Lesson 1: A Beginners guide to Homeostasis

Balance in the Human Body's Internal Environment

Homeostasis is an amazing process of the body regulating and balancing itself to keep our bodies alive. Although there are seven total interesting ways that your body remains balanced, there are only three types of homeostasis that are most commonly used in the body. For a beginner's Biology class, you will only need to know these three.

1. Temperature Regulation

Temperature regulation is the most commonly used process of homeostasis in your body. Think of your body like Troy's basketball game in High School Musical. When he's out on that court, running on that basketball court, the body's muscles and blood are working harder, so they heat up. You may be thinking, "How do we cool down?" Well, you know that annoying liquid that comes out of your pores? That's called sweat. Sweat comes out of your pores to help cool the body down, so you don't get overheated. Kind of like a natural air conditioning system. So hey, next time the coach calls a timeout, just keep in mind that your body is taking a breather while the coach figures out the next move for the game!

2. Osmoregulation

Osmoregulation, also known as water balance, is all about keeping internal water and salts regulated to a normal amount. For example, if you drink too much water, this can lead to swelling of your cells, also known as water intoxication. Don't worry! You'd have to drink a TON of water in a very short period of time for this to happen. On the other hand, having too much salt can lead to shrinking of the cells, resulting in issues like dehydration or even high blood pressure.

So, how does your body keep all these scary potential situations regulated? Let's travel back to Troy's basketball game. Pretend your coach is your body's brain, sending signals of, let's say... potential water intoxication to the players (your kidney's). Well, your kidneys are pretty incredible players. When they receive these signals, they filter out all of that excess water out of your cells, turning it into urine. That way, your body's cells can remain at an Isotonic (A balanced) solution (that might be an unfamiliar word for some of you, we can discuss that another time).

Now, for dehydration, which is too much salt. Your brain (the coach) is now going to release a hormone message called ADH (Antidiuretic Hormone) to the players (your kidney's again) to hold onto the water it has. It basically puts all of that water filtering in your kidney's onto a PAUSE mode in order to remain as balanced as possible, and not lead to kidney failure. When the kidney's pause, it holds on to all of the water it has until the body has a normal water intake again. So, it's basically the same as your mom or dad telling you to pause that Netflix show to get your necessary chores done before people come over. Pretty cool, huh!

3. Chemical Regulation (pH balance)

Chemical Regulation was always one of the trickier ones in Biology, but it's necessary to know about. Chemical Regulation is the process of maintaining the right levels of chemicals and pH in your body. For acid regulation that is thrown off, your body can go through a process called acidosis, which is the overproduction of acids. This is caused by factors like dehydration or kidney disease. For pH, Your pH is a measure of how acidic or basic a solution is in the body. Now, Chemical Regulation is a little harder due to there being a lot more factors that contribute to helping your pH and acid level stay at a balance. We will only be covering the three main ones today. You've got this!

The three common factors are your kidney's filters, the amount of oxygen you breathe into your lungs, and buffer systems. Think of buffer systems as the first line of defense in a battle. They react quick to keep your bodies pH regulated. For lungs, your respiratory system can control and balance everything based on how much oxygen comes into your system. And finally, you might remember the kidney's we talked about earlier with water and salt regulation. So...the kidney filters is where this might get a little confusing. Your body has three factors in the kidney's alone that help keep pH balanced. Think of each of these factors like the Powerpuff Girls. A trio that helps keep everything safe.

• Hydrogen Ions, (Bubbles) - Hydrogen Ions are safe, but can make things more acidic, which is not good in the case of homeostasis being thrown off. So the kidney's are able to remove some of these Ions to make everything less acidic, they get rid of these Ions when you urinate.

• Bicarbonate Reabsorbing (Blossom) - Your kidney's will now reabsorb something called Bicarbonate, which is a natural buffer that helps neutralize acids. The kidney's will then place these back into your blood.

Ammonia (Buttercup) - Ammonia is a good chemical that is overly produced in your kidney's to help clean up excess acids like a mop. Kind of like Bubbles job! Bubbles and Blossom work together to clean up those extra acids and get them out of there! Like defeating an evil villain, Ions, Bicarbonate, and Ammonia work together to keep your pH and acid levels normal.

To conclude, these are the three main types of Homeostasis that you will need to know about in your beginner's Biology class. We hope you enjoyed our first published blog! Feel free to leave a comment, and subscribe to our Newsletter for updates.

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