Some of the Examples of homeostasis Are the maintenance of internal body temperature in humans or a thermostat, in technology.
Homeostasis refers to the ability of an organism or environment to maintain stability despite changes. It is an important feature of living things since maintaining a stable internal environment requires constant adjustments as conditions change inside and outside the cell.
Woman poses
Homeostasis can be considered as a dynamic equilibrium rather than as a constant and immutable state. The goal of homeostasis is to maintain the balance around a value called a reference point.
Normal fluctuations normally develop from this reference point, but usually the body systems try to return to this point.
A change in the internal or external environment is called a stimulus and is detected by a receiver, the system response is to adjust the deviation parameter to the reference point.
For example, if the body becomes too hot, adjustments are made to cool it. If blood glucose increases after a meal, the adjustments are made to lower the blood glucose level to obtain the nutrient in the tissues that need it or to store it for later use.
Homeostatic imbalance can lead to a disease state that can be caused in two ways: deficiencies (cells do not get all they need) or toxicity (cells are poisoned). When homeostasis is interrupted, the body can correct or worsen the problem by internal and external influences.
Examples of homeostasis in the human body
1- Internal body temperature
The internal body temperature of humans is a great example of homeostasis. When an individual is healthy, their body temperature is maintained at 37 °. The body can control the temperature by making or releasing heat.
2- Maintenance of glucose levels
Glucose is a type of sugar found in the bloodstream, but the body must maintain adequate levels of glucose to make sure that a person stays healthy.
When glucose levels rise too much, the pancreas releases a hormone known as insulin. If these levels drop too low, the liver converts glycogen into blood into glucose again, raising levels.
3- Functions of the lymphatic system
When bacteria or viruses that can get sick enter your body, the lymphatic system counterattacks to help maintain homeostasis, working to fight the infection and making sure you stay healthy.
4- Regulation of blood pressure
Maintaining healthy blood pressure is an example of homeostasis. The heart can detect changes in blood pressure, which causes it to send signals to the brain, which then sends signals that tell the heart how to respond.
If the blood pressure is too high, naturally the heart should slow down; While if it is too low, the heart will have to accelerate.
5- Equilibrium of acids and bases
The body of a human contains chemicals known as acids and bases, and an adequate balance of these is necessary for the body to function optimally. The lungs and kidneys are two of the organ systems that regulate acids and bases within the body.
6- Water level
More than half the percentage of body weight of a human being is water, and maintaining the right balance of water is an example of homeostasis. The Cells Which contain too much water, swell and may even explode.
Cells with very little water may end up shrinking. Your body maintains a proper water balance so that none of these situations occur.
7- Calcium Control
The regulation of calcium By the human body is an example of homeostasis. When levels decline, the parathyroid hormone releases hormones. If calcium levels become too high, the thyroid helps to fix calcium in the bones and lowers blood calcium levels.
8- Physical exercise
Exercise causes the body to maintain homeostasis by sending lactate to the muscles to give them energy.
Over time, this also signals to the brain that it is time to stop exercising, so that the muscles can get the oxygen they need.
9- Nervous system and breathing
He nervous system Helps to maintain homeostasis in the patterns of breathing . Because breathing is involuntary, the nervous system ensures that the body receives the oxygen it needs to breathe.
10- Urinary system
When the toxins enter your blood, they interrupt the homeostasis of your body. The human body, however, responds by disposing of these toxins through the use of urinary system .
An individual simply urns toxins and other unpleasant things from the blood, restoring homeostasis to the human body.
Technological and other homeostatic mechanisms
11- Thermostat
Thermostats that operate by turning on and off heaters or air conditioners in response to the output of a temperature sensor.
12- Speed regulator
The auto cruise of vehicles that adjusts the throttle of a car in response to changes in speed.
13- Autopilot
An autopilot that operates the steering controls of an aircraft or vessel in response to the deflection of the route or a course of the preset compass.
14- Controls in industries
Process control systems in a chemical plant or an oil refinery that maintain fluid levels, pressures, temperature, chemical composition, etc. Controlling heaters, pumps and valves.
15- Steam engine controller
The centrifugal regulator of a steam engine that reduces the throttle valve in response to increased engine speed, or opens the valve if the speed drops below the predetermined speed.
16- Homeostasis business
It refers to a company's ability to maintain its equilibrium, counteracting internal and external turbulence by absorbing contextual variety.
Homeostasis in animals and environment
For warm-blooded animals like mammals and birds, homeostasis is a combination of internal processes involving hormones, the endocrine system And metabolism.
On the other hand, for cold-blooded animals like snakes, which do not have such internal systems, they must rely on their external environment to maintain homeostasis.
17- Hormones
In some populations of small mammals such as mice and rabbits, when their numbers increase for some reason, overcrowding creates increasing stress that damages the thyroid gland (which makes essential hormones) and much of the population simply dies of endocrine damage. Hormonal.
18- Thermoregulation
In the environment, when atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide increase, plants are able to grow better and thus eliminate more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Also, wasps and hornets are found in most environments since tropical forests Rainy, deserts, subtropical and temperate climates. They are able to survive in so many different conditions because they are able to thermoregulate themselves and their nests.
19- Recycling water in the jungle
Rainforests through a homeostasis system maintain their ability to recycle water. For example, the Amazon basin is bordered to the north by the savannas and plains of Venezuela and to the south by the savannas of Brazil.
If the moisture from the Atlantic Ocean flowed directly backwards, the Amazonian ecosystem would be only a small fraction of its current size.
In fact, giant Amazon rainforest trees quickly pump moisture into the sky, so that it falls back into the jungle as rain, thus preventing significant amounts of water from draining away into the ocean.
20- Corals and carbon dioxide
Coral polyps use carbon dioxide to form their shells. This helps to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the ocean and is a way in which the Earth fights pollution and works to recover homeostasis.
With fewer corals, the ocean absorbs less carbon dioxide, leaving more in the atmosphere.
References
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- Kotas M, Medzhitov R. Homeostasis, inflammation and disease susceptibility (2015). Cell.
- Riggs D. Control theory and physiological feedback mechanisms (1970). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
- Teplyuk N. Near-to-perfect homeostasis: examples of universal aging rule which germline evades (2012). Journal of Cellular Biochemistry.
- Trefil J. Encyclopedia of science and technology (2001). New York: Taylor & Francis Books.
- Tyrrel A, Timmis J, Greensted A, Owens N. Evolvable hardware, the fundamental technology for homeostasis (2007). New York.