Homeostatic Balances Essay

Homeostasis is maintaining an Internal Balance. If we fail to maintain an internal balance every system inside of our body will be disrupted. Hypertension To explain to a 65 year old man with an 8th grade education, that he has hypertension, I would begin explaining, in a manor I believe that he would understand, what hypertension is and how it can affect him. ‘Hypertension is when your blood pressure is high on a daily basis. Blood pressure is considered to be high when the reading is 140/90 or higher. When your heart beats harder your blood pressure rises. High blood pressure can be caused by an imbalance in the Circulatory System and can lead to many other health problems including stroke and heart disease. Treatments that can lower blood pressure include lifestyle changes and medications. Lifestyle changes that can lower blood pressure are, but not limited to, diet changes, exercising and relaxation. There are a very wide variety of different medications that can be taken for hypertension.’ The homeostatic imbalance that causes hypertension is something that would raise blood pressure such as stress, being overweight, older age, ect. The organ system involved with hypertension is the heart. The feedback system cannot maintain homeostasis because the heart is working too hard to get the blood pressure to a normal range. The consequences for not maintaining homeostatic balance can be major health problems associated with the heart such as stroke and heart disease. Reference: Some of the information I found was in a YouTube video- Hypertension Explained Clearly! 1 of 2 @ http://youtu.be/OmKVteeuQj0 Diabetes To explain diabetes to a 13-year old middle school honors student who has just been diagnosed with it, I would begin with what diabetes is. ‘Juvenile-onset/Type 1 diabetes is a disease that is caused by your body not being able to produce or use insulin. For unknown reasons your body’s immune system, as well as others with type 1 diabetes, attacks various cells in the body which causes a deficiency of the insulin hormone. You will now need to monitor your food intake and check your blood sugar levels.’ The  homeostatic imbalance that causes type 1 diabetes is a metabolic disorder where the body does not produce enough or produces too much insulin. The organ system involved with diabetes is the pancreas, but the entire body can be affected by diabetes. The feedback system cannot maintain homeostasis because the body cannot create enough, or creates too much insulin. Even though the receptors are telling the control center that the effector needs to produce more i nsulin the body cannot create it or creates too much of it. Consequences of not maintaining homeostatic balance include problems with eyes, heart, kidneys, feet, nerves and even the reproductive system. References: http://diabetes.webmd.com/guide/type-1-diabetes http://www.webhealthcentre.com/Healthcorners/diabetes_organs.aspx