A raised temperature may be due to atmospheric conditions but is also a sign of infection. The body fights infection by producing more white blood cells which eat up the bacteria and germs causing the infection and raised temperature. Blood levels are important sign of illness and infection as an imbalance can cause problems.
Respiration and lung volume
During exercise homeostasis helps the body to maintain oxygen which is needed for muscle movements. Messages are sent to the brain which send messages to the lungs to inhale faster and deeper causing the diaphragm to rise and fall more rapidly increasing pressure to dispel the carbohydrate. This gives the lung volume readings. For the oxygen to be transported around the body messages are sent to the heart making it pump faster and more regularly.
As the heart is worker faster and harder there is an increase in the blood pressure which can be measured. Pulse rate also increases as blood travels around the body faster.
Possible Sources of Error
When taking my measurements I must remember possible areas open to error such as reading the equipment wrongly or using the equipment in the wrong way.
To avoid errors I can take each reading 3 times, then adding them together and divided by three to get a fair average. This would be possible to get for the ‘at rest’ readings but not for the readings ‘after exercise’ as every minute the 3 readings would take would show the readings returning back to normal.
To avoid error when taking the pulse I will use my first, second and third fingers to feel the radial pulse on the candidates wrist as I know that if I use my thumb I would be reading my own pulse. This is a possible source of error. I will also need to be careful with the amount of pressure that I apply to the point. If I apply too much it will suppress the reading and too little will make it difficult to get a reading.
To avoid error when measuring blood pressure I will use a sphygmomanometer. I will take care when applying the cuff as if it is too tight it will put too much pressure onto the candidate’s wrist and if not enough pressure is applied the cuff will not record a reading or will slip around so I will make sure that the cuff is positioned correctly.
To take a respiration rate I will look at how many times the candidate’s chest rises and falls. I will do this discreetly as the candidate if aware I am recording this could unconsciously breathe differently. This is another source of error which I will try to avoid.
To avoid error when measuring lung volume I will make sure that candidates are not wearing restrictive clothing. I will also ask if they are on any medication which affects respiration as this may affect the results.
Homeostatic dysfunction may produce abnormal data
This can be due to the bodies systems not correcting themselves back to normal levels.
During exercise temperature rises and homeostatic controls start to work to drop the temperature back to normal. If these controls were not working the body temperature would continue to rise.
The lungs are made to work faster and deeper during exercise which pushes the heart to work faster, if homeostasis does not work then the candidate will find it difficult to keep breathing at the rate it needs to, to supply the body with oxygen. The blood pressure and pulse rate would continue to increase.
Causes of dysfunction of the homeostatic controls could be any metabolic illness such as diabetes, any brain tumours or brain damage such as head injuries which could effect the brains messages to the vital organs, lung disease and dysfunction such as asthma or lung cancer, infections which will effect temperature control, large burn injuries as the skin surface has been changed and other medical conditions.
Body Systems working together
During exercise all the body systems work together;
This is a list if them:
- Without the skeletal system there would be no shape to the body.
- The muscular system is built around the bones. Each muscle pulls against a bone to make it move.
- The circulatory system which includes the blood, the heart and the blood vessels. It enables food and oxygen to be transported around to organs and fro waste products to be taken away.
- The respiratory system, the lungs and tubes allow oxygen to enter the body and carbon dioxide to exit the body.
- The nervous system which consists of the brain, spinal cord and a nerve network which control and coordinate the body.
- The hormonal system, are glands which produce and send out chemical messages known as hormones.
- The digestive system where food is broken down and used as fuel.
- The excretory system where waste products are filtered and exit of the body.
During exercise homeostasis is brought about to control the balance of the way in which these systems work together.
As the body needs more oxygen the lungs work harder, to transport the oxygen around the body the lungs have to work harder. Due to the body working harder heat is generated, so to lose this the body sends blood closer to the skins surface and produces sweat to evaporate of the skin.
Improvements
To improve the data collected I could take each reading three times, add them together and divide by three to give an average.
I could also use the same equipment as some apparatus may have slightly different readings.
I could also ask each candidate to cover the same distance during exercise as different people work at different levels so in giving them the same task such a 25 metre sprint may make a fairer test than asking them to keep active for 5 minutes.
I could have tested more candidates and taken a more thorough medical and lifestyle survey alongside it.
How systems work together to bring about homeostasis
Analyse of Sarah W’s results.
Respiration increases during exercise and in the minutes after exercise Sarah’s respiration begins to fall. This shows that homeostasis is starting to work, as the body’s systems start to rebalance, the blood pressure and respiratory rate begins to drop back to normal levels.
As Sarah exercises, her respiration rate goes up to increase her lung volume, homeostasis has begun to function making the lungs breathe deeper and faster as her body requires more oxygen. After exercising her lung volume decreases steadily and at the same time her respiration rate also straightens out fairly quickly.
As the heart works harder to supply the body with oxygenated blood, the blood pressure will increase, as blood is being pumped at a greater speed, her temperature will also increase as the cells burn the energy. Sarah’s temperature does not rise too much but it does fall below her measurement taken at rest as the homeostatic cooling mechanism of redistributing the blood close to the surface producing sweat and heat loss has worked very efficiently.
Homeostasis is working to keep a balance on Sarah’s body, but as she is fit and use to exercise her results do not rise significantly. This could be because the exercise was too easy for her and her body is used to exercise. Due to this the homeostatic functions only have to work for a short time before her blood pressure, temperature, peak flow and respiration rate returns to normal.
Analyse of Sarah C’s results
Sarah’s respiration rate did not rise much after exercise, this is because the homeostasis functions began to work quicker than that of the other candidates. Looking at Sarah’s at rest lung volume it is clear that she has a larger lung volume, which does not increase much after exercise.
The homeostatic functions seem to be working very well as her levels do not change significantly. Looking at Sarah’s temperature it is clear that it rises slightly and after exercise it falls steeply but at 5 minutes begins to level out.
Although Sarah admits to not participating in much physical exercise these results show that she has a good lung capacity and the systems that we tested showed that homeostatic functions were working well to maintain a balance.
Analyse of Carly’s results
Carly has a very rapid respiratory rate at rest which does not rise as much as expected during exercise. Although she has a high respiratory rate her lung volume is great. Carly’s lung volume changes very slightly after exercise and returns to the resting rate almost straight away.
Carly’s temperature reading at rest is very similar to that of Sarah C and Sarah W, but after exercise it rises dramatically. This show that Carly’s body homeostatic functions need to work harder to rebalance the bodies systems.
Carly has told us that she smokes and does little exercise, this would account for the low lung volume and high reparatory rate as her body needs to work harder to balance itself. This in turn produces more heat.
Both Sarah W and Carly have low lung volume readings, this is more likely due to Carly smoking and Sarah W having asthma. Both of these candidates have very different temperature and respiratory rates, this could be due to their general fitness.
All three candidates’ results vary because of the physical fitness, medical conditions and the amount of effort put into each test.
