Dehydration - the Cell Membrane ( AKA Plasma Membrane or AKA Cytoplasmic Membrane)
Dehydration - the Cell Membrane ( AKA Plasma Membrane or AKA Cytoplasmic Membrane)
What is the cell membrane? ( The skin on our bodies is a membrane. Roofers place a membrane on roofs to protect the interior from outside elements. ) In my blog post from last Friday ( What is the Definition of Hydration? ) the image shows small red pin-head-like proteins with tails ( lipid bilayer ).
This illustrates that the cell membrane is not a solid structure. It is made up of individual parts which hang out tightly together.
The cell membrane contains many 'locks' or tunnels that allow various substances to enter into or leave out of the interior of the cell ( the orange and purple part of the illustration ). If a substance, such as a molecule, does not 'match' the proper lock/tunnel then it is not allowed entry.
Some substances permeate via this lock/tunnel mechanism OR some enter via simple absorption… in other words, they don’t need a specific lock/tunnel to enter ( the green molecule ). When a substance is able to enter into the cell this is termed INTRACELLULAR. Anything outside of the cell membrane is termed extracellular.
Unfortunately, so many very small molecule substances easily are able to absorb into cells which many feel includes chemicals, pollutants, and pathogens. Many believe that on an energetic level even our negative emotions can be stored at the cellular-level.
I am able to only show one image per blog post. Since I have the cell image on last Friday's blog today I am showing the tennis court net as a visual demonstration of the ability of small items to enter through the net ( AKA membrane ) while larger items cannot.
My main goal in showing this net and some of the other images in the future is that most of us are not strong with scientific or biology terms. This blog is meant to explain in layman's terms and visualization the complicated function of hydration and why this is so vital to all of us (and our pets!).
