In all living beings, regulation is required to various degrees. This regulation is one of the most important things needed to keep our complex organic bodies running correctly. This is known as homeostasis. Homeostasis is one of the most important activities our bodies can participate in. Our bodies are as fragile as they are remarkable. This is why we need a method to keep all of the components in our body in an ideal environment. One of the most important things to regulate is body temperature. Temperature is an extremely important element to regulate as it affects everything in the body. Temperature affects matter at the subatomic level. Temperature is the measure of the amount of energy that something possesses. Heating an object …show more content…
The integumentary system has a variety of methods in order to lessen the amount of heat that enters the body. This system is mainly composed of the skin and all of the systems related to it. The skin, in fact, is the largest organ in the human body. One of the most obvious examples of how this system maintains the body’s temperature is through sweat. Sweat glands release fluid that flows up through the sweat duct. The fluid then makes its way to the surface of the skin and acts like a liquid shield which disperses and absorbs some of the heat that is constantly striking the body’s surface (Holland). This comes at a price, however, because the excretion of sweat from the glands leads to a loss in water in the body. The body produces less sweat in colder conditions as this can make it harder for the body to keep the cold weather from affecting the body. Another method that the integumentary system uses to decrease heat gain on the surface of the skin is causing the hairs on the surface of the skin to lie flat. Hairs that are standing up absorb much more heat than if the hairs were lying flat. Muscles below the skin near the base of the hair follicle can quickly adjust the position of the hair to manipulate the amount of heat that is absorbed into the body. This is also used in cold weather. In cold weather the muscles below the skin cause the hairs to stand …show more content…
This is the section this is most involved in controlling the temperature of the body. It has little receptors that measure the temperature of the blood as it runs through the brain so that it will know if temperature is becoming a problem for the body (Kravitz). The hypothalamus controls all activities of the body regarding thermoregulation. Without this section of the brain none of the activities of the other organ systems discussed previously would be functional. This part of the body is responsible for receiving and decoding messages from other parts of the body. If this part of the brain interprets a message that the environment is too cold, it alerts the other systems to take action, so the integumentary system might create goosebumps, or the muscular system may start the shivering process
To begin we will look at the integumentary system and its entire multitude of functions. The main components of the integumentary system are the skin, hair, nails, glands and nerves. For the purpose of this paper we will focus mainly on the levels of the skin and their functions. While the integumentary
Hair is considered one of the components of the integumentary system, along with the skin, nails, glands and nerves. Mammalian hair has many functions including protection from environmental factors and the ability to disperse sweat gland products such as pheromones. Almost every part of the human body is covered by hair except for the palms, hands and bottoms of the feet. On average, every person has about five million hairs; each of these hairs is born from a follicle or tiny tube-like structure that grows into the dermis layer of the skin. Oftentimes this follicle even reaches the subcutaneous layer, which is made of fat and connective tissue. (UXL Complete Health Research, 2001)
The body has specific ways of controlling the internal temperature: if the body is too cold then involuntary shivering occurs this causes the skeletal muscles to contract therefore producing heat. When conscious movement occurs the muscles again contract and relax which generate heat to warm the body up. Another way the body increases the temperature unconsciously the hairs all over the body stand on end causing a layer of air to be trapped, which acts like an insulator. When the body is too warm sweat is produced from pores in the skin, as this liquid sits on the skin it slowly evaporates causing the body temperature to drop, however if ...
occurs so the heat deep in the muscles is conserved. Since the vessels are now
Regulation- Blood vessels help maintain a stable body temperature by controlling the blood flow to the surface of the skin (Terfera, David, and Jegtvi)
The body tissues are the workers. It is their job to keep the body functioning correctly. When there is a need for more energy the workers send a signal to the administrators (and who is the administrator? The pituitary) to let the thyro...
Firstly, there is various of sensing activities as in seeing and hearing as in a sense of understanding of what is seen and heard. Secondly the sense of feeling in numerous parts of the body from the head to the toes. The ability to recall past events, the sophisticated emotions and the thinking process. The cerebellum acts as a physiological microcomputer which intercepts various sensory and motor nerves to smooth out what would otherwise be jerky muscle motions. The medulla controls the elementary functions responsible for life, such as breathing, cardiac rate and kidney functions. The medulla contains numerous of timing mechanisms as well as other interconnections that control swallowing and salivations.
Homeostasis involves the whole body, but certain organs have larger roles in maintaining the balance. The liver and pancreas maintain suitable glucose levels in the blood, with kidneys removing metabolic waste products and maintaining suitable salt and water levels within the blood. The skin and liver help maintain body temperature with lungs controlling oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood and the blood itself transporting the nutrients and waste products around the body.
An example of this would be the body maintaining a body temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit even though temperatures outside the body may be much higher or lower than that. Homeostasis is important in order for us to maintain good health and to fight off illness. Negative feedback mechanism occurs in response stimulus. Often it causes the output of a system to be lessened; the feedback stabilizes the system. This is homeostatis. An Example of this is when body temperature is too high or too low. When your body temperature becomes too high two mechanisms kick in and the body begins to sweat. As the sweat cools, it causes evaporative cooling, while the blood vessels cause convective cooling, normal body temperature is then regained. The skin is the largest organ of the human body. The skin covers the external surface of our bodies and has three main functions: protection, regulation and sensation. The hair serves a number of functions including insulation, protection, friction buffer and redirection of water and sweat from the body. The primary function of sweat glands and perspiration is to maintain the body temperature. The primary function of oil glands is to protect the
The integumentary system has five main functions. The five main functions of the integumentary system are protection, regulation, sensation, absorption, and secretion. It consists of the hair, nails, skin, sebaceous and sweat glands. The largest organ of the entire body is the skin. The skin consists of three different layers. The epidermis, the dermis, and the subcutaneous layer, these are the three layers of the skin. There is a layer that is deeper than the skin and contains body fat, that layer is called the hypodermis. Sweat glands are also called sudoriferous glands. One of the functions of the skin is to maintain homeostasis. Synthesis of vitamin D, excretion of urea, excretion of salts and water are a few things that the skin is also capable of. The top layer of the skin is called the epidermis. The epidermis contains five different layers. These layers are the stratum corneum, the stratum lucidum, the stratum spinosum, and the stratum basale. In the epidermis there are four different cell types. The keratinocytes which produce keratin, the merkel cells that are sensitive to touch, the langerhans cells which is a dendritic type off cell, and the melanocytes which produce melanin.
The integumentary system is composed of the skin and the structures related to the skin, which include the hair, the finger nails, the sensory receptors and the glands (Shier, Butler, & Lewis, 2009). This system has an important function since it provides protection to the body, helps to maintain body temperature, and contains sensory receptors (p.117). The skin has essential function such as regulating homeostasis and body temperature, also delaying the loss of water from deeper tissues, storing sensory receptor, synthesizing biomechanical, and discharging waste from the body (p.117). The skin has two layers: the epidermis (outer layer) and the dermis (inner layer) (p.117). There is also a subcutaneous layer or hypodermis (p.117). According to Shier, Butler, and Lewis 2009 “as its name indicates, this layer is beneath the skin and not a true layer of the skin” (p.117). This layer has the blood vessels that supply the skin (p.117).
The brain and spinal cord make up the central nervous system. The brain doesn't just control your organs, but also can think and remember. That part of the brain is called the mind.
At the hypothalamus’s signal, one of two types of sweat glands, the eccrine glands, get to work. These sweat glands produce odorless perspiration, a mixture of water, salt and small amounts of other electrolytes, directly onto the skin’s surface. This second type of sweat gland is found predominantly in hair-covered areas, like the scalp, armpits and groin. These
The nervous system’s main function is to coordinate all of the activities in the body. The main organs are the cerebellum, which controls and coordinates movement. The cerebrum, is the center for conscious thought, learning, and memory. The last main organ is the brain stem. The brain stem keeps the automatic systems in your body working. Problems of the nervous system include, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and multiple sclerosis. You can care for your nervous system by wearing a seatbelt, wearing a helmet, and by not using drugs or alcohol. Something very confusing about the nervous system is that the left side of human brain controls the right side of the body and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body!
Moisture iº produced on skin by sweating. In hot climatic conditions, the sweat is evaporated releasing heat of body and causing a cooling effect. The heat loss due to evaporation is not required in cold; the key thing is to transfer the sweat from skin to outside through Garment. The condensed sweat is absorbed by the hydrophilic fibers in the material and transferred to the Garment surface where it evaporates.