P5 Explain the Concept of Homeostasis

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Homeostasis is the process of maintaining a constant internal environment in response to changes in the external environment. Homeostatic mechanisms are for regulating; body temperature, blood glucose, heart rate and breathing rate. Regulating the internal environment of a human is achieved by negative feedback; this is a constant process. Conditions within the body changes and receptors detect that change; receptors are found in the skin, around vital organs and the hypothalamus. This information of change that is detected by the receptors are then passed to the control centre in the hypothalamus which monitors the changes, when the change in environment fall too far outside the normal range of values the negative feedback response begins. The control centre signals an effecter to take action that will return the system back to its ‘normal’ state. An example of homeostasis taking place is when a human goes into a cold environment, conditions change internally; the skin, a receptor will detect the change and cold blood will pass to the control centre, hypothalamus. The hypothalamus then monitors this change and signals the effectors if the internal environment goes below minimum core temperature for cells to work properly; thirty-five Degrees Celsius, anything below can be very dangerous. The effectors will heat the body temperature up, making hairs stand up to trap air to create insulation, sweat secretion is reduce so less cooling of the body and blood vessels constrict which reduces the amount of blood near the surface of the skin so the blood can heat up. All of these effectors enable the human body to go back to its normal state. The opposite example of this is if a human does exercise, every time the muscles, receptor contract, energy is produce which is transformed into heat. Heat from muscles then moves to the blood which circulates throughout the body
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