Homeostasis

• What is homeostasis?

  The regulation of the internal conditions of a cell or organism to maintain optimum conditions for function in response to internal and external changes
• Homeostasis maintains optimal conditions for enzyme action and all cell functions

  in the human body, these include control of:

  • blood glucose concentration
  • body temperature
  • water levels
• These automatic control systems may involve nervous responses or chemical responses.
• All control systems include:

  • cells called receptors, which detect stimuli (changes in the environment)
  • coordination centres (such as the brain, spinal cord and pancreas) that receive and process information from receptors
  • effectors, muscles or glands, which bring about responses which restore optimum levels.