While the word “physiological” may very well strike the ear as ultra-scientific, it really describes some of the most basic, beautiful processes that help keep living beings (think humans, animals) alive and functioning. What this term means is that it is one of the amazing mechanisms that enable the body to grow, adapt, and survive. This article will name the term, uncover its importance in biological, psychological, and medical fields, and example out some physiological processes that are taking place in the body at every second.
Defining “Physiological“
Physiological comes from physiology, which is a sub-discipline of biology concerned with the study of functions and mechanisms of living things and their parts. More specifically, it relates to anything pertaining to the conventional and biological activities of the body and its components. Physiological describes something natural and fundamental that happens in a healthy state to sustain life.
When you inhale and exhale, your respiratory system collects oxygen and eliminates carbon dioxide—this is a life-sustaining physiological process. Just like the beating of your heart, the conversion of food into energy, and even how your brain communicates with your body are all physiological activities.
The term does not only apply to humans. Plants, animals, and virtually every living thing have physiological processes that sustain them. Whether it’s a leaf performing photosynthesis or a bird controlling its body temperature, physiology has a hand in the process.
How Do You Find Physiology in Different Disciplines?
Physiology is a vita principle that runs through all fields; biology, medical sciences, psychology, etc. These fields each emphasize different aspects of the physiological. Here, we’ll look at some of these domains and how physiological principles anchor them.
Biology
[Physiology is one of the basic pillars in biology.] It describes the “how” of life — how organisms develop, reproduce, move and adapt. Biologists, for example, study physiological processes such as metabolism (the way the body changes food into usable energy) and homeostasis (the way the body sustains a constant internal environment despite changes outside it).
Green plants utilize sunlight to transform water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and glucose, a process that is not only vital to the plant itself, but also provides life-sustaining oxygen for other organisms. This deep connection of physiological systems across species, reflects the universal importance of physiology to biology.
Medicine
Physiology drives the backbone of medical science. Medicine is fundamentally the study of and treatment for diseases, and reaching those diseases requires understanding, first, how the healthy, “normal” body operates.
For instance, when a patient has high blood sugar, a physician knows that the body needs to regulate sugar (the physiologic mechanism) through hormones including insulin. Knowing this enables the doctor to diagnose what’s going wrong and select the best treatment, whether dietary changes or insulin injections.
Physiological research has also yielded life-saving interventions. Think about the invention of artificial ventilators. These machines simulate natural breathing, which is a physiological process, to assist patients with significant lung challenges or injuries.
Psychology
Psychology without the physiology would effectively encompass only the thoughts and behaviors that are the objective results of the mental functions; the physiological psychology would look at what physical processes in the brain underlie and ultimately determine these feelings, thoughts, and responses. This field — known as physiological psychology or biopsychology — connects biology and psychology.
For instance, when you feel frightened, it’s not only a state of mind. Fear sets off physiological responses in the body, like increased heart rate, increased breathing, adrenaline release — the body’s “fight or flight” response. These processes help the body get ready to either fight or flee from danger.
Scientists in the field examine how neurotransmitters (chemical messengers in the brain) and hormones drive behaviors. These physiological systems must be understood in order to work on mental health conditions, whether it’s anxiety or depression.
Physiological Processes Examples
They are interconnected systems and processes designed to maintain life. They happen automatically, and often without us even realizing we’re doing them. Some examples of the most important physiological functions as follows:
Respiration
Respiration, involves breathing — when your body takes in oxygen and expels carbon dioxide. This exchange takes place in the lungs and gives your cells the oxygen it needs to create energy.
Your respiratory hollow steel structure works in a close partnership with your circulatory hollow steel structure to deliver your thin blood which is taken into the air, to your tissues and to remove your waste products. Consider how reflexive this process is, that even when you’re asleep or distracted, your body persists in its respiration, ensuring your survival.
Circulation
The cell need oxygen, nutrients, and produce waste products like carbon dioxide on the cell level and the heart pumps the blood throughout the body in order to take and deliver these things. The sex system also helps regulate body temperature and maintain fluid balance.
One of the most interesting things about circulation is how it can change. When you workout, your body requires more oxygen, so your heart beats faster to deliver blood with more oxygen. This is a classic example of physiological systems responding dynamically to alterations in the environment.
Digestion
Do you ever wonder why you feel nourished after eating? That’s owing to your gastrointestinal system, which degrades food into smaller components that can then be taken into the bloodstream.
Digestion starts with the mouth (chewing and enzymes in saliva break down food molecules) and goes on in the stomach and intestines, where they are further broken down by acids and enzymes. These nutrients are then absorbed into the bloodstream and delivered to cells to provide energy and maintain bodily functions.
Thermoregulation
Thermoregulation is the process of maintaining your body temperature regardless of the environmental temperature around you. So when it’s chilly, you may tremble as your muscles constrict to create heat; when it’s sultry, your body radiates warmth, serving as a muggy blanket. So when it’s hot, you sweat, and the evaporation of that sweat cools your body.
This process is an excellent example of homeostasis, where your physiological systems act to maintain balance in the body.
Nervous System Functions
The messages between your brain and the rest of your body are delivered by your nervous system. When you touch something hot, sensors in your skin send signals via your nerves to your brain, informing you to pull your hand away.
This fast response, called a reflex, is an example of how physiological processes keep you from getting hurt.
The Importance of Understanding Physiological Processes
We tend to take these everyday bodily functions for granted, but recognizing what they mean can have important implications for health, disease and quality of life.
Health and Disease
An understanding of how physiological systems function is vital to the recognition and treatment of disease. I conducted a meta-analysis on psychotropic drugs trying to figure out the physiological mechanisms and then our pharmacological specialists could develop drugs based on those findings, or drugs based on whatever they developed to cope with high blood pressure, beta-blockers, whatever. Elsewhere, an understanding of how the immune system vanquishes infections has given rise to vaccines.
An unhealthy diet, insufficient physical activity, or stress can alter normal physiological processes, resulting in chronic diseases such as diabetes or heart disease.” Understanding these processes can help people make healthier choices.
Medical Advancements
Physiological research enables us to treat problems on a grand scale. For instance, research into the functioning of the nervous system paved the road to treatments such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson’s disease. Exciting work is under way that will enable us to repair or replace damaged physiological functions, improving health outcomes.
Environmental Adaptation
Physiological works also illuminate forces that govern that life adapts to shifting worlds. For instance, climbers who work at high altitudes fine-tune their capacity to transport more oxygen in their blood — a physical adjustment to low-oxygen habitats. These adaptations are based on understanding survival, but they also have implications for traveling to extreme environments, so space explorations, for example.
Final Thoughts
Physiological is essentially what makes a living thing stay living. From the simple act of breathing to the sample complex interactions of the nervous system these mechanisms are marvels of nature. Not just essential for daily existence but integral to the study and treatment of diseases, they’re not so far from the heart of any organism.
Physiology underpins the fields of biology, medicine and psychology, all of which contribute to our understanding of life itself. Understanding these processes gives us an insight into how our bodies work and opens up the possibility for us to live better and be more knowledgeable. From the buzzing thrill of excitement to a scratch healing over, physiology is happening every minute, every second in quiet alarm to keep the flow of life running. Getting it helps us know the elaborate, interlocking systems that define us.