10 Ways My Body Maintained Homeostasis

10 Ways my Body Maintained Homeostasis
By Travis Bushong

1. I was sweating after jogging a mile because my body's internal temperature had gotten too high and I needed to cool down so my body used the extra internal heat to release sweat and at the same time keep homeostasis. The systems involved were my nervous system and my integumentary system.

2. When I was shivering after getting out of the hot tub it was my muscles moving quickly. Muscles need a combination of fats and sugars burned with oxygen to move. This reaction is like burning and releases heat into your body to keep you warm and maintain homeostasis. This involves the nervous, muscular, and skeletal systems.

3. When I got cold this month my body's blood vessels would actually compress themselves and get smaller. This occurred because your blood is warm. The more blood that flows through your vessels close to the surface of your skin the more heat you lose. If your blood vessels let less blood through this decreases heat loss. The involved systems are the circulatory and nervous system.

4. Also when I got cold my heart would slow down. This is also so less blood would flow close to my skin and increase heat loss. Circulatory and nervous.

5. When I got hot my heart would speed up. If it hadn't sped up less blood would flow closer to the surface of my skin so that would reduce heat loss. However since I needed to cool down to maintain homeostasis my heart sped up. Circulatory and nervous.

6. Whenever I got toxins or other wastes into my body I had to get rid of them. First your cells purge this waste into the circulatory system, which carries them into the digestive system, which releases the toxins. Circulatory, digestive, nervous.

7. Whenever I did something physically demanding my cells needed more oxygen to keep my muscles and organs going. Since regular breathing couldn't gather enough oxygen I had to start panting and breathing harder to get more O2. The oxygen was then deposited into the circulatory system and sent to my cells. Respiratory and circulatory.

8. If for some reason my blood pressure got to higher then normal levels then my brain would recognize this. It would send commands to my circulatory system to lower my blood pressure to safe levels. Nervous and circulatory.

9. Whenever my body would get low on glucose or get too much it would have to raise or lower these levels. To raise them my liver would convert glycogen to glucose. To lower these levels my pancreas would release a hormone called insulin. Nervous, circulatory, and endocrine.

10. If any bacteria managed to get through my skin and into my body then the immune system would have to stop them. 1st my brain would detect the bacteria and signal the immune system to send white blood cells to that area of my body. Then the white blood cells would find the bacteria and attach onto it to kill it (hopefully) and keep me from getting sick. Nervous, immune, and circulatory.