Question

You have had the opportunity to review thermoregulation as is pertains to the human body. With this discussion, you will need to explain what thermoregulation is and why is it important?

Answer 1

The human body regulates temperature by maintaining fixed balance between heat gain & loss.

Moreover thermoregulation is a process that allows your body to maintain its core internal temperature. This phenomenon comes under the process of homeostasis (state of equilibrium).

The average person has a baseline temperature between 98°F (37°C) and 100°F (37.8°C).

Fall in the temperature is termed as hypothermia it may lead to y lead to cardiac arrest, brain damage, or even death.

At the same time the rise is known as hyperthermia and it may lead to brain damage or even death.

Factors increasing body temperature:

• Fever
• Fast digestion
• Exercise

Factors lowering the body temperature:

• Metabolic conditions as under-functioning thyroid gland
• Drug use
• Alcohol use

Mechanism of thermoregulation:

We know that the hypothalamus is a portion of brain that controls thermoregulation.

When it senses that the internal temperature fetching too low or high, it sends signals to muscles, organs, glands & nervous system.

And thus through variety of processes the temperature gets normal.

Importance of thermoregulation:

The human body must maintain a stable internal temperature of approximately 37°C to ensure that our enzymes don’t denature and metabolic reactions occur at an appropriate rate. Furthermore change in our core temperature can alter the permeability of our cell membranes affecting the diffusion of substances into / out of the cell.

Hence the thermoregulation is very important as it is required for core functioning of body without which all the metabolic and physiological reactions of the body can get disturbed.