HOPe is the Only Way to Peace (Part VI) HOMEOSTASIS is a Necessity for Life [Archives:2002/05/Law & Diplomacy]

Professor Mohamed Yahia Al-Sharafi*,
MD, Former MP
Email: [email protected]
PO Box: 19387, Sanaa, Yemen
What is life:
A very simple yet a puzzling and confusing bewilderment is the long standing question about the nature of life.
Some smart science philosophers define life by saying: We really do not know other than to repeat that life is the sum of all forces that resist death.
I remember that about thirty something years ago, our secondary school master of biology taught our class that the nine characteristics of life are:
a) Growth
b) Reproduction
c) Irritability
d) Contractility
e) Absorption
f) Metabolism
g) Respiration
h) Excretion, and
i) Homeostasis
Living systems are constantly adjusting and reacting to changes in their environment, these changes are called stimuli and the reactions are called responses of the living organism while the process is called adaptation.
As we have seen in previous articles, the essential basic unit or brick of body building is the living cell. We have explained its functions in previous articles. A collection of cells form a tissue e. g. bone tissue, liver tissue etc., and tissues as well have known functions. A collection of different tissues organizes to form an organ and each organ has a function e. g. the liver, the brain, the kidneys etc. Different organs are harmonized to form a system e. g. urinary system and each system has a specific function. So what is the function of the whole organismic systems?
All systems seem to integrate and got directed to maintain life of the organism. This is achieved through two important parameters:
a) The form including the shape of the organism
b) Then life continuation is guaranteed by Homeostasis.
Homeostasis as a necessity of perfection of function
Homeostasis is defined as the constancy of the internal environment of the living organism. It is a state of dynamic equilibrium. It is achieved by the regulatory systems of the organism.
For a cell to survive it should be protected, nourished and cleaned (i. e. the waste products removed).
So Homeostasis is the ability of the body to maintain certain stability despite changing environmental conditions. This stability is maintained because of the bodys ability to react and compensate for internal and external environmental changes. Not because everything is fixed or locked in place, e. g. temperature around the organism can vary from freezing in the arctic to boiling in the equatorial desert. In both cases body compensates for these changes, so that our body neither freezes not boils, but maintain in a more or less constant level.
This vital constancy of the components of the immediate environment of the living cell should be maintained. The way for that is by homeostasis. We should be aware that Homeostasis differ from the concept of the internal environment in that the later denotes a condition where as the former is the means by which this active process is achieved. It is particularly important not to think of homeostasis as the maintenance of an unchanging or static state. Biology is life, life is the contrast between change and the ability to adapt. Biological systems show this to a marked degree. All the cells, tissues, organs and systems of the body achieve this goal in harmony e. g. the excretory system, is attuned to changes that might affect the constancy of the internal environment. The kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra are the instruments for removing superfluous fluids and urines from blood. The precise adjustable activities of the cells of the kidneys tubules is responsible for the constancy of the composition of the blood and thereby for the internal environment of all the cells of the body.
All systems, even the productive system contribute to the well being of the cell, particularly in the adults because the hormones secreted by the normally functioning gonads regulate many metabolic processes and together with the secretions of the other member of the endocrine system act as co-regulators of the functioning and adjustment of the body. Rapid coordination of internal organs systems and response to the external environment are provided by the complex nervous system. Interactions between the nervous and endocrine controlling systems are precisely adjusted by intricate mechanisms, the significance of which has only just began to be appreciated and has given rise to the new term neuroendocrine regulation.
Historical background of the concept of Homeostasis:
The concept of constancy of the internal environment was first put forth by the famed French physiologist who summed it all up by saying that: A free and independent life in a world of changing external environment is dependent on the maintenance of a constant internal environment.
The living organism as an independent entity possesses an internal environment but sharing with all creatures the external environment of the earth and cosmos. The external environment is always changing. This continuous change disrupts the balance of the internal environment. No living thing exists in isolation. Through out an organisms existence, matter, energy and information pass both through organism and between parts of it at rates that are not always predictable or even measurable. These flows provide perturbations to the physiological state of the animal that must be controlled if the animal is to remain alive. If the disturbance come from the external environment, the animal may respond at all levels from the cellular to the organismic. If the disturbances are internal to the organism, responses are usually at the cellular or organ levels. In either case stability of the internal environment is maintained by the constant adjustment of physiological parameters.
For life to continue all the parameters of the internal environment should be constantly kept at the desired suitable level needed for life. So the temperature, the blood pressure and the concentrations of glucose, salt, hydrogen ions etc. in the blood must be kept within certain limits in spite of changing conditions. This certain limit is called optimality.
All the vital mechanisms, however varied they may be, have only one objectives, as Claud Bernard wrote, that of preserving the conditions of life in the internal environment, at the degree of (optimality). So we have optimum temperature, optimum blood pressure, optimum salt concentration, etc.
The regulatory systems of the mammalian organism including the Homosapien species are integrated to provide the optimal environment for the basic unit of living matter which is the cell. All the various systems, respiratory, digestive, neurons, circulatory etc.., which are individually designated as though they existed for their own sake and dignity serve in a subsidiary role to fulfill the biologic requirements of the cell. This set of essential conditions is the internal environment or in the more elegant French phrase of the physiologist Claud Bernard (1878), Le mulieu in terne, the internal melody.
In 1928 Walter B. Cannon further developed this concept and gave it the name: Homeostasis. At the most basic level homeostasis is accomplished by mass and energy transport controlled via feed back mechanisms.
Life, as we know it, is possible only within a certain limited range of environmental conditions. In general, the higher the form of life, the more closely regulated must be the organisms internal and external environments.
The limiting factor is the extent of the range within which life can survive. This is the physiological range; and only variations that stray beyond these realms are incompatible with life.
When death occur, Homeostasis is no longer possible. The body can not maintain stability and order and therefore decays. The Nobel laureate in physiology and medicine Sir John Eccles said: It is no more than the nearest approach to truth , that we have yet achieved, and doubtless it is going to be superceded.
To be continued

* A known Yemen Arab Islamic scholar and writer. Senior neuropsychiatric consultant and lecturer. Politician and former member of the elected first unity parliament. Founder of the HOPe, Modern Personality Theory and the cybernetics as per the three dimensional readings in time and place methodology.

What is HOPe
*HOPe, the Human Optimum Psyche or al-Sharafis Theory is a modern personality theory.
*HOPe is based on al-Sharafis new epistemological methodology called: Cybernetics as per the three dimensional readings in time and place.- The three dimensions being the Holy Quran, the Cosmos and the Human Psyche.
*HOPe is defined as: The state of highest integrity of psychobiochemical functions stable enough to transmit peaceful feelings and constructive behavior to the external environment- both physically and socially.
*HOPe is the common target of all human philosophies, sciences, cultures, civilizations and religions.
*HOPe materializes an ideology for Islamic revival based upon contemporaneous modern interpretations of the eternal Holy Quranic verses and the Prophet nobel Sunnah.
*HOPe is the convergence point of the three great Abraham monotheistic religions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
*HOPe is a vital preparatory phase for the ideal cosmopolitant human being that emits peace and love and respects the international values of human rights, democracy, freedom, justice and cooperative peaceful co-existence
 

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