Homeostasis is known as the set of self-regulation phenomena that allow the maintenance of a relative constancy in the composition and properties of the internal environment of an organism.
Homeostasis is the body’s ability to present a characteristic and constant physical-chemical situation within certain limits, including against alterations or changes imposed by the environment or the environment.
How does homeostasis occur in the body? The body or organism mobilizes the different systems (self-regulation), such as the central nervous system, the endocrine system, the excretory system, the circulatory system, the respiratory system, etc., to keep life conditions constant.
Thus, homeostasis, by extension, refers to the characteristic of any system, whether open or closed, which allows it to regulate the internal environment to maintain a stable condition.
Origin of the word homeostasis
The term homeostasis is of Greek origin; It comes from the word “homoios”, which means ‘same or similar’, and “stasis” that expresses ‘stability’.
The term was coined by the American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon, in the year 1929. With this term, Bradford Cannon did not refer to a static situation, but to something that varies within tight and precise limits. In fact, physiology focuses most on studying and analyzing the limits of variation and regulatory mechanisms.
In 1859, the French physiologist Claude Bernard, said that all vital mechanisms, however varied, have no other objective beyond maintaining the conditions of stability of the internal environment.
Psychological homeostasis
Internal imbalances can occur on the psychological level, and this is called needs.
In the case of psychology, homeostasis is characterized by the balance that exists between the needs and satisfaction of an individual.
Thus, if the individual does not feel that their needs are met, homeostasis encourages him to reach internal balance through behaviors that allow him to meet those needs.
Homeostasis of oxygen for cells
At high altitudes, such as in the Andes, the Alps, the Pyrenees or the Himalayas, the oxygen in the air in the atmosphere is lower than in the surface. The respiratory activity of the people who inhabit these places becomes insufficient at a regular rate.
However, to compensate for this difficulty, the body or organism makes use of a homeostatic medium: intensification of the respiratory rhythm and then slowly increase the production of red blood cells, which will later be released into the bloodstream.
With a higher rate of red blood cells, the individual can efficiently retain in the lungs the little O² that has the air.
Homeostasis of cellular metabolism
The chemical composition of the internal environment must not be altered and must remain unchanged.
Therefore, the resulting products after newly formed cellular metabolism (CO ² , urea, ammonia, uric acid, urates, creatinine, etc.) should be discarded immediately.
This expulsion is the lungs (CO ² ), by the sweat and sebaceous glands, but mainly by the kidneys.
Homeostasis in business administration
In the field of the administration of a company, we can affirm that a company behaves in a homeostatic way, since it must change its behavior every time new modalities are presented in the market, in order to maintain its market share, and stay in the competition
Homeostasis in ecology
Ecological homeostasis is characterized by the dynamic balance that exists between natural communities and their environment. When this balance disappears due to various causes such as floods, fires, droughts, earthquakes, among others, the homeostasis capacity disappears generating an ecological imbalance.
Cybernetic homeostasis
Cybernetic homeostasis involved the creation of a homeostat that regulated itself through feedback. It was the invention of the English physician William Ross Ashby, in the mid-twentieth century.
Cybernetic homeostasis allows different electronic systems to maintain a state of equilibrium in the face of a series of variables.
