Temperature, exercise and metabolism
Temperature and fever, energy metabolism, fasting, exercise, altitude and diving.
28 pages
Exam priority: high
- Body temperature regulationRegulation · The brain keeps the body core near 37 °C: it sweats and opens skin vessels when hot, shivers and…
- Exercise and training physiologyRegulation · During exercise the heart pumps more, the lungs move more air and muscle pulls more oxygen…
- Fed and fasting states: the hormonal switchRegulation · After a meal insulin stores energy; when fasting, glucagon pulls it from stores so the brain…
- FeverMechanism · In fever the brain turns its thermostat up: the body feels cold and makes heat until it reaches…
- High altitude and acclimatizationRegulation · At altitude air has the same share of oxygen but less pressure; the body breathes harder and…
- Physiology of the vital signs (including blood pressure measurement)Measurement · Temperature, pulse, breathing, blood pressure and oxygen saturation: five numbers that sum up…
Exam priority: medium
- Athletic capacity: strength, power, endurance and sex differencesConcept · Sprints run on stored phosphocreatine, middle distances on fast glycolysis, and long events on…
- Cachexia, anorexia and wasting in diseaseMechanism · In starvation the body saves muscle and slows down; in cachexia inflammation keeps burning…
- Energy balance, food intake and obesityRegulation · Weight changes when what we eat differs from what we burn; the hypothalamus tries to keep that…
- Energy metabolism and basal metabolic rateMeasurement · The basal metabolic rate is the energy the body burns at complete rest just to stay alive: most…
- Gases under pressure: nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity and CO₂ retentionMechanism · At depth, normal air becomes harmful: nitrogen acts like an anesthetic, oxygen turns toxic and…
- Heat exhaustion and heat strokeMechanism · In great heat and effort the body loses water and salt; if it can no longer cool down…
- How organ systems keep the internal environmentConcept · Cells live in a shared fluid
- Hypothermia and cold injuryMechanism · If the body loses heat faster than it makes it, core temperature falls below 35 °C and…
- Living high: tissue acclimatization, highland natives and chronic mountain sicknessRegulation · Weeks to years at altitude change lungs, blood and muscle; people born high adapt further, and a…
- Prolonged fasting and starvationRegulation · Without food the body spends glycogen, then fat, and spares muscle by switching the brain to…
- Recovery after exercise: oxygen debt, glycogen refill, fluids and saltRegulation · After exercise the body keeps breathing hard to repay an oxygen debt, then refills glycogen over…
- Sweat glands: secretion, salt reabsorption and acclimatizationMechanism · Sweat glands make a plasma-like fluid, then the duct pulls salt back out; heat training makes…
- Vitamins and minerals: a physiological overviewTable to know · Vitamins and minerals are needed in small amounts, but without them blood, bones, nerves and the…
For completeness
- Acceleration forces: positive, negative and linear GMechanism · Acceleration acts like extra gravity: it pushes blood toward the feet (positive G) or the head…
- Aviation and space physiologyConcept · In flight the air has less pressure, accelerations move blood around, and in space the lack of…
- Body protein pools, turnover and their hormonal controlRegulation · Body protein is built and broken down all day; insulin, GH and testosterone tip the balance to…
- Diving, decompression and hyperbaric oxygenMechanism · Underwater, pressure rises fast; gases are squeezed and dissolve more in blood, and on the way…
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy: how it works and when it helpsMechanism · Breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber dissolves enough O₂ in plasma to feed tissues…
- Nitrogen balance and body proteinMeasurement · Comparing the nitrogen that comes in with food with the nitrogen lost in urine shows whether the…
- Performance-enhancing drugs: what they do to the bodyTable to know · Doping drugs push one part of physiology (muscle, red cells, alertness) beyond normal, and the…
- Safe ascent: decompression schedules, SCUBA and submarine escapeConcept · Divers rise slowly and pause on the way up so dissolved nitrogen leaves the body through the…
- What limits exercise: lungs, heart, smoking and ageConcept · In healthy people the heart, not the lungs, sets the limit of maximal exercise; lung disease…
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Educational physiology content; not a diagnostic or treatment guide and no substitute for a health professional's advice. Values are approximate references. No doses are given.
Representative model, for educational purposes only.
