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As in other mammals, human thermoregulation is an important aspect of homeostasis. In thermoregulation, body heat is generated mostly in the deep organs, especially the liver, brain, and heart, and in contraction of skeletal muscles. [1] Humans have been able to adapt to a great diversity of climates, including hot humid and hot arid.
The human body always works to remain in homeostasis. One form of homeostasis is thermoregulation. Body temperature varies in every individual, but the average internal temperature is 37.0 °C (98.6 °F). [1] Sufficient stress from extreme external temperature may cause injury or death if it exceeds the ability of the body to thermoregulate.
As in other mammals, thermoregulation is an important aspect of human homeostasis. Most body heat is generated in the deep organs, especially the liver, brain, and heart, and in contraction of skeletal muscles. [15] Humans have been able to adapt to a great diversity of climates, including hot humid and hot arid.
The psychrometric temperature, of which the wet-bulb temperature is the main component, largely limits thermoregulation. It was thought that a wet-bulb temperature of about 35 °C (95 °F) was the highest sustained value consistent with human life.
The resting human body generates about two-thirds of its heat through metabolism in internal organs in the thorax and abdomen, as well as in the brain. The brain generates about 16% of the total heat produced by the body. [8] Heat loss is a major threat to smaller creatures, as they have a larger ratio of surface area to volume.
Thermoregulation includes both responses to infection and to decreased core temperature upon cutaneous exposure to cold, both of which involve the median preoptic nucleus as an important mediator of sensory input and regulatory output. Sleep homeostasis is involved in both the onset and maintenance of sleep.
Key to maintaining homeostasis, individual thermoregulation is the ability to maintain internal body temperature in humans, the most recognizable eurytherm. In humans, deep-body temperature is regulated by cutaneous blood flow, which maintains this temperature despite changes in the external environment. [24]
Thermoreceptors of the skin sense the temperature of water. A thermoreceptor is a non-specialised sense receptor, or more accurately the receptive portion of a sensory neuron, that codes absolute and relative changes in temperature, primarily within the innocuous range.