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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.
Deaths due to hypothermia have played an important role in many wars. [1] The term is from Greek ῠ̔πο (ypo), meaning "under", and θέρμη (thérmē), meaning "heat". The opposite of hypothermia is hyperthermia, an increased body temperature due to failed thermoregulation. [7] [8]
An early stage of hyperthermia can be "heat exhaustion" (or "heat prostration" or "heat stress"), whose symptoms can include heavy sweating, rapid breathing and a fast, weak pulse. If the condition progresses to heat stroke, then hot, dry skin is typical [ 2 ] as blood vessels dilate in an attempt to increase heat loss.
According to Robert G. Mayer, author of the seminal "Embalming: History, Theory and Practice", postmortem caloricity is a "rise in temperature after death due to continued cellular oxidation." In mortuary science, there are two phases of death—somatic and cellular. Somatic death is the cessation of the tripod of life, meaning the failure of ...
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]
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 cold water can cause heart attack due to severe vasoconstriction, [2] where the heart has to work harder to pump the same volume of blood throughout the arteries. For people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease , the additional workload can result in myocardial infarction and/or acute heart failure , which ultimately may lead to a ...