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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.
Origins of heat and cold adaptations can be explained by climatic adaptation. [16] [17] Ambient air temperature affects how much energy investment the human body must make. The temperature that requires the least amount of energy investment is 21 °C (70 °F). [5] [disputed – discuss] The body controls its temperature through the hypothalamus.
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 is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature as its own body temperature, thus avoiding the need for internal thermoregulation.
The heat-regulating mechanisms of the body eventually become overwhelmed and unable to deal effectively with the heat, causing the body temperature to climb uncontrollably. Hyperthermia at or above about 40 °C (104 °F) is a life-threatening medical emergency that requires immediate treatment.
Thermogenesis is the process of heat production in organisms.It occurs in all warm-blooded animals, and also in a few species of thermogenic plants such as the Eastern skunk cabbage, the Voodoo lily (Sauromatum venosum), and the giant water lilies of the genus Victoria.
What makes the intense heat so deadly is that a patient often has disruptions to the cooling mechanisms of the body— such as the brain's hypothalamus, which regulates temperature — that ...
The human body is the entire structure of a human being. It is composed of many different types of cells that together create tissues and subsequently organs and then organ systems . The external human body consists of a head , hair , neck , torso (which includes the thorax and abdomen ), genitals , arms , hands , legs , and feet .