homeostasis

Examples of homeostasis in the following topics:

• Bone and Calcium Homeostasis

  • Calcium metabolism or calcium homeostasis is the mechanism by which the body maintains adequate calcium levels.
  • Calcium metabolism or calcium homeostasis is the mechanism by which the body maintains adequate calcium levels.

• Homeostatic Process

  • The varied processes by which the body regulates its internal environment are collectively referred to as homeostasis.
  • Homeostasis, in a general sense, refers to stability, balance, or equilibrium.
  • This ongoing process continually works to restore and maintain homeostasis.
  • The ultimate goal of homeostasis is the maintenance of equilibrium around the set point.
  • An example of how homeostasis is achieved by controlling blood sugar levels after a meal.

• Disease as Homeostatic Imbalance

  • While disease is often a result of infection or injury, most diseases involve the disruption of normal homeostasis.
  • This lack of homeostasis increases the risk for illness and is responsible for the physical changes associated with aging.
  • In these cases, medical intervention is necessary to restore homeostasis and prevent permanent organ damage.
  • Negative feedback between insulin and glucagon levels controls blood sugar homeostasis.
  • Homeostasis may become imbalanced if the pancreas is overly stressed, making it unable to balance glucose metabolism.

• Control of Homeostasis

  • Homeostasis is maintained by negative feedback loops within the organism.
  • Homeostasis is controlled by the nervous and endocrine systems in mammals.
  • Negative feedback loops are the predominant mechanism used in homeostasis.
  • Homeostasis is performed so the body can maintain its internal set point.
  • Discuss the ways in which the body maintains homeostasis and provide examples of each mechanism

• Homeostatic Control

  • Homeostasis is maintained by the body's responses to adverse stimuli, ensuring maintenance of an optimal physiological environment.
  • Homeostasis regulates an organism's internal environment and maintains a stable, constant condition of properties like temperature and pH.
  • Homeostasis can be influenced by either internal or external conditions and is maintained by many different mechanisms.
  • The integrating center or control center receives information from the sensors and initiates the response to maintain homeostasis.
  • Positive feedback is a mechanism in which an output is enhanced in order to maintain homeostasis.

• Interactions of Hormones at Target Cells

  • Maintaining homeostasis often requires conditions to be limited to a narrow range.
  • When conditions exceed the upper limit of homeostasis, a specific action—usually the production of a hormone—is triggered.
  • If conditions exceed the lower limits of homeostasis, a different action, usually the production of a second hormone, is triggered.
  • The two glands most responsible for homeostasis are the thyroid and the parathyroid.
  • Glucagon is a pancreatic peptide hormone that, as a counter-regulatory hormone for insulin, stimulates glucose release by the liver and maintains glucose homeostasis.

• Overview of the Pituitary Gland

  • The pituitary gland is connected to the hypothalamus and secretes nine hormones that regulate body homeostasis.
  • The pituitary gland secretes hormones that regulate homeostasis.

• Drive-Reduction Theory of Motivation

  • According to drive-reduction theory, humans are motivated to satisfy physiological needs in order to maintain homeostasis.
  • An early theory of motivation proposed that the maintenance of homeostasis is particularly important in directing behavior.
  • Homeostasis is the tendency to maintain a balance, or optimal level, within a biological system.
  • The purpose of biological drives is to correct disturbances of homeostasis.
  • According to this theory, deviations from homeostasis create physiological needs.

• Properties of Life

  • Key characteristics or functions of living beings are order, stimuli, reproduction, growth/development, regulation, homeostasis, and energy.
  • All living organisms share several key characteristics or functions: order, sensitivity or response to the environment, reproduction, growth and development, regulation, homeostasis, and energy processing.
  • Organisms are able to maintain internal conditions within a narrow range almost constantly, despite environmental changes, through homeostasis (literally, "steady state")—the ability of an organism to maintain constant internal conditions.
  • Adaptations help organisms survive in their ecological niches, and adaptive traits may be structural, behavioral, or physiological; as such, adaptations frequently involve other properties of organisms such as homeostasis, reproduction, and growth and development.

• Overview of the Urinary System

  • The urinary system maintains blood homeostasis by filtering out excess fluid and other substances from the bloodstream and secreting waste.
  • Regulation of acid-base homeostasis and blood pH, a function shared with the respiratory system.
  • The primary function of the kidneys is to maintain a stable internal environment (homeostasis) for optimal cell and tissue metabolism.
  • Many hormones involved in homeostasis will alter the permeability of these tubules to change the amount of water that is retained by the body.
  • Besides ADH secretion, the renin-angiotensin feedback system is critically important to maintain blood volume and blood pressure homeostasis.