How Homeostasis Works to Maintain a Fragile System

For all organisms, the internal and external environments determine how successful it will be on it’s quest for survival. To name a few things, each life form has narrow ranges of temperature, pH, salt concentrations, nutrient concentrations, and toxin levels in which it can survive. For life to thrive and expand, it had to deal with these massive issues.

In response, early organisms developed a remarkable system of regulation that specialized over millions of years, enabling life to survive in every environment imaginable on Earth. The general term used to describe this system is homeostasis.

To understand how homeostasis works, think about how your body responds to different stimuli. Notice everything that tends to occur happens in a cyclical rise and fall pattern:

• You wake up, get tired, go to bed, and wake up feeling rested.

 

• You get hot, sweat a lot, cool down, and stop sweating.

 

• You get cold, shiver, warm up, and stop shivering.

 

• You eat, feel full, get hungry, eat, and feel full again.

 

• You run fast, begin to breathe heavily and feel your heart pumping faster, stop running, and slowly regain your breath and lower your heart rate.

 

• You lift heavy weights, feel the blood rush to your muscles, get a pump, and lose the pump until you work out again.

 

• You get thirsty, drink a lot of water, feel the urge to pee, and relieve yourself.

 

All of these phenomena are your body’s way of returning yourself to a stable state after something disrupts the conditions ideal for your survival. All of these examples fall under the category of negative feedback.