on seven hours of sleep doesn’t mean you wouldn’t feel a lot better and get more done if you spent an extra hour or two in bed.

While sleep requirements vary slightly from person to person, most healthy adults need between seven and a half to nine hours of sleep per night to function at their best. Children and teens need even more. And despite the notion that our sleep needs decrease with age, older people still need at least seven and a half to eight hours of sleep. Since older adults often have trouble sleeping this long at night, daytime naps can help fill in the gap.

The best way to figure out if you’re meeting your sleep needs is to evaluate how you feel as you go about your day. If you’re logging enough hours, you’ll feel energetic and alert all day long, from the moment you wake up until your regular bedtime.

Consistency doing the following measures is the key to prevent sleep deprivation: Settle short-term sleep debt with an extra hour or two per night, Keep a sleep diary, Take a sleep vacation to pay off a long-term sleep debt, finally you must make sleep a priority.

Understanding sleep

Sleep isn’t exactly a time when your body and brain shut off. While you rest, your brain stays busy, overseeing a wide variety of biological maintenance that keeps your body running in top condition, preparing you for the day ahead. Without enough hours of restorative sleep, you won’t be able to work, learn, create, and communicate at a level even close to your true potential. Regularly skimp on “service” and you’re headed for a major mental and physical breakdown.

The good news is that you don’t have to choose between health and productivity. As you start getting the sleep you need, your energy and efficiency will go up. In fact, you’re likely to find that you actually get more done during the day than when you were skimping on shuteye.

It’s not just the number of hours in bed that’s important—it’s the quality of those hours of sleep. If you’re giving yourself plenty of time for sleep, but you’re still having trouble waking up in the morning or staying alert all day, you may not be spending enough time in the different stages of sleep.

Each stage of sleep in the sleep cycle offers benefits to the sleeper. However, deep sleep (Stage N3) and REM sleep are particularly important.  Learn more about the stages of sleep tomorrow and maybe it will help you strive for better health!