To provide oxygen to the body, blood flows through the heart in a path formed by the right atrium → right ventricle → lungs → left atrium → left ventricle → body. When blood enters the right side of the heart it is deoxygenated. It enters the left side of the heart oxygenated after traveling to the lungs.

Capillaries are small thin-walled vessels that permit the exchange of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and waste between blood and the body's cells. This process of exchange is called diffusion.

After air enters through the nose, it passes through the nasal cavity which filters, moistens, and warms it. Further filtering takes place in the pharynx, which also helps protect against infection, and then in the trachea which is just past the epiglottis, responsible for preventing food from entering the airway.

In the mesosphere, temperature again drops as altitude increases until the coldest point in the Earth's atmosphere, the mesopause, is reached where temperatures fall to −225 °F (−143 °C).

Food is mixed with gastric acid and pepsin in the stomach to help break down protein.