Body Temperature Maintenance

Body Temperature Maintenance Describe how normal body temperature is maintained and explain how the nurse can ensure accuracy when measuring this vital sign Every person creates heat in their bodies through the production of Adenosine triphosphate (also known as ATP or energy) which happens within the cells in the mitochondrion, this is also referred to as the metabolism and heat is the by product of the process in producing ATP which is called respiration (Waugh this is also constantly changing however it keeps it within a specified narrow range (Marieb 2009). Homeostasis is an important function within a person’s body. It works on an equilibrium balance effect which has a series of stages. These stages run in a chronological order whenever there’s an imbalance within the body’s system. As stated in Marieb’s (2009) work there is firstly the stimulus which is the actual imbalance within the body system such as an increase or decrease in body temperature; then there’s the rece ptor which will detect the increase or decrease in body temperature; once the receptor has detected the change it will send this message to the control centre which for temperature is the hypothalamus, depending on whether the temperature has increased or decreased, the hypothalamus will work accordingly which will send out a message to the body to either tell the blood vessels to vasoconstrict so that heat lost to the surface of the skin is decreased (if the body’s temperature is lower than usual) or it will send out a message to the blood vessels to vasodilate so that heat will be lost to the surface of the skin, it will also tell the body to produce sweat so that the heat can be evaporated away from the body. Once the body temperature has returned to ‘normal’, equilibrium has been reached and the hypothalamus will stop sending its message to the body (Marieb 2009).