The Regulation of Internal Environments in Humans

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Homeostasis is the control of a stable environment by the body. It is important due to the continuous fluctuations in the content of the human body and the changes in the surrounding environment. The hypothalamus is a part of the brain that helps the body maintain homeostasis; a group of neurones forming the primary link between the nervous and endocrine system. Homeostasis is controlled by positive and negative feedback mechanism; feedback loops which inform the receptor of the changes to the system, brought about by the effector. Temperature is an extremely important factor that must be tightly controlled in the body at 37 degrees celcius. Above this temperature, enzymes throughout the body would denature, due to the bonding in the tertiary structure of these proteins breaking, causing the active site to no longer be complementary to the substrate. Enzymes control numerous key metabolic reactions, such as Acetyl Coenzyme A in the Kreb’s cycle in Respiration. Therefore, non functioning enzymes throughout the body would have drastic consequences. In order to maintain an optimum body temperature, the body’s largest organ; the skin plays a central role, with the skin’s receptors detecting any deviation from the set point and informing the controller, the hypothalamus. In hot conditions, eccrine sweat glands under the skin secrete sweat; a fluid containing mostly water with some dissolved ions, which travels up the sweat duct, through the sweat pore and onto the surface of the skin. This causes heat loss via evaporative cooling, however, a lot of essential water is lost. Sweating also removes urea from the body, which if remains in high volumes in the blood can cause kidney failure. In response to increased temperature, the hair erector muscles in the skin relax and the elasticity of the skin causes them to flatten against the body. This reduces the thickness of the

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