BIOL 3020 – Week 2 Discussion – Homeostatic Imbalance in the Integumentary, Skeletal, and Muscular Systems

BIOL 3020 – Week 2 Discussion – Homeostatic Imbalance in the Integumentary, Skeletal, and Muscular Systems

“Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is when your blood travels through blood vessels with more force than is considered healthy; and when blood pressure is high, it can damage artery and blood vessel walls over time” (Healthline, 2019, p. 1). If left untreated, it can cause monumental problems and even death. Hypertension or high blood pressure has an indirect effect on the skeletal system. This indirect effect causes a homeostatic imbalance of the skeletal, circulatory, nervous, respiratory, reproductive, and urinary systems and results in problems such as dementia, blurred vision, kidney damage or failure, heart failure, a bulge in the arteries called an aneurysm, and more. I feel that hypertension impacts the skeletal system more than any of the other systems because “high blood pressure can cause bone loss, known as osteoporosis, by increasing the amount of calcium your body gets rid of when you urinate; women who have already gone through menopause are especially at risk” (Healthline, 2019, p. 1).

Hypertension is also called the “silent killer” because, most of the time, there are no noticeable signs or symptoms to alert the person. “Although it progresses without symptoms for the first 10 to 20 years, it slowly and surely strains the heart and damages the arteries” (Marieb & Keller, 2018, p. 385). However, your body does its best to reach homeostasis or a balance when there is an elevation or drop in blood pressure. When your body senses your blood pressure rising, a number of mechanisms step in to try to regulate it. For instance,

“When blood pressure rises too high, the baroreceptors fire at a higher rate and trigger parasympathetic stimulation of the heart. As a result, cardiac output falls. Sympathetic stimulation of the peripheral arterioles will also decrease, resulting in vasodilation. Combined, these activities cause blood pressure to fall” (BC Open Textbooks, 2019).

BIOL 3020 – Week 2 Discussion – Homeostatic Imbalance in the Integumentary, Skeletal, and Muscular Systems

“When blood pressure drops too low, the rate of baroreceptor firing decreases. This will trigger an increase in sympathetic stimulation of the heart, causing cardiac output to increase. It will also trigger sympathetic stimulation of the peripheral vessels, resulting in vasoconstriction. Combined, these activities cause blood pressure to rise” (BC Open Textbooks, 2019).

References

BC Open Textbooks (2019). Homeostatic Regulation of the Vascular System. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/anatomyandphysiology/chapter/20-4-homeostatic-regulation-of-the- vascular-system/

Healthline (2019). The Effects of Hypertension on the Body. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/high-blood-pressure-hypertension/effect-on-body#1

Marieb, E. N., & Keller, S. M. (2018). Essentials of human anatomy and physiology (12th ed.). Glenview,  IL: Pearson.

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BIOL 3020 – Week 2 Discussion – Homeostatic Imbalance in the Integumentary, Skeletal, and Muscular Systems

Explain whether the health condition has a direct or indirect effect on the system you chose, explaining why this system was impacted more than the other systems studied during this week.