2. Four ways in which humans have adapted to this stress is by:
a) Sweating, the short term adaptation. When we perspire it is the bodies natural way of trying to cool off our body during overheating in a warm environment or during extensive exercise.
b) A facultative adaptation to heat would be vasodilation, which is when the blood vessels in the body widen in turn allowing heat to pass through the body more quickly. It helps a lot during exercise too when more blood is flowing through the heart at a faster rate and we sweat more.
c) An example of a developmental adaptation could possible be the size of the person and how their body structure is. People who are a lot larger tend to sweat more and have larger areas of skin that can be exposed to sunlight. Where as a much smaller and slimmer person would have less cells o be damaged.
d) An example of a cultural adaptation would be the kinds of clothing we have made to wear in different climates. Specifically in hotter temperatures we have developed sandals for our feet, tank tops for our upper bodies and shorts for our lower body. Also hair ties help a lot with women and their hair allowing coolness to hit their necks.
3. The benefits to studying human variation is always beneficial so we know how to dress on hot summer days, we can wear skin sunscreen to help our skin from burning. We've also discovered remedies such as aloe vera that helps keep the skin cool or help with burns. Anything from hand held fans, to spray water bottles, to knowing when we are thirsty and need to replenish ourselves with water to stay hydrated.
4. From what I have gathered in the reading materials, race would give us no insight at all in to helping us understand the variations in adaptation. Naturally places like Arizona and Las Vegas have an environmentally difference in what the do to keep cool as opposed to say people in Greenland. Depending on whether or not you live in a colder or warmer climate is perhaps the greatest factor in studying environmental adaptation. When we exercise we know we have to drink lots of water, when we're out at lake or parks in the sun all day we know we have to dress cool and drink fluids and when we sleep at night it's nice to have air conditioning available so we don't wake up in a pool of sweat.
Your post was informative and straight to the point. I feel that when it comes to cultural development adaptation, we, Americans, at times go for the fashion style then comfort of being cool. What do other cultures do for developmental adaptation? I agree that if we were to focus on race it would be difficult to understand the environmental stresses and the adaptations people use.
ReplyDeleteGreat opening discussion on heat stress.
ReplyDeleteExcellent discussion on each of the four traits. All accurate and well-explained.
Good explanation of the benefit of the adaptive approach. Correct, more factual information is always a good thing in surviving in our given environment.
"...race would give us no insight at all in to helping us understand the variations in adaptation."
That's correct, but why is this the case? I don't disagree with the rest of this paragraph, but can you explain why race is so useless in understanding adaptation? How do we define race? Do all cultures define race in the same way? Is it defined from an objective, biological basis or from a subjective, social basis?
Other then this final point, good post.
Great post, I didn’t realize that our blood vessels could open up our skin to allow more heat to flow through like a built in air-conditioning. You make a great point about cultural adaptations in that people may wear hair ties to keep hair out of their way during exercise or let wind hit the back of their neck; however, I have to agree with evolutionary wonder in that Americans often suffer in order to "look good." My wife wears high heels and those do not look comfortable or adaptive in any way. In fact, it is usually not long into an event before the shoes end up under the table while my wife is running around barefoot. But, we also have occasions were we do wear shoes to fit our needs such as running shoes, steel toed work boots, or dress shoes. People who live in the country may wear boots, where people who live in a city may wear shoes that are less rugged. The environment dictates the adaptations that people must make to survive.
ReplyDeleteHi! Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteOne of the interesting things about sweating as an adaptation for heat or to accomodate heat loss is some of the times when it fails. For instance, you still sweat under strenuous exercise in a pool, but due to being underwater, the evaporative cooling doesn't happen. My body temp runs a little hot, so when I swim for fitness, if the pool is to warm I get hyperthermic pretty quickly. It's difficult because most public pools are kept pretty warm for my taste. Another instance when sweating is an insufficient means of cooling the body is when the skin has been permanently damaged as it is it is when it is burned. Full thickness burns and the accompanying scaring eliminate sweat glands and healthy tissue that is capable of sweating, often causing excess sweating among healthy skin areas. I have a friend who is a 15 year burn survivor and has had botox in high sweat prone areas (like the axillary) to prevent serious excess sweating issues, but due to the reduction in sweating, she also has to hydrate and be very careful of high temperatures during the summer.
Interesting little tidbits. Thanks for the post.