Homeostasis and feedback loops with examplesCOLLAPSE
Today I am going to talk about homeostasis and feedback loops. According to my book homeostasis is the body’s ability to detect change, activate mechanisms that oppose it, and to maintain relatively stable internal body conditions. (Saladin, 2018, p.15). Feedback loops are called this because feedback mechanisms altar the original changes that triggered them. (Saladin, 2018, p.15). The explanation/ background Homeostasis is the ability to maintain stable internal conditions even when your environment changes. (Saladin, 2018, p.14). Homeostasis depends on your body’s temperature and fluid balance to be kept within certain limitations. Typically, your body temperature ranges around 97-99 degrees Fahrenheit even when, outside it might 20 degrees Fahrenheit. This is because of homeostasis. There is a thing called negative feedback, in which when the body can feel a change it activates mechanisms that try to control or reverse it. (Saladin,2018, p.15). This is how feedback loops gets its name because feedback mechanisms alter changes to restore it to it’s set point. Your body temperature is controlled by nerve cells that monitor your blood temperature. These nerves can activate blood vessels that make you sweat, shiver, or even dizzy. There is also positive feedback which is a bigger change than what your body is used to. Positive feedback can be very dangerous because it can put your body past it’s homeostatic set point. (Saladin, 2018, p.17). Without homeostasis it is known that illness and death occurs. Examples A good example of homeostasis would be like if you have a fridge and you kept it on 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Your fridge temperature should always range to be around that temperature because that’s what it is set to. Even if the temperature around the fridge is 90 degrees Fahrenheit the inside of the fridge will remain at the set temperature. If it does not remain at that temperature, then something is wrong. The fridge has more than likely stopped working. But in some cases it can be fixed so you don’t open it so that the fridge won’t let out the cool air. Homeostasis has sensors so that when something is wrong it activates mechanisms to fix the problem and go back to it’s normal state. An example for feedback loops would be like if it’s freezing cold outside and you set your heater on 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the heater will kick on when it is under 70 degrees and your temperature will go up so when it gets to be above 70 the heater will turn off again. Tips and tricks: I think remembering the name homeostasis is easy for me because it starts with the sound of the word homey and stay. Like when your house is set at a temperature you want it to stay there and feel homey to you. Feedback loops is easy to remember because it’s your body’s way of giving feedback and it goes in a cycle or loop until the temperature stays where it needs to be. Connect the dots This is an important topic because your body needs homeostasis to survive. If your body did not have homeostasis, then you could not fight things like infection. Your body temperature would go up and you could die from that. Without homeostasis we could not survive. Homeostasis is derived from two Greek words ‘homeo’ meaning ‘similar’ and ‘stasis’ meaning ‘stable’. (Sarvani Palaparthi, 2017).
keep up the scientific explana in a research section explaining more about the topic and follow up with critical thinking section where you can list how this topic affects or is present in daily life .
