What does your body do to keep a constant core temperature?

The area of your brain that controls body temperature is called the hypothalamus.

A) When the hypothalamus senses a rise in temperature, the body responds by activating cooling mechanisms such as:

- increasing the activity of sweat glands resulting in a cooling effect

- arterioles in the skin dilate allowing for skin capillaries to fill with blood. Heat is lost from the capillaries by radiation in order to cool you down

B) When the hypothalamus senses a drop in temperature, the body responds by activating warming mechanisms such as:

- constricting skin arterioles so that blood is diverted to deeper organs and tissues so that less heat is lost through radiation

- stimulating skeletal muscles to begin shivering. This generates body heat and has a warming effect