Erika Louise G.

Alison

Adaptive Homeostasis

1. Summarize the article by responding to the author’s points first through exploring how
the ideas, arguments, or findings seem sensible to you.
The whole article entitled ‘’Adaptive Homeostasis’’ can be summarized and be
broken down into five main points. First point is the highlight on how the term
homeostasis was given definition when it is regarded as the central pillar of modern
physiology. It was Walter Bradford Cannon, a Harvard Physiologist, who invented the
term way back in 1926. He was able to combine two words from Ancient Greek into a
Modern Latin form to come up to his term on what we call now as homeostasis. The
idea of Cannon about homeostasis points that it is a condition which may vary, but
which is relatively constant. To understand it more deeply, there are certain conditions
in our body which might be termed equilibria where when applied to simple
physicochemical states, known forces are balanced. Many organs and systems in our
body are working together cooperatively in order to maintain steady states of an
organism hence giving birth to the very definition of homeostasis. For me, homeostasis
is very essential to all organism. It may seems absurd to prove it in a way that it must be
seen or heard but the very fact that it is happening inside of me made me think and
believe in this idea. Moreover, there are many scientific proof and evidences in the
medical field which holds true and support this concept. Second point on this article is
giving out the importance of stress which appears to be very relevant and timely. Stress
is an inevitable thing in our lives. Most of us here find it hard to look for means and ways
on how to cope up with it. If we are weak when it comes to deal with it, we tend to find
ourselves buried on the idea that stress have successfully gone through our way and
we can do nothing about it. On the other hand, if we will try to be positive in handling it
then we will be able to surpass it. Different people in the field of Behavioral Physiology
give meaning to stress as to how our body reacts to some stimuli that cause stress or
simply put, stressors. These stressors, severe or not affect an organism in one way or
another. It is when Hans Selye were able to develop General Adaptation Syndrome
(GAS) which is a profile that is responsible on how organisms respond to stress. It is
composed of three phases: a nonspecific mobilization phase promoting sympathetic
nervous system activity; a resistance phase where organism makes effort to cope with
the threat of stress; and an exhaustion phase occurring when an organism fails to
overcome such threat then it diminishes its physiological resources. These profile
developed by Seyle was focused on how the nervous system is working closely with
many behavioral and physiological responses to stress through the utilization of
hormones. This pave the way for the coordination of nervous system, hormonal
approach and homeostasis as part of Cannon’s ideology when he introduced adrenaline
as the common go-between in regulating the body temperature and blood sugar. The
concept of homeostasis and stress responses were being entertained by Cannon upon
developing his Fight or Flight theories which came to one of the most significant
theories in the field of Psychology and Medicine. The remaining points on this article is
all about giving meaning and better understanding of the terminologies such as
heterostasis, allostasis,hormesis, and adaptive homeostasis. The term heterostasis
 Erika Louise G. Alison

came to the picture because Hans Selye was able to propose it in answer as to how our
body cope up with toxins. Our body doesn’t only react to stressors but it is also
subjected to toxins coming from the food that we take in and from the environment
where we are exposed to live in. on the other side, the word allostasis was preferred to
by some psychologists and behavioral physiologists as responses to certain challenges
and situations involving the anticipation to the changing needs of our body and restoring
the homeostatic state of it. Similarly, hormesis was a term suggested by Southam and
Ehrlich in 1943 in order to describe the process by which a sublethal damage caused by
small doses of toxin or poison could produce an exaggerated repair response wherein
the organism appears to be stronger that it was before. It appeared to create an
enormous contributions in further studies and researches in order to improve its
significance in the field. Lastly, adaptive homeostasis came to existence because of the
fact that in the real world scenario, humans and all other organisms are bombarded with
many stresses, both internal and external. The need to cope up with these various
stressors is a must. There are certain situations wherein they may build up or fluctuate
up to the level which may appear and seem not to be accommodated anymore by
“normal” homeostatic range of stress resistance. Then, we are left with a big question
mark on our head saying “how do we deal with it?” The answer is this adaptive
homeostasis which describes an important cellular capability. It is a “transient expansion
or contraction of the homeostatic range in response to exposure to subtoxic,
nondamaging, signaling molecules or events, or the removal or cessation of such
molecules or events.”
2. Next, take a more critical stance and look for gaps in the argument. Raise questions
or discuss any doubts you have about what the source says.
When it comes to some point of argument regarding the topic presented in the
article, I don’t think I am a person in authority but as a reader, I came up with some
suggestions which can make this article more interesting and within the comprehension
level of any person in all walks of life. First of all, I understand that this topic is revolving
around a certain topic closely related to the field of medicine which is why most of the
terminologies are very hard to understand. To make it more understandable in the eyes
of the reader but somehow does not go away from its very nature, the author could
have explained it better using a clear context of words accompanied with examples
which are not very hard to decipher. Next, the author made use of the topic which is all
about the importance of stress in relation to the main concept highlighted which is
adaptive homeostasis. It would be better if the author have also included ways on how
to deal and cope up with stress since it is one of the most common things human can’t
do away from his day to day living. In that way, the reader is not only provided with all
the explanations how these concepts silently works inside us but they are also
supplemented with the authentic things they can follow and do to combat these
stressors around us. Lastly, the author might as well include things which explains how
these concepts presented beforehand will contribute to better understand how we deal
with things going around us like handling stress. Simply put, the author might as well
look into the other side of the coin wherein the reader, even if he/she is not related to
the field of medicine, will be able to look for, understand fully and realize the importance
 Erika Louise G. Alison

of reading the author’s article even if this is mainly about the concepts related to and of
medicine.
3. What evidence from the article seemed most convincing to you and why? Bring in
examples from the text to support your points.
After reading the article, one concept struck me most and that is all about stress.
Stress is a typical fragment of an individual’s everyday life. It is the reaction of the body
to any change that requires an adjustment or response. Sometimes, it affects the body
which in return, allow us to feel some emotions about the things that happened to us
like being angry, moody, and feeling irritated easily. When we reached these emotional
state, we suddenly react and explode like a ticking bomb even though the reason is very
minute. Stress is nothing but little changes happening around us which silently creeps
us inside and that we need to give an immediate response.
The evidence that is most convincing to me is the idea about the importance of
stress and how it actually get ahead of us. Based on the article, there is a General
Adaptation Syndrome or GAS developed by Hans Selye in 1956, which is a profile of
how organisms respond to stress. It characterized by three phases : a nonspecific
mobilization phase, which promotes sympathetic nervous system activity; a resistance
phase, in which the organisms makes efforts to cope with the threat ; and an exhaustion
phase, which occurs if the organism fails to overcome the threat and depleted its
physiological resources. That model strongly shows how an individual is responding to
stressors. It was explained thoroughly and was made related to what homeostasis is all
about.
4. What evidence is least convincing and why? Bring in examples from the text to
support your points.
For me, the least convincing part of the article is the part when the article had to
explain about hormesis. I am much interested as to how the author, supposed to be, will
be able to relate hormesis into homeostasis as the main concept in the article. The
concept of hormesis was simple defined as to what is it all about like this “the term
hormesis was suggested in 1943 by Southam and Ehrlich (1943) to describe the
process by which sublethal damage caused by small doses of a toxin or poison would
produce an exaggerated repair response in which the organism actually becomes
stronger than it was previously”. Likewise, the author just added the major contribution
of this concept to the success of toxicology and drug development like this “hormesis
has more recently been championed by University of Massachusetts at Amherst
physiologist and toxicologist, Edward J. Calabrese. Biphasic dose–response curves
have formed the basis for much of Calabrese’s impressive contributions to the
toxicology literature. Calabresehas led a major effort to completely rethink the scientific
foundations of our risk assessment and environmental regulation processes, and is also
trying to gain acceptance for hormetic principles in drug discovery and clinical
treatments (Calabrese, 2004; Calabrese and Baldwin, 2003; Mattson and Calabrese,
2014)”.
Personally, I am looking for something which can be of use as to why the author
was able to define hormesis in connection to how homeostasis is really working inside
 Erika Louise G. Alison

our body. Or maybe the author could add things like what benefits can be drawn after
learning and discovering about hormesis in connection as to how it might be used to the
development and growth of man. Moreover, it might also be helpful if hormesis was
studied in order to improve how man is supposed to handle stressors in life and how it
might contribute to the concept of adaptive homeostasis of every organism.
5. What do you understand better now that you have read this source?
This article was able to let me understand the concepts more clearly but because
I am not a person who is not working closely in the field of medicine, I must admit I need
a lot of time and effort in order to read the whole article with comprehension. The
concepts, which I believe are very useful as shown, was able to be presented in this
article with strong faith and conviction because of the reliable persons in authority
involved in studying these concepts. Each part of this article was briefly explained by
the author and it seems obvious that in order to support its explanation, more examples
and evidences were also included. As observed, there are certain parts in this article
which were made to explain by the author by using simple words. Through that way,
understanding the main points presented by each part created a clear picture in the
minds of the reader.
Talking about the content of this article, I strongly agree that it was made from
reliable sources and person with lots of expertise and experiences. Difficult terms which
appear to be very difficult to understand at first glance was made to be explained in a
way that is understandable on the part and within the level of the reader. Although I
can’t deny the fact that there are still some words which are not easy to comprehend at
first but readers can be able to pull it through by consistent reading.