WEEK 5~ Human Variation & Race
Cold:
The environmental stress negatively impacts survival of human during cold weather by, less sunlight bring lower vitamin D. Your genome expression changes from season to season, in the cold it will boost your immune system simply because it is flu season. More severe would be hypothermia, it is a life threatening condition that can result in death due to a drop in the body’s core temperature which is less than 95*F. (A normal body temperature is between 97.7-99.5)
If the body is exposed to cold and it can not warm itself up, a drop in the core body temperature will occur. First the body will start to shiver, blushed lips and extremities, finally some mental confusion. There are different types of Hypothermia from mild, moderate to severe resulting in death. During extreme cold the body receives a signal form the sensory receptors up to the brain, then to the body and try to maintain the vital organ to heat properly. Homeostasis is interrupted from its stable condition which then the body is in danger.
Hypothermia depends on human to human, Elderly people and children are more susceptible to hypothermia due to less body fat and are more fragile.
| goose bumps |
2A) Short Term: Adrenal glands produced adrenaline which caused the pili muscles attached to hair follicles to contract and making the hair stand up causing goose bumps. The hair trapped more air which prevents body heat from escaping keeping the body warm.
2B) Facultative Adaptation: If I live in California, then I will be in warmer climate where my body will not have to deal with extreme cold.
2C) Developmental Adaptations: Eskimos Hunted for all their food, they would stock up for winter and used every part of the animal for foo and clothing to stay warm
3D)Cultural Adaptations: I will give an example of my cultural that has been passed down since my great-grandmother. When it is cold out we will make a huge pot of Albondigas. This is our go to food for when it is cold out along with it being a comfort food. When we are cold and feel a cold coming on we put Vick's on our chest and feet and cover up very warm (to let the cold out of our bodies, grandmothers beliefs). This helps us stay warm and healthy.
3) Benefits of studying the human variation: Studying human variation can give us knowledge on the pros and cons in how we do things in our world so we can change it as we move into the future for our own well being.
Learning from each other and our past ancestors can help us come up with new medicine, new ways to help with the environment and help us with natural disasters.
4). I don't feel race would better make me understand the variations of adaptations but maybe more the environment and the cultural they live in. If they live is freezing cold temperatures we can learn how they adapt to weather to stay warm to survive. Also using new and old methods and finding out what works best.
posted by five primates @ January 28, 2018
6 Comments
6 Comments:
Hello,
I enjoyed reading your blog post. It was very insightful. I did not know that your genome expression change from season to season and when its cold it \boost your immune system.
In general, good discussion on the impact of cold on the body. What happens to the body, internally, when the body temperature drops? Why can't it function well below the optimal 98.6 degrees?
Goosebumps *used* to be an adaptation but not anymore in humans. Goosebumps form when the tiny muscle attached to the base of the hair follicle contracts, causing the hair to stand upright. Now if the organism has a full coat of hair, this causes and air pocket of warm air to form between the skin and the hair to act as insulation. But without that heavy coat of fur, we gain no benefit. We are left with only the bumps.
A better, currently functional short term adaptation is shivering.
Regarding your facultative adaptation: Remember that the first three types of adaptations are physiological/biological automatic responses by the body when encountering an environmental stress. You don't have to do anything to make your body adapt. So (a), living in a warm climate is not a biological response, it is behavioral, and (b) avoiding the cold is not the same as adapting to it.
An example of a facultative response to the cold is vasoconstriction, which reduces heat loss from the skin by constricting superficial blood vessels and keeping blood in the body core.
Re: Developmental adaptation - Same problem as above. Hunting is a behavior, not a biological/physiological response. A developmental adaptation for cold stress would be body shape, as explained by Bergmann and Allen's rules.
There were resources in the assignment module that discussed these adaptations. Take some time before the final to review these.
Yes, warm food (or even just high fat foods) are adaptive to cold climates. You could also include housing styles and clothing styles that are cold adaptive.
Good discussion on the benefits of this approach to human variation.
Does "race" really tell us anything about a person's environment and culture? It is possible to answer this question with "no". To answer this question, you first need to explore what race actually is. Race is not based in biology but is a social construct, based in beliefs and preconceptions, and used only to categorize humans into groups based upon external physical features, much like organizing a box of crayons by color. Race does not *cause* adaptations like environmental stress do, and without that causal relationship, you can't use race to explain adaptations. Race has no explanatory value over human variation.
Hello!
I also did my post on the cold weather and was interested in seeing what points we shared in common and which we didn't. You covered a lot of things differently than I did, but nonetheless, all great points which I hadn't thought of before. I especially loved your cultural adaptation! I can relate to it because when the cold weather starts to creep in, my mom also makes albondigas or pozole to warm us up. It's interesting because I never really thought of food as an adaptation, but have often heard my friends refusing to eat anything hot such as soups, during the summer. It's never really been a problem with me, since I love soup and will eat it during any season but it was funny to realize that this cultural adaptation of eating certain foods might also be true for hot weather. People tend to eat cooler and refreshing things.
Great post!
Hi,
I had no idea that your core temperature would drop if it can't warm itself up. I also didn't know that your genome expression changes from season to season. Great post!
Hi, can you go a little more in depth about your example of facultative adaption? Because you can't really control being away from the cold at every given moment of the day, in my opinion. But good post overall and great pictures.
Hello,
Overall good topic and discussion. I enjoyed learning about how your genome expression changes with the season. That fact took me by surprise. Also, one comment I'd like to add to your discussion would be a little depth in your material. Thanks!
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