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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, 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.
Behavioral thermoregulation takes precedence over physiological thermoregulation since necessary changes can be affected more quickly and physiological thermoregulation is limited in its capacity to respond to extreme temperatures. [34] When the core temperature falls, the blood supply to the skin is reduced by intense vasoconstriction. [18]
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.
The human skin is the outer covering of the body and is the largest organ of the integumentary system. The skin has up to seven layers of ectodermal tissue guarding muscles, bones, ligaments and internal organs. Human skin is similar to most of the other mammals' skin, and it is very similar to pig skin.
The skin has a huge capacity to accept blood flow resulting in a range of 1ml/100g of skin/min, to 150ml/100g/min. Its metabolic requirements are very low and hence it only requires a very small fraction of the heart's output to maintain its own growth and metabolism.
Artificial skin capable of sweating similar to natural sweat rates and with the surface texture and wetting properties of regular skin has been developed for research purposes. [ 34 ] [ 35 ] Artificial perspiration is also available for in-vitro testing, and contains 19 amino acids and the most abundant minerals and metabolites in sweat.
Skin temperature is a crucial aspect of human physiology and often plays a significant role in affecting thermoregulatory processes. Regulation of skin blood flow is crucial to homeothermy. Sympathetic control of blood flow to the skin involves the system of noradrenergic vasoconstriction as well as an active sympathetic system of vasodilation.