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"Homeostasis" refers to keeping some aspect of the body's functioning at a fixed level: not too high, not too low.

A good example is human body temperature (strictly, core temperature, since the skin may get pretty cold in winter, for example). The body has a set point (typically about 98.4 deg Fahrenheit or 36.9 deg Celsius, although it varies with the time of day and, in women, time of the menstrual cycle). The body detects any deviation from this set point, in other words any rise above or fall below this point, and corrects it.

Another example is blood sugar level (plasma glucose concentration). There are many others, such as blood levels of calcium and other ions. Many of these levels are regulated using hormones, although temperature correction mostly involves the nervous system (reflex responses).

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16y ago

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