Shadowing Practice: Homeostasis - How Your Body Keeps its Balance - Physiology Series - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hey guys, welcome to my second video on physiology and today's topic is homeostasis, how the body is balanced.
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So let's get started.
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Homeostasis, what does that even mean?
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So homeo means similar, stasis stable or stand still.
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So homeostasis is how to keep the body's internal environment constant.
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This is different from hemostasis because hemo means blood.
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Hemostasis is how to control your blood, talking about bleeding, coagulation and stuff like that.
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That's why we have the field of hematology, which is the study of blood.
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So, homeostasis is different from hemostasis.
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When you first start learning about anything, what's the first question?
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What's the definition?
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So what is homeostasis?
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It's the maintenance of nearly constant circumstances in your body's internal environment.
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The internal environment of your body is usually the ECF,
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extracellular fluid, as I've told you before in the previous video.
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As an example here, You have the hydrogen ion concentration.
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Usually they should be less than 5 nanomoles per liter.
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This is 0.00000000005 moles per liter.
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Very tiny amount, but it's tightly regulated.
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In fact, only a narrow range of pH is compatible with life.
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Usually the pH is between 7.35 and 7.45.
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Theoretically you can live between 7 and 7.7 pH.
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Anything less than that or more than that, you're dead.
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These numbers are not actual numbers.
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The pH is a logarithm.
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So, they are very teeny tiny amounts of hydrogen, any excess, any decrease, and you're done.
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So, I see, homeostasis is very serious.
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But what's the definition of disease? disease is nothing but a disrupted homeostasis.
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Wow!
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So disease is called pathology.
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Homeostasis is called physiology.
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A new field of science is born.
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Pathophysiology.
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So how does your body work?
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You have the good stuff such as nutrients, the bad stuff, the waste products and carbon dioxide, and you need communication systems.
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So how to get the good stuff?
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To get nutrients you need to eat This is the gastrointestinal tract.
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To breathe, you need the respiratory system to get oxygen.
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Okay, now how to give the food and oxygen to every single cell in your body?
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You need the circulatory system or cardiovascular system, also known as CVS.
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Not the pharmacy, okay?
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Then we have the bad stuff, the waste products.
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The liver and the kidney will deal with this junk.
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For communication, fast communication, you have the neurons very fast.
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For slow communication, you will need stuff called hormones.
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So let's talk briefly about every system in your body.
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We start with the circulatory system or cardiovascular system.
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Heart pumping blood into arteries.
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They go into capillaries or capillary bed.
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Exchange will occur with the cells.
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Blood will give the cells nutrients and oxygen and will take the waste products and CO2.
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Plasma, which is in the blood, is continually mixed with the interstitial fluid between the cells.
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Very important.
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Now let's go to the lungs.
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Now we have all the CO2 and waste products going back to the heart.
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The heart will pump them in a pulmonary artery, will pump the CO2 to the lungs.
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The lungs will breathe out the CO2 called exhalation and will breathe in the oxygen called inhalation.
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Now oxygen can go to the blood and the cycle goes over again.
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CO2 is the most abundant of all metabolic products.
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Let's talk about the GI and the liver.
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You eat from your mouth, of course, and then it goes to the stomach and the small intestines.
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Not all of the absorbed stuff is cool.
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No, we need some lab to tell us.
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Is it useful to us now?
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Should we wait and store it?
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Should we convert it to other more usable stuff?
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And this is called the liver, your body's laboratory.
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Your body's laboratory will change chemical compound.
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It will store products and it will eliminate waste products.
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Very cool.
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And now the kidney.
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The kidney is king.
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Filters the plasma, some of which will be reabsorbed, other will be excreted in urine.
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Goodbye.
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Acid-base regulation to regulate the pH of your blood.
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Also some endocrine function.
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To the tech savvy here, let's talk about communication.
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You have the very fast nervous system composed of neurons or nerve cells.
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It starts usually in the skin to pick stimuli.
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So this is the skin and this neuron here is called the sensory neuron.
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Let's say that you're touching a hot object.
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Okay, very hot.
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So it will tell your CNS or central nervous system, which is the brain and the spinal cord, that there is something hot here.
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It will relay it through an interneuron to another one, which is now a motor neuron,
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to tell your muscles, pull up your hands from this hot object, you idiot.
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Second, the slow system, the hormonal system.
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We have some glands called endocrine glands, such as this nice thyroid gland,
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and it will secrete thyroid hormone directly into the bloodstream.
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Thyroid hormone is carried by the blood, and now thyroid hormone is like the oven of your body.
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Everything is hot.
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Everything is working so fast.
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That's why patients with hyperthyroidism, they feel hot all the time.
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All of their systems are working very fast.
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They lose a lot of weight, etc. On the other hand, patients with low thyroid level,
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also known as hypothyroidism, they gain weight, they feel cold.
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It's the opposite.
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So hormones are very, very important.
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Before I let you go, here is a question for you.
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The extracellular fluid has blank sodium ions than its intracellular counterpart.
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So does the extracellular fluid has more sodium, less sodium, the same sodium as the intracellular, or is it variable?
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If you'd like to know the answer, go to my Facebook page, facebook.com forward slash medicosis.
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And let me know what you think the answer is down below in the comments.
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I'll see you in the next video with a new physiology video.
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But now, don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell.
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Also, I'd like to see you on Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, Instagram, and please consider supporting this channel on Patreon.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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This is Medicosis Perfectionalis.
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As always, be safe, stay happy, and study hard.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Homeostasis - How Your Body Keeps its Balance - Physiology Series”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: blood, homeostasis, products, hot, neuron. This video has 108 sentences and 1031 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:53. The speaker talks at a steady 131 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| homeostasis noun | /ˌhoʊ.mi.oʊˈsteɪ.sɪs/ | The ability of a system or living organism to adjust its internal environment to maintain a state of dynamic constancy; such as the ability of warm-blooded… |
| neuron noun | /ˈn(j)ʊɹɑn/ | A cell of the nervous system, which conducts nerve impulses; consisting of an axon and several dendrites. Neurons are connected by synapses. |
| thyroid adjective | /ˈθaɪ.ɹɔɪd/ | Of, relating to, or being the thyroid cartilage. |
| hormone noun | /ˈhoɹmoʊn/ | Any substance produced by one tissue and conveyed by the bloodstream to another to effect physiological activity. |
| sodium noun | /ˈsəʊ.di.əm/ | The chemical element (symbol Na) with an atomic number of 11 and atomic weight of 22.990. It is a soft, waxy, silvery, reactive alkali metal that is never… |
| extracellular adjective | Occurring or found outside of a cell. | |
| gland noun | /ɡlænd/ | A specialized cell, group of cells, or organ of endothelial origin in the human or animal body that synthesizes a chemical substance, such as hormones or… |
| hemostasis noun | /ˌhiːməˈsteɪsɪs/ | The process of keeping blood inside a damaged vessel to stop bleeding. |
| nutrient noun | /ˈnuː.tɹi.ənt/ | A source of nourishment, such as food, that can be metabolized by an organism to give energy and build tissue. |
| physiology noun | /ˌfɪziˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/ | A branch of biology that deals with the functions and activities of life or of living matter (as organs, tissues, or cells) and of the physical and chemical… |
| kidney noun | /ˈkɪdni/ | An organ in the body that filters the blood, producing urine. |
| capillary noun | /ˈkæpəˌlɛri/ | Any of the small blood vessels (from 5 to 10 micrometres/micrometers (μm) in diameter) that connect arteries to veins (They are the smallest blood vessels in… |
| circulatory adjective | /ˈsɝkjələˌtɔɹi/ | Of or pertaining to a circulation, especially to the circulatory system. |
| endocrine adjective | /ˈɛnd.oʊ.kɹɪn/ | Producing internal secretions that are transported around the body by the bloodstream. |
| intracellular adjective | Inside or within a cell. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| go over verb | To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze. | |
| pull up verb | /ˌpʊl ˈʌp/ | To lift upwards or vertically. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- When you first start learning about anything, what's the first question?
- Is it useful to us now?
- Should we wait and store it?
- Should we convert it to other more usable stuff?
- Your body's laboratory will change chemical compound.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is balanced · is called · is born |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | hematology, which is · Plasma, which is · system, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 8 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thyroid /ˈθaɪ.ɹɔɪd/, hyperthyroidism /ˌhaɪ̯pəˈθaɪ̯ɹɔɪ̯ˌdɪzəm/, hypothyroidism /ˌhaɪpəˈθaɪɹɔɪˌdɪzəm/, logarithm /ˈlɑ.ɡə.ɹɪ.ð(ə)m/, pathology /pəˈθɒləd͡ʒi/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: coagulation /koʊ.æɡjuˈleɪʃən/, exhalation /ˌɛkshəˈleɪ̯ʃən/, inhalation /ˌɪnhəˈleɪʃən/, interstitial /ɪntəɹˈstɪʃəl/
- Long words — get the stress right: homeostasis /ˌhoʊ.mi.oʊˈsteɪ.sɪs/, hemostasis /ˌhiːməˈsteɪsɪs/, physiology /ˌfɪziˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, capillary /ˈkæpəˌlɛri/, circulatory /ˈsɝkjələˌtɔɹi/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like homeostasis, neuron, thyroid.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.