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Hyperthermia is generally diagnosed by the combination of unexpectedly high body temperature and a history that supports hyperthermia instead of a fever. [2] Most commonly this means that the elevated temperature has occurred in a hot, humid environment (heat stroke) or in someone taking a drug for which hyperthermia is a known side effect ...
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.
Simplified control circuit of human thermoregulation. [8]The core temperature of a human is regulated and stabilized primarily by the hypothalamus, a region of the brain linking the endocrine system to the nervous system, [9] and more specifically by the anterior hypothalamic nucleus and the adjacent preoptic area regions of the hypothalamus.
Hyperthermia can set in when the core body temperature rises above 37.5–38.3 °C (99.5–100.9 °F). [3] [4] Humans have adapted to living in climates where hypothermia and hyperthermia were common primarily through culture and technology, such as the use of clothing and shelter. [5]
Hence, if the body were perfectly insulated, core temperature would continue to increase until lethal core temperatures were achieved. Conversely, we are normally in surroundings that are considerably cooler than the body's core temperature of 37 °C (98.6 °F) creating a gradient for thermal energy flow from the core to the surroundings.
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.
This uncouples oxidative phosphorylation, and the energy from the proton motive force is dissipated as heat rather than producing ATP from ADP, which would store chemical energy for the body's use. Thermogenesis can also be produced by leakage of the sodium-potassium pump and the Ca 2+ pump. [ 11 ]
Hyperthermia therapy (or hyperthermia, or thermotherapy) is a type of medical treatment in which body tissue is exposed to temperatures above body temperature, in the region of 40–45 °C (104–113 °F). Hyperthermia is usually applied as an adjuvant to radiotherapy or chemotherapy, to which it works as a sensitizer, in an effort to treat cancer.