Question

What is a homeostatic imbalance?

Answer 1

Homeostasis is the maintenance of the steady internal state of the body. The steady state is the state at which the functioning of the body is optimum. For example, body temperature, blood sugar, fluid balance is at homeostasis. If the homeostasis is disturbed, the body functioning will not take place properly.

Complete answer:
Homeostasis is the internal steady state which regulate the variables like the temperature, sugar level, fluid concentration so that the physiological process can be carried out easily. So these variables are kept at the pre set limit. When this limit is disturbed, the homeostatic imbalances take place which disturbs the normal physiology of the body. The equilibrium of the body is disturbed.

The causes for homeostatic imbalances are-
- Internal factors like ageing and genetics.
- External factors like physical activity, nutrition deficiency, drug and alcohol abuse, mental health etc.
- Environmental factors like expose to radiations, toxins etc.
- Stress.
- Cellular malfunctioning.
- Microorganisms.

If the causes of the imbalance are prolonged then the body’s internal system is disrupted which leads to various diseases and disorders. The diseases can be caused either due to deficiency or toxicity.
Ageing is one of the important factors for the homeostatic imbalances in which the body loses its control mechanism to retain its efficiency. This can lead to heart failure, diabetes, frequent infections etc.

Note: The homeostasis is maintained by the central nervous system. One of the example for homeostasis is the maintenance of the blood sugar in our body. In a normal condition, if the blood sugar is high, the hormone insulin is secreted by the pancreas which immediately lowers the level of the glucose in the blood. But if the homeostasis is disturbed as in case of diabetes, the insulin is unable to control the increased blood glucose level.