A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF SYSTEMATIC PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTION
Biological-physiological systems are meant to work and function the best they can. In order to achieve their goals, systems must present certain abilities; The more and higher quality the systems' abilities, the better the function that results.
The two most basic abilities that are crucial to proper function of a system are supervision and regulation. Supervision will be defined as the system's ability to know what is going on, while regulation will be defined as the system's ability to change what is going on or sustain it (as needed).
Advertisement
In order to know what is going on, the system must be informed of what's going on. The more information is received per period of time, the better and greater the supervision of the system is. In addition, the higher quality of information received, the better the supervision process becomes.
In order to regulate what's going on, a system must have in place the "tools" that cause the effects needed for change, or the ability to sustain function at a certain level. The process of regulation naturally demands the ability to analyze information about what's going on, make a decision, and be effective enough to cause the change or sustained status according to the decision made.
Constant supervision and regulation demand the infrastructure to achieve such function. One of the most basic rules of nature is that structure (Anatomy) determine function (Physiology), thus changes to structure could result in changes to function. Such infrastructure must include the ability to collect information, convey it to a component capable of analytics and decision making, and the ability to convey the decision to another component of the system in an effective way.
These abilities exist in the human body by means of sensory loops. Accordingly, chemical and/or mechanical sensors collect information about substances within the body at specific locations and/or mechanical forces (commonly pressure and tension) being applied to the body (internally or externally). Chemoreceptors collect chemical information, while mechanoreceptors collect physical information about forces applied. Both types of information are the most commonly used in the body to know what is going on.
As receptors (sensors) are stimulated by whatever they are specialized in sensing, they convey the information to a brain via means of nerves leaving the tissue/organ and traveling to a brain. The information received by a brain is analyzed by the brain, that then leads to a decision being made by a brain in regard to what should be done next. We distinct between The Brain that resides within the Skull, and other brains that reside within the Spinal Cord. Three operational decisions can be made:
Keep the functional level the same; Sustain function.
Increase the functional level; Work more.
Decrease the functional level; Work less.
The decision is then conveyed by means of nerves to the target tissue/organ, and if conveyed effectively, the decision should be carried out as planned. this in turn acts as a stimulus for the receptors, and the loop reoccurs endlessly, closing the sensory loop.
Beyond these two systemic abilities, physiological systems often must exhibit other abilities to support, sustain, or improve function. There are six more important abilities that help achieve systemic goals of function.
Delivery - the ability to bring something near by the cells. It has not yet entered the cells, rather than being offered as a possibility by being brought in close proximity of the cells.
Extraction - the ability to cause something to leave/exit one location and enter the cell. In many cases, we extract from the blood tissue and into the cells.
Utilization - the ability to make use of what is within the cells. Commonly, the cells utilizes molecules as part of its metabolism at the cellular level of function.
Buffering - the ability to neutralize the unwanted chemical effect/s of a certain molecule such as bases/alkaline compounds and/or acids. The result is most likely the creation of water and a salt of sort. Buffering is used as a "chemical tool" to regulate the pH of the close environment. Buffering can take place either within the cell, prior to disposal, or outside of the cell, after disposal.
Disposal - the ability to get rid of substances and forces that are currently unwanted or of negative influence to function under the current and specific circumstances.
Adaptation - the ability to change function to function at a newly required level according to changing circumstance. For the better part, we aspire adaptation processes to result in improved function rather than worsened function. Improvement to capacity and efficiency are regarded as classic positive adaptations resulting in better function, while diseases and injury are regarded as classic negative adaptations resulting in worse/lesser function. Adaptations rarely include substantial changes to structure, and commonly include changes to quantity or quality of processes.
Advertisement
Chronic diseases are often characterized by the loss of regulation of processes, and in some cases, also the loss of supervision over processes. The loss of supervision and regulation of more crucial processes, results in a worse disease or illness.
Comments