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Thermoregulation of the Human Body

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Abstract

The body is an open system that needs to protect its internal environment from its surroundings. At the same time it is dependent on its surroundings for the exchange of oxygen, nutrients, waste products, and heat. The hypothalamus integrates the incoming sensory information. The human body produces heat as a result of cell metabolism. The heat is absorbed into the blood and transported to the skin, where exchange of thermal energy can take place. This exchange, or heat flow, is known as thermodynamics. The classical model of temperature regulation and hypothalamus is the ‘set point’ concept. Another concept is the ‘thermoeffector threshold zone’ model, which describes a temperature zone where neither sweating nor muscle contraction occurs.

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Grodzinsky, E., Sund Levander, M. (2020). Thermoregulation of the Human Body. In: Grodzinsky, E., Sund Levander, M. (eds) Understanding Fever and Body Temperature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21886-7_5

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