What is Homeostasis?
According to Wikipedia, “… homeostasis is the state of steady internal physical and chemical conditions maintained by living systems. This dynamic state of equilibrium is the condition of optimal functioning for the organism and includes many variables, such as body temperature and fluid balance, being kept within certain pre-set limits (homeostatic range). Other variables include the pH of extracellular fluid, the concentrations of sodium, potassium and calcium ions, as well as that of the blood sugar level, and these need to be regulated despite changes in the environment, diet, or level of activity. Each of these variables is controlled by one or more regulators or homeostatic mechanisms, which together maintain life.
Homeostasis is brought about by a natural resistance to change in the optimal conditions, and equilibrium is maintained by many regulatory mechanisms. All homeostatic control mechanisms have at least three interdependent components for the variable being regulated: a receptor, a control center, and an effector. The receptor is the sensing component that monitors and responds to changes in the environment, either external or internal. Receptors include thermoreceptors, and mechanoreceptors. Control centers include the respiratory center, and the renin–angiotensin system. An effector is the target acted on, to bring about the change back to the normal state. At the cellular level, receptors include nuclear receptors that bring about changes in gene expression through up-regulation or down-regulation, and act in negative feedback mechanisms. An example of this is in the control of bile acids in the liver.
Some centers, such as the renin–angiotensin system, control more than one variable. When the receptor senses a stimulus, it reacts by sending action potentials to a control center. The control center sets the maintenance range—the acceptable upper and lower limits—for the particular variable, such as temperature. The control center responds to the signal by determining an appropriate response and sending signals to an effector, which can be one or more muscles, an organ, or a gland. When the signal is received and acted on, negative feedback is provided to the receptor that stops the need for further signaling.”
Why is Homeostasis so important?
When our body gets out of balance, it doesn’t function as it should in an effortless way, instead it tries to compensate for lack in one area, by working harder. Put another way, when our body doesn’t work with ease, it functions with lack of ease or what we all know of as disease. Disease simply put is lack of ease in our body. Our bodies are incredibly flexible at adapting to change, however, over time our systems break down from excess wear operating outside of homeostasis which eventually leads to deficiencies that show up as diseases.
Typically, your doctor will prescribe a medication to help mask the symptoms with your specific deficiency. While this can bring temporary relief of the obvious symptom, it never fixes the underlying problem, leaving you stuck on the medication and over the years, you will need stronger and stronger medication. And over time, the medication can negatively affect other parts of the body, and the vicious cycle of one medication, then two and so on, until you never know what’s going on with the cocktail of prescriptions you are now taking. There is a better way, and it all starts with accepting this common problem and understanding how you can increase your odds of achieving homeostasis and improving or fixing your health by using whole foods and natural remedies. If you can get your body to homeostasis, you can drastically improve your odds at regaining your youthful health.