We explain what physiology is and some main characteristics of this science. Also, the types of physiology that exist.
What is Physiology?
Physiology (from the Greek physiology, knowledge of the nature) is the science that is in charge of knowing and analyzing the functions of living beings. From the meeting of the principles proposed by the other exact sciences (physical, chemistry, biology), is discipline gives meaning to the relationships between the elements that give life to the living being.
The basic unit of living beings is the cellWithin it are the components that determine its characteristics and functions. As the cellular structure becomes more complex, the functions expand. Physiology, for this reason, is fundamental in its relationship with all parts of medicine, especially with anatomy.
While the second deals with the conformation of the individual (of animals, Humans, plants, etc.), physiology is concerned with the functions they fulfill.
The origins of physiology go back many centuries before Christ, when the Greeks used the term to speak of the "rules or logic that governs life." The figure of Aristotle signified a fundamental transformation in the matter, and proposed a new conception of philosophy and of the happiness human. Aristotle interpreted the Hippocratic precedents of medicine, and understood that everything that exists is composed of matter and form.
Jean Fernel used the concept of physiology to talk about the discipline that studies the functioning of living beings. The existence of a scientific method produced substantial advances in the matter, with experiments carried out in most cases on animals. Claude Bernard believed physiological science as the knowledge of the causes of the phenomena of life in a normal state. He gave importance to experimentation and the fact that theories are contradicting and reformulating each other.
The interactions carried out between the parts of the body are governed by laws that are not totally autonomous, but rather the opposite: they are about physical, meteorological or environmental issues. electricity. If all the functions of the body have to be in balance, physiology will have a lot to do with that state, called homeostasis.
One could mention and characterize a physiology for each of the functions that the human body has, but only a few will be mentioned below, which stand out for their importance:
- Cardiac physiology. He has managed to divide the heart as a single organ that has two different systems, one left and one right. The physiology of the heart has managed to understand the movements systole and diastole, heart rate (with which it was possible to determine the issues of tachycardia and bradycardia), anaerobic metabolism and hypertension.
- Respiratory physiology. It is the one that deals precisely with that device, the one in charge of providing the body with a sufficient amount of oxygen. It will then be the circulatory system the one in charge of transport in hemoglobin or plasma. The respiratory movement was understood as the combination of inspiration (the air reaching the alveoli) and expiration (the air flowing out through Pressure in the respiratory tract).
- Reproduction physiology. It is understood as the set of structures of the body that make possible the reproduction, and therefore the conservation of the species, as well as its operation. This is not the same in men and women, each having its own uniqueness.
- Physiology of the locomotor system. Takes care of bones, tendons, muscles, joints, among others.