What is Homeostasis?
Homeostasis is the way our body systems balance and regulate themselves in order to to keep us alive.
How does homeostasis work?
Our body uses homeostasis to keep itself stable and healthy so that our cells can survive and keep us working at our best. The homeostatic process has several steps.
- Receptors detect a change around them, and send a message
To…
- …a Processing Centre (usually the brain), which receives this information and sends a return message to….
- ….Effectors, which receive the message and make the response that our body needs.
The body has two different methods to deal with the changes that it detects:
Negative Feedback happens when a change away from an ideal situation triggers a compensating change in order to bring conditions back to normal. This is the most common type of response that our body uses. A Negative Feedback Loop is used to maintain our body temperature.
Positive Feedback is a response that keeps happening once it has started. A good example is blood clotting. Once a blood vessel is damaged, platelets start to cling to the injured site and release chemicals that attract more platelets. The platelets continue to pile up and to release chemicals which attracts more platelets....until a clot is formed.
Keeping cool with homeostasis
Our bodies need to keep our internal temperature at approximately 37 degrees celsius for the enzymes in our cells to work at their best. What happens when we get too hot, or too cold?
All of our body systems are regulated by homeostasis.
For example:
- The pancreas produces insulin for regulating sugar in the blood.
- The pituitary gland at the base of the brain regulates growth hormones.
- The reproductive organs produce hormones to regulate the development of male and female characteristics.
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