Medical Assistant Prep / Unit 2 MAS 045 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Processes of Life
The idea
Living things share a set of basic processes, and in the body they all work together to keep a person alive.
In practice
The first five processes are organization, where every part has its own job; metabolism, the chemical reactions that break down and build up; responsiveness, sensing a change and reacting to it; movement, from molecules to whole limbs; and reproduction, of cells and of people. The next five are growth, an increase in size; differentiation, where unspecialized cells become specialized tissues; respiration, the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide; digestion, breaking food into molecules the body can absorb; and excretion, removing wastes the body cannot use.
Where people slip
These processes are not enough on their own. Life also depends on water, oxygen, nutrients, heat and pressure from the environment, which is why a problem with any of them quickly affects the whole body.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for Medical Assistant Prep