Homeostasis and its Relation to thyroid control

[diogenes]

In one sense this is way off beam for this group, but as a well written all-covering discussion of what homeostasis means, it is certainly applicable to the HPT axis and disruptions from illness etc. I put it on here largely because whilst being relevant, it is so well written that one can consider it as a treatise to be read at leisure and has many insightful things to say. It is downloadable.

Homeostasis: The Underappreciated and Far Too Often Ignored Central Organizing Principle of Physiology

Frontiers in Physiology, March 2020

DOI10.3389/fphys.2020.00200

Pubmed ID 32210840

George E. Billman

[helvella]

Very neat circularity!

Diogenes Laërtius recorded/reported information about Ctesibius in general and specifically about his water clock.

Now "our" diogenes is reporting the article by Billman which tells us about Ctesibius and his water clock.

Really readable for such an article. Thank you.

frontiersin.org/articles/10...

[tattybogle]

Thanks diogenes ... will put it in my box of "more interesting things to look at while 'him indoors' is watching snooker"

[tattybogle in reply to tattybogle]

Speaking of .... 'off beam 'I picture homeostasis as .....

A person on a balance beam outdoors..... they may look static, but in order to achieve that look , they are making continuous but very fine adjustments in their muscle tension / centre of gravity etc, to stay balanced and avoid falling off.

Then add in the effect of 'the wind' on the person... and more extreme adjustments are suddenly required in order to counteract the unpredictable forces of the wind ... and these adjustments in position will be obvious , (and some will seem illogical if you are not the person on the beam)

But then when the wind drops and balance is regained, the person looks fairly static again .... but they are not .. they are still doing all those very fine adjustments of muscles in order to stay in balance.

If the person was not continuously making those fine adjustments and was truly static, then even a breath of air from a passing sparrow would be enough to make them fall off the beam with catastrophic results ..... like a pencil stood on end ...

'The wind' could be anything ~ illness , or starvation, or moving to the Arctic Circle.

[Yeswithasmile]

Brilliant. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Thank you so much.

‘It’s not necessarily the thyroid per se, it’s more about a sort of equilibrium’ that’s what I say when I see eyes roll at me. From now on I’m going to say ‘it’s homeostasis’ and offer them some of this light reading 🤣

[crimple]

Thank you for posting diogenes. I will read it when my brain function has improved!

[diogenes Remembering]

Because it has a universal implication of how bodily things work. I like more to send to-the-point replies or posts but on this occasion I thought the universality might obscure the power of the particular thyroid message

[LindaC]

Thank you so much diogenes! Studied homeostatis at A Level [Psychology and Human Biology]: I'm not much one for 'common sense' but this surely makes it just so.

Studying mathematical psychology & stats - [The Rev] Thomas Bayes would have been delighted... 'updating the system when new information comes in'... Signal Detection and ROC all tie this together in one way or another.

[Gilbo72]

diogenes , how do I access the article? Many thanks

[helvella in reply to Gilbo72]

See my reply on this thread!

[EMBoy]

Thank you very much for this really interesting article. I have a degree in Physiology that I took over 40 years ago, and have forgotten most of what I learned, so thanks for the update and refresher.