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Applied Science: Unit 9 - Assignment B (the Hormonal System).

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Module
Unit 9 - Human Regulation and Reproduction

Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)

This assignment was documented to a DISTINCTION standard and was one of four assignments that allowed me to earn a distinction as my final grade for the entire unit. This assignment goes into thorough detail about the hormonal system; including thermoregulation, osmoregulation and the pituitary gla...

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Uploaded on August 26, 2022
Number of pages 15
Written in 2020/2021
Type Essay
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unit 9
unit 9 assignment b
unit 9 assignment 2
hormonal system
thermoregulation
feedback systems
positive feedback systems
vasodilation
vasoconstriction
glands
hypothalamus
pituitary gland
osmoregulat

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1. Essay - Applied science: unit 9 - assignment a (the nervous system, pulmonary system and the ...
2. Essay - Applied science: unit 9 - assignment b (the hormonal system).
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Assignment 2: Unit 9
By Lewis Keyte
Homeostatic Control of Body Systems
Date of Assignment issue: 9th November 2020 Hand in Deadline: 23rd
November 2020

An Introduction to the Hormonal System
The body consists of many defence mechanisms to alter and respond to changes when they affect the standard
functioning of the organ systems. These systems require specific conditions in both atmospheric pressure and
temperature in order to allow for nominal functioning as many cells and enzymes within the body are highly
sensitive to environmental changes. This can cause them to become inadequate for use which will poorly affect
the average operations which the body will conduct in cases such as digestion and temperature regulations. To
prevent the malfunctioning of the body’s sensitive cells, there are many defence and response mechanisms
which are built to revert and alter the foreign conditions through the use of feedback which will allow the body to
maintain an important process of body regulation, commonly known as homeostasis.

What is Homeostasis? (With Examples)
Homeostasis is a process in which the body consistently maintains a constant internal environment by regulating
and controlling inner mechanisms which affect body temperature, blood glucose concentration and water
balance. These are not the only mechanisms which the hormonal system regulate, however these are examples
of some major functions). These procedures are commonly managed through the use of hormones, a chemical
substance which travels as a messenger from one organ to another target organ. These chemicals travel slowly
while providing longer lasting effects as they can take anywhere between a few minutes to several days to be
broken down. Hormones are initially secreted (released) through the use of a gland. These glands are located all
throughout the body where they produce and discharge specific chemical substances to change a target organs
function. Glands conduct these actions because there is an imbalance within the body, and it is the glands role to
secrete these hormones to force change upon an organ. By doing this, the target organs’ cells will bind to the
hormones by targeting the receptor proteins located on the outside of the cells. The binding between the
receptors and the hormone may result in numerous outcomes but they all result in the same similar end results,
they will return any internal changes like pressure or temperature, back to its original, optimal environmental. By
doing this, homeostasis has been maintained and regulated through reversing the original change which
occurred in the body, back to its original state. This is also known as a negative feedback loop as the
temperature or pressure has been reversed by the body's hormonal system. To summarise, homeostasis is a
process in which any environmental changes within the body are reversed through a negative feedback loop or a
response which reversed the initial change. In this case, the hormonal system causes the reversal of any
environmental differences.

Without homeostasis, the changes within the fluctuating environment in the body will prove to make the
production and functioning of all cells unsuitable as certain proteins within the body only function under certain
temperatures and pressure. An example of this is an enzyme which typically performs best at a temperature of
37oC which is the optimal (average) body temperature. If this number were to either increase or decrease, then
the functioning of this enzyme will be greatly reduced as it is not placed within the correct environment, causing it
to become deformed and misshapen as the molecules are sensitive and react easily with the environment while
under different pressures and temperatures. The enzymes in particular serve a crucial role in the digestion
process where they speed up chemical reactions to allow for food chunks to be rapidly broken down to extract
essential nutrients such as glucose. If digestive enzymes are not produced and maintained correctly inside the

, digestive organs such as the stomach, pancreas and small intestine, then the enzymes will become denatured
(incapable of forming a reaction with its active site) to the point where they are incapable of speeding up
reactions efficiently. This will make it harder in the breaking down of larger food chunks which are digested to
extract beneficial minerals such as glucose which will be used as an effective energy source for all tissues in the
body. The incapability of processing larger food molecules would mean fewer nutrients will be withdrawn from the
digestive system, meaning less energy will be provided. This can cause many cells and tissue to decay as the
lack of supplements means that the body’s cells cannot sustain themselves, which causes them to die. Nutrients
such as magnesium, sodium, calcium and phosphorous provide all the body’s cells with structure and energy.
For example, the bones require calcium phosphate in order to provide strength and support to the bones, if the
enzymes cannot speed up reactions or enable the breakdown of larger food molecules, then a larger quantity of
these nutrients can be wasted or lost, causing the bones to become brittle and weak as they are incapable of
being extracted under the digestion process. The shortage of minerals can lead to many disorders such as brain
bleeds through the lack of energy and bones may become brittle through the absence of a calcium intake. This
would also make the production rate of enzymes slower as the proteins used to make the catalysts have a large
structure as they are built up from hundreds of thousands of smaller amino acid chains. Digestion of these
proteins may prove difficult to extract if there are a lack of enzymes to speed up the reaction.

Feedback Systems

Because of homeostasis, the body requires an intensely controlled environment to ensure that any changes that
may occur within the body are detected and are capable of being reverted or removed. The hormonal system
works similarly to the nervous system in many ways as they detect and respond to stimuli to enable changes that
will bring conditions back to their nominal level. This is done through a process of feedback which may either
enhance a change to dispose of it, or simply revert it through other means such as shivering which affect body
temperature. These systems are known as positive and negative feedback and it is primarily conducted through
the use of hormones and the nervous system as they personally carry the response to the stimulus.

Negative Feedback Loops (Thermoregulation)

Negative feedbacks occur to alter any internal changes by reversing them through the use of muscle contraction
and the secretion of hormones, which in turn, brings the body back to equilibrium. This is frequently seen during
lower temperatures where the body is placed in an environment where it is beneath the conventional climate of
37oC. When the body is presented in front of an atmosphere which is significantly colder than what is
recommended, much like a hot drink in room temperature, the body temperature will gradually decrease until it
reaches the climate’s conditions. This change in temperature will poorly affect the reaction rate of cells within the
body as many of them are highly sensitive to temperature change and they have been specifically adapted to the
body’s thermal temperature of 37oC. The difference in atmospheric temperature to body warmth will affect the
cells’ activity as a larger decrease in thermal conditions will result in the death of most enzymes which are used
within the digestion process. As mentioned previously, the death of catalytic enzymes (which will speed up the
metabolic rate by lowering the amount of energy required for the breakdown of nutrients, especially proteins as
they are crafted through large chains of amino acids), will prove to make it harder for the stomach acid
(hydrochloric acid [HCL]) to break down as the digestion process will be much slower, possibly to a threatening
level as essential macronutrients such as vitamins and minerals would be incapable of being delivered at an
efficient rate.

By lowering the body’s temperature, the body will become incapable of providing additional warmth as the energy
can’t be extracted to be used in the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Commonly known as ATP,
adenosine triphosphate is constructed through the oxidation of an amino or fatty acid and it is the body’s main
source of energy. This energy is used in absolutely everything from the energy used in providing movement, to
the energy used to provide aerobic respiration (inhaling and exhaling). When the enzymes used to break down
foods to extract proteins (containing amino acids) for the production of ATP are lacking, then this means that the
production rate for additional energy is also slowed down. Adenosine triphosphate is also used in providing heat

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