Homeostatic Mechanisms
Homeostasis is the ability of the body to maintain a stable internal environment, despite changes in the surroundings, through different self-regulating mechanisms. Conditions within the body never stay the same. As internal conditions vary, the body’s process must shift to counteract the variation. Homeostatic mechanisms dampen fluctuations around a set point to keep internal conditions within a set range.
Homeostasis is maintained primarily through negative feedback mechanisms. Negative feedback mechanisms are corrective measures that slow or reverse a variation from the normal value of a factor. When the normal value is reached the corrective measure ceases. The normal value is the feedback the turns the response off.
Illness can result if homeostasis fails. Homeostasis depends on communication within the body. The two primary means of communication are the nervous system and the endocrine system.
Homeostatic mechanisms have three components: a receptor, a control center, and an effector.
Receptors receive messages about a change in the internal or external environment. It acts as a sensor that monitors the environment and when it detects a change in some factor or event. The receptors then send the information to the control center.
The control center determines the set point of the factor, the level or range that is normal for the factor. The control center integrates all the information coming from the pertinent receptors and selects
