What Is Homeostasis?

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A major aspect of anthropology is the process of evolution. One influential factor of evolution is the environment that people live in. When the environment changes, the people seem to adapt over time to fit the new needs of the environment. People aren’t the only population that adapt. Diseases seem to come and go according to certain environments and their changes, as well. Colorectal cancer is a disease that has occurred largely because of new environmental factors. This form of cancer seems to be easily prevented because it has a major connection to obesity. However, it is also connected to sex and mutations—or when one allele changes into another ( Lewis, Jurmain, Kilgore 62)—in the genes KRAS and BRAF which cause tumors which are not …show more content…

Homeostasis is a “condition of balance that is maintained by physiological mechanisms that compensate for changes in the body,” and by being obese the body has a hard time balancing the body’s functions (Lewis, Jurmain, Kilgore 81). The physiological responses get thrown out of balance when the body goes under the process of acclimatization, or the response to change in the environment that occur during an individual’s lifetime (Lewis, Jurmain, Kilgore 81). Today’s cuisine is full of processed and enhanced foods that our bodies aren’t used to. Anthropologists have studied the bones and diet of previous life to know that people didn’t used to gain fat and eat like we do today. Through the field of paleoanthropology, it has been observed how bodies used to look like and how stresses was placed on the body. When anthropologists examine remains from today as opposed to twenty years ago even, I believe they would see a big chance in bone damage and a definite change in dietary habits. The body is adapting to the stress in homeostasis by causing mutations in certain genes, maybe as a way to let people know that their lifestyles are not healthy ones if they are obese. Even though this mutation won’t be passed on because it doesn’t occur in the gametes, it is still important to observe the adaptation (Lewis, Jurmain, Kilgore 62). These anthropological observations are important in order to help to predict where the cancer rate will be in future generations if these trends continue among the people, as well as predicting how the body will continue to acclimatize to the new diet that is present among

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