Homeostasis is the regulation of conditions in the body such as temperature, water content and carbon dioxide levels. Diabetes is a condition where the body cannot regulate its blood glucose levels.
Human enzymes usually work best at 37°C, which is the human body temperature.
Maintaining this optimum temperature is called thermoregulation. When this stops working properly, high temperatures can cause dehydration, heat stroke and death if untreated. Low temperatures can cause hypothermia and then also death if untreated.
The body’s temperature is monitored by the brain. If you are too hot or too cold, the brain sends nerve impulses to the skin, which has three ways to either increase or decrease heat loss from the body’s surface. These are:
Hairs on the skin trap more warm air if they are standing up, and less if they are lying flat. Tiny muscles in the skin can quickly pull the hairs upright to reduce heat loss, or lay them down flat to increase heat loss.
When we get too cold:
When we get too hot:
Lick the back of one of your hands and blow on it. Now just blow on the other without licking it first. Why did the wet surface feel colder? When liquids evaporate from surfaces they cool them. If the body is too hot, glands under the skin secrete sweat onto the surface of the skin, to increase heat loss by evaporation. Sweat secretion stops when body temperature returns to normal.
Shivering is the involuntary contraction and relaxation of muscles. This occurs very quickly. It releases energy from glucose in respiration. Some of this energy is released as heat to warm us up.
Blood vessels supplying blood to the skin can swell or dilate - vasodilation. This causes more heat to be carried by the blood to the skin, where it can be lost to the air. Blood vessels can shrink down again - vasoconstriction. This reduces heat loss through the skin once the body’s temperature has returned to normal.
Too cold | Too hot | |
---|---|---|
Process | Vasoconstriction | Vasodilation |
Arterioles | Get narrower | Get wider |
Blood flow in skin capillaries | Decreases | Increases |
Heat loss from skin | Decreases | Increases |
These diagrams show the processes that take place when vasoconstriction and vasodilation occur.