Editor's Choice Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry Article Date: 09 Aug 2012 - 14:00 PDT

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The word "physiology" comes from the Ancient Greek physis, which means "nature, origin", and logia, which means "study of".

Physiologists are forever attempting to find the answers to key questions in single cell functions, how human populations interact, our environment on earth; in other words, an extremely wide range of subjects.

Physiologists say that physiology is a fundamental science for understanding about "life", how to go about treating diseases and coping with the stresses our bodies are exposed to in different environments. Pathophysiology seeks to understand the abnormalities that occur in human and animal diseases. Physiologists work closely with other scientists and health care professionals in seeking out new methods for treating those diseases (translational research).

Physiology and anatomy are very closely related disciplines; they are intrinsically linked. Medical students tend to study the two disciplines in tandem.

According to Medilexicon's medical dictionary, Physiology is:

Some say that Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), who focused on the relationship between structure and function, was the real pioneer of physiology.

Galen (Claudius Galenus, circa 129-200/216), a prominent Greek physician in Ancient Rome, dissected animals and became by contemporary standards an expert anatomist and physiologist. He said that monkeys that walked on two legs, like we do, would most probably provide researchers with knowledge that could be applied to humans. Galen is known as the "founder of experimental physiology".

Claude Bernard (1813-1878), a French physiologist, made further discoveries which eventually led to his concept of milieu intrieur (the environment within), in which he refers to the extra-cellular fluid environment which protects tissues and organs of multicellular living organisms. The concept was later investigated further by Walter Cannon (1871-1945), an American physiologist, who named it "homeostasis".

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What Is Physiology?