The Significance of Homeostasis to the Human Body

This paper explores the main significances of homeostasis to the human body. The body’s substantial reason for the production of homeostasis is to maintain a constant internal environment making sure the body is stable and is functioning properly. The body maintains homeostasis for various distinctive aspects such as temperature and the ions in your blood for it to continue on being stable. In the human body, homeostasis includes the control of blood glucose concentration, body temperature, and water levels.

The brain is the powerhouse in the process of determining if the body needs certain functions to run.

This paper will examine the different features to maintain homeostasis and explain the responses to regulating certain issues in the human body. Responses of Homeostasis According to psychologists Modell, Cliff, Michael, McFarland, Wenderoth, and Wright (2015), “Claude Bernard asserted that complex organisms are able to maintain their internal environment [extracellular fluid (ECF)] fairly constant in the face of challenges from the external world”.

It basically states that the body psychologically adjusts itself due to different circumstances depending on its environment. For instance, just like a car, you have the driver which in this example would be the control center, upholding the speed limit which is the setpoint, and the usage of the accelerator would be the effector in order to standardize the speed/body. Homeostasis performs an internal setpoint, especially in the blood pressure. Eventually when the body gets too high/low blood pressure homeostasis kicks in and typically the body alters the set point or normalizes to how it was before.

The reason for that is that the body no longer comprehends the new blood pressure elevation as abnormal unless through a negative feedback loop. A negative feedback loop by definition is used to maintain homeostasis and accomplish the body’s setpoint. For instance, if the blood level is too high the body releases hormones to decrease those levels. And if the blood level is too low then the body releases other hormones to increase the blood levels.

Homeostasis Activation in High versus Low Temperature In our body, human body temperature is controlled by the thermoregulatory center in the hypothalamus. Actually, the Renal Research Institute conducted a research on temperature control which stated that “Control of body temperature and temperature homeostasis is achievable by the physiologic feedback control system realized in the temperature control mode…” (Schneditz, Ronco, and Levin, 2003) Which depending on whether its high or low temperature the body goes through two different cycles. To illustrate, if the temperature is high the first start of the cycle would be that the thermoregulatory center stimulates a cooling mechanism.

Secondly, the skin blood vessels will expand meaning that the heat diverges from the skin surface or the sweat glands will start producing sweat to cool the exterior. Eventually, the body temperature decreases which will turn the cooling mechanism off. While when the temperature decreases the body develops a new cycle of heating the body. This is where again the cycle commences with the thermoregulatory triggering the warming mechanisms. Next, the skin vessels would tighten, sidetracking the blood from the skin to the deeper tissues to condense heat loss or the muscles in the body beings to stimulate causing the human to shiver to produce heat to the body. Which will ultimately cause the body temperature to rise which will them turn off the warming mechanism.

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