While studying in the library a few days ago, I decided to reward myself with short study break and took a magazine from the bookshelf that was behind me. As I was skimming through it, I found an interesting article called Whatever Works. It was about a man who seems to enjoy running because he was devastated when he found out he might not be able to run ever again. Unfortunately, he injured his Achilles tendon while doing a six mile run one day. He looked up all sorts of treatments that he could do so that he could be up and running soon. It's ironic how he mentioned that websites such as WebMD and mayoclinic.com were too scientific for him to understand. Instead, he searched for blog sites.
This article helped me appreciate the wonderful function of muscle tissue. Skeletal, smooth, and cardiac muscle tissue all work in a synchronized manner. The fibers of skeletal muscle contract causing muscle to shorten. The contraction cycle is a fast and continuous cycle that involves different structures including: actin, myosin, troponin, tropomyosin, and myosin. It is initiated when a nerve impulse arrives at a neuromuscluar junction, then acetylcholine is released and causes depolarization of the cell. Calcium channels open and allow calcium to flow into the cell, bind to troponin, and permit tropomyosin to shift so that myosin can bind to actin and create a cross- bridge. As nerve impulses continue to depolarize the cell, contraction will continue.
http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/301notes3.htm
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