Importance Of Thermoregulation

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Thermoregulation is an essential process involved in the maintenance of homeostasis. It involves the body’s ability to maintain its core temperature within narrow limits, despite varying external temperatures. Thermoregulation helps to protect the body; it enables it to keep functioning at a temperature at which the required chemical reactions in the body can take place. This safeguards the functioning of the body’s vital organs and muscles. A broad range of homeostatic mechanisms are involved in thermoregulation, and it is essential in the minimization of heat loss and heat gain. Without it, any change in environmental temperature would be detrimental to bodily function. Hot temperatures would cause hyperthermia and cold temperatures would result in hypothermia. This could lead to organ and muscle damage. Thus thermoregulation is essential for human survival.

Highly involved in this physiological mechanism are the thermoreceptors, which are distributed throughout the body. They perceive variations in temperature and transmit this information to the brain for processing. Thermal cha...

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