Physiology Study Guide Questions

1.
The literal deconstruction of the word homeostasis implies that the body maintains
perfectly only one rest state, or stands still, when in reality your body is constantly undergoing
change by a cyclical process in returning to its natural balance. The two systems which regulate
homeostasis are the endocrine and the nervous system. Both use two techniques to achieve
homeostasis: the positive feedback mechanism, which amplifies stimulus, and the negative
feedback system, which opposes stimulation.
Examples of a positive feedback loop include:
Labor
Urinary pressure
Heart attacks
Nausea
Sneezing
Examples of a negative feedback loop include:
Temperature regulation
Heart rate regulation
Blood pressure regulation
Blood sugar regulation
Regulating oxygen intake

2.
The negative feedback loop begins when the receptor (blood vessels) detects the
resulting stimulus of an increased variable change (increased blood pressure) within the body.
The information is then passed as an input through the afferent pathway from the receptor to
the control center (the brain), which determines after analyzing this information the appropriate
reaction. The information next passes as output from the control center through the efferent
pathway onward to the effector (the heart and blood vessels), which performs the actions
required of it by the control center in response to the change (heart rate decreases and blood
vessels expand to decrease blood pressure). Next, if the counter processes were too radical,
and the body still suffers inversely from a newly created imbalance (decreased blood pressure),
the process repeats itself, and information of the new stimulus is registered by the receptor,
communicated again as an input over the afferent pathway to the control center, leaves an
output toward the effector which registers and responds appropriately to the information given
it

Clinical Investigation.

1.
Someone diagnosed with diabetes suffers a lack of the hormone insulin, which
communicates to cells in the body the need to uptake glucose from the blood. Without insulin,
the excess of glucose remains freely within the bloodstream and starves the cells. To
compensate for the loss of nutrition, the body begins to break down its own fats and muscles as
an alternative source of food, depleting itself quickly of usable nutrition and potentially causing
coma or death. The excess of sugar within the blood also slows circulation and can suffocate
the extremities. Type 1 diabetes can be treated by eating healthy foods, taking insulin, and
maintaining a healthy weight. Type 2 diabetes is commonly treated by maintaining a strict diet,
and blood sugar monitoring. The specific part of the negative feedback mechanism disturbed
due to diabetes is the output of information through the afferent pathway which, without insulin,
provides insufficient instruction to cells to combat increased level of sugar in the bloodstream.