HTHSCI 1LL3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Extracellular Fluid, Horse Length, Solution

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Health Sciences
• Course: HTHSCI 1LL3
• Professor: Teresa Mccurdy

Document Summary

Water is the solvent of life; it performs many functions: January 7, 2016 transport, component of chemical reactions and control of body temperature. Body water is almost constant at about 60 percent of our weight (40 l). We can go weeks without food but not very long without water. Adipose tissue contains little water, so obese individuals have less body water and children have more. Different tissues contain different amounts of water (see diagram). Lean muscle tissue contains a lot of water. 60 percent of water is intracellular and 40 percent of water(15l) is split between the interstitial fluid (between the cells) and the blood. It is important that water is in the right compartment it is supposed to be in. The polarity of water allows it to have many unique properties that other fluids cannot- allows substances to dissolve. The shared electrons of the h-o bond are attracted to the oxygen molecule.