Free Can I Live Without My Hypothalamus? Essay Example

Hypothalamus is a part of the endocrine system which has many functions. It is considered that the most important and essential function of the hypothalamus is linking of endocrine system to the nervous system (Melmed, 2011). The autonomic nervous system used the hypothalamus for its major metabolic processes such as secretion of hormones. These metabolic processes affect the whole body and could control the important behaviours such as sleep, thirst and fatigue (Card, 2001). Another main function of the hypothalamus is the control of homeostasis. It is the regulation and maintenance of the biochemical reactions in the body of a certain organism. Hypothalamus is also highly connected to the brain and other major parts of the body which could affect the inside and outside processes.
In general, people could not survive without the hypothalamus. Hypothalamus is the control part of the homeostasis in the body. It means, the body could not adapt to the environment without the hypothalamus (Sodersten, 2009). A person could also not survive without the hypothalamus since it controls the most vital and essential processes of the body such as respiration, heart rate and digestion. It could control these functions using the metabolic process which is associated with it. The endocrine and the nervous system would also not function well without its connector which is the hypothalamus (Cezario, 2008). It would be impossible to live without the metabolic processes that occur in the hypothalamus.
It may be impossible to live without hypothalamus but people could survive if they have a hypothalamus that is not functioning well (Sodersten, 2009). However, there would be a lot of negative drawbacks if a person is living with a dysfunctional hypothalamus. Dysfunctional hypothalamus could lead to the disorder in the thermal regulation and the energy balance within the body. Hormones would not be delivered properly to the body with a dysfunctional hypothalamus (Melmed & Jameson, 2005).

References

Card, J. (2001). Hypothalamus. John Wiley & Sons.
Cezario, A. (2008). Hypothalamic sites responding to predator threats--the role of the dorsal premammillary nucleus in unconditioned and conditioned antipredatory defensive behavior. European Journal of Neuroscience 28 (5): 1003–1015.
Melmed, S. (2011). Williams Textbook of Endocrinology. 12th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier Saunders.
Melmed, S., & Jameson, A. (2005). Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. New York: McGraw-Hill
Sodersten, P. (2009).  Sex differences in the brain: the relation between structure and function. Hormones and Behaviour, 55, 589-596.