The Importance Of Thermoregulation

Thermoregulation is the control of the body’s temperature. The body aims to maintain the body’s temperature at 37 °C. The control centre of maintaining our body temperature is the Hypothalamus in the brain. The hypothalamus is responsible for the key mechanisms to control our body’s temperature and also consists of the body’s temperature sensors.

The nervous system uses our nerves and controls every part of our body through the vast amount of nerves. Sensory receptors are located throughout our body will constantly send information to our brain, which will then decide on an action to be taken. In Jenny’s case, the sensory receptors sent a message to the hypothalamus, which then sent a message to the effectors, which is Jenny’s pituitary gland. This releases a hormone called Anti-diuretic hormone (ADH). This hormone retains as much fluid as possible in Jenny’s body. The sweating stops and our body stops us from having to urinate. It is our endocrine system that consists of a number of glands that produce and secrete hormones that make their way into the bloodstream. Once in your blood stream, our hormones travel through our body and trigger specific actions whenever they encounter cells that display compatible receptors.

Sherwood, (2013)

The hypothalamus will send nerve cells to our skin, depending if we are too hot or too cold. In Jenny’s case, she is too hot. The hairs on Jenny’s skin will lay down to encourage the heat to escape. She will then begin to sweat, aiming to cool down the body by evaporation. For Jenny, her body sweated too much, leading her to lose too much water and sodium from her cells, and as a result led to osmoregulation to take place. Osmoregulation is used to protect our cells from either too much water bei...

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...ator to bring the condition under control. This system then will return the body to a normal temperature of 37 °C

Russell Et al (2011)

Osmoregulation is the process in which our cells are protected by our water balance. This is controlled by the water loss from

• the lungs when we exhale

• the skin by sweating

• the body, in urine produced by the kidneys

Osmoregulation is the balancing of fluid within the body, despite the influence that external factors can have on it. External factors include temperature, diet, exercise and weather conditions. By the diffusion of water, osmotic balance ensures that the balance within the Intracellular fluid and Extra-Cellular fluid are the correct balance. The movement of water across the cell can change the volume of the bodys fluid compartments, and therefore it can result in medical problems such as high or low blood pressure.