Anatomy vs. Physiology

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"Anatomy (structure) and physiology (function) are very closely connected. Explain how the two are related and give an example of how a physician, nurse, or allied health professional would use this information to deliver quality care." "As a science, anatomy is often defined as the study of the structure of an organism and the relationships of its parts." "Physiology is the study of the functions of living organisms and their parts." Both of the above statements are pulled directly from the very first paragraph in our reading material. As anatomy is the study of the structure of an organism and physiology is the study of the functions of the said structure, the way that the two are related is that it would be impossible to have one without the other. For physiology to exist you have to first have anatomy. To me, and this is just a lamen explanation of course, it's kind of like the chicken and the egg. You couldn't have the egg without the chicken yet you couldn't have the chicken if there were no egg! That being said, as a health care provider it would be important to have a good understanding of both sciences because not only would they have to diagnose what part of the body is affected, but also what functions are related and affected as well. If an athlete were to come into a clinic stating that they have pain in their right leg the health care provider would first have to determine what part of that leg was directly affected (experiencing pain). Once that was identified they would need to see what fuction of that leg was affected as well. There are more functions of the leg than mobility obviously. There could be an artery that were obstructed causing pain in the leg but that wouldn't necessarily mean that the leg itself was the problem. Arteries go to and from the heart. In a case such as this, the health care provider would need to move their focus to
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