The anatomical structures play an important role of the functioning and regulation of day to day activities in the human body. Anatomy undertakes the study on different components and structures of the human body and physiology undertakes the study of the functions of these components and structures of the body (Rizzo, 2015).
This essay undertakes a detailed analysis on the effect of heat exhaustion on different anatomical structures and functions of the body.
Part one determines the analysis on the case study of Kasey and the reasons for prevailing light headed and nausea symptoms. Part two and three determines the response of integumentary system towards the unfavorable condition. Part four determines the response of cellular structure to prevailing conditions for Kasey. Part five and six determines the response of basic body structure.
The light headedness and nausea symptoms in Kasey are of heat exhaustion that occurred due to excessive loss of water and salt due to immoderate sweating (Parsons, 2014). To conduct detailed analyses on the case study, the three chosen systems to study the anatomical and physiological changes undertaking in Kasey due to prevailing condition of fishing are Integumentary System, Cellular Structure and Basic Body Chemistry.
The Integumentary System constitutes the organ system of the body incorporating the skin and its accompaniments such as hairs and nails. This system undertakes different process for the regulation and maintenance of the organ system with the help of skin. Evaporation is the process in which water passes through the sweat glands and evaporates into the air in order to maintain the tolerant capacity of a body. Vasodilatation is a process occurring in hot temperature that allows the dilation of blood vessels to impart warm blood to the integumentary skin where excretion of heat occurs through sweat glands. Homeostasis is the process that maintains the equilibrium of the body in order to maintain the body temperature. This process is conducted with the help of thermoregulation that send signals from the central nervous system to the hypothalamus. Furthermore, hypothalamus sends signals further to different organs to react in response to extreme conditions (Sherwood, 2015).
In case of Kasey, hot temperature has lead to increment in evaporation, vasodilatation and homeostasis. This is the response of the body against high temperature in order to restore body temperature. Increased evaporation, vasodilation and thermoregulation reduce the content of water and salt in the body leading to weakness and nauseous symptoms.
Cells are the building blocks of cellular structure and constitute reviving nature. This process of reviving occurs in extreme temperature differences as well. Such stress is mediated through the presence of stress proteins. Due to high temperature and increased humidity near lake, cells of the Kasey releases Heat Shock Proteins (HSP) in response to the extreme uncomfortable conditions. These proteins increase the upregulation process in order to increase the cellular components in the body as a response to the unfavorable conditions. The cells carry DNA that is unique to each person and it is crucial to conserve it. Hyperthermia or extreme temperature leads to destruction of the cells carrying DNA. In response to the damage, upregulation process is increased by heat shock proteins too maintain the equilibrium of the cell content in the body (Haslbeck & Vierling, 2015).
Basic Body Chemistry undertakes maintenance of the optimal body temperature and regulation of required minerals and vitamins that is crucial for the conduction of different metabolic activities in body. In case of high temperature, eccrine sweat glands get activated to initiate evaporation process. Furthermore, Arteriolar Vasodilatation decreases the flow of blood with the help of muscular walls of the arterioles. This decrement in blood flow does not dissipate heat out from the body leading to reduced thermoregulation (Houdas & Ring, 2013).
According to the case study, exposure to high temperature can disrupt various chemical processes in the body, the cells may start degrading due to increase in temperature and this can affect the DNA synthesis in the body and a long exposure can lead to multiple organ failure. Besides this, heat exhaustion also leads to disrupted enzyme activities leading to permanent alterations in the chemical structures of a component. Enzymes are essential for the catalyses of different reactions and biological activities of the body. Increase temperature enhances the catalyses activity of the enzymes upto a large extent. This leads to disruption of certain enzymes as all of them are not biologically capable of regulating under increased temperature further causing disruption of associated biological procedure (Nybo, Rasmussen, & Sawka, 2014).
Conclusively, Integumentary system, cellular structure and basic body chemistry plays an important role of regulating optimal temperature and salt content in the body. Due to imbalance in both, Kasey was suffering from heat exhaustion. This can be prevented by optimal usage of sun safe equipments such as hat, sunscreen and others. Furthermore, it is important to have appropriate consumption of food and water before heading into the sun as it will provide continual energy production during exposure to heat.
Bibliography
Haslbeck, M., & Vierling, E. (2015). A first line of stress defense: small heat shock proteins and their function in protein homeostasis. Journal of molecular biology, 1537-1548.
Houdas, Y., & Ring, E. F. (2013). Human body temperature: its measurement and regulation. Springer Science & Business Media.
Nybo, L., Rasmussen, P., & Sawka, M. N. (2014). Performance in the Heat—Physiological Factors of Importance for Hyperthermia?Induced Fatigue. Comprehensive Physiology.
Parsons, K. (2014). Human thermal environments: the effects of hot, moderate, and cold environments on human health, comfort, and performance. Crc Press.
Rizzo, D. C. (2015). Fundamentals of anatomy and physiology. Cengage Learning.
Sherwood, L. (2015). Human physiology: from cells to systems. Cengage learning.
