Homeostasis is best defined as
- A. the total of all chemical reactions in the body
- B. the removal of metabolic waste from the body
- C. the maintenance of a constant internal environment despite changes outside the body
- D. the growth of an organism to a fixed adult size
Explanation
Homeostasis keeps temperature, water potential, blood glucose and pH within narrow limits, because enzymes work properly only over a small range of these conditions. It operates by negative feedback, in which a departure from the set point triggers a correction that returns the value towards normal. Excretion is one of the processes that contributes to it, not a synonym for it.
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