physiology is a part of natural scientific knowledge aimed at understanding the mechanisms of vital activity at the molecular, organ, and systemic levels.
Based on specific processes and mechanisms, physiology builds the systemic dynamics of the entire organism in its intrinsic interactions with the external environment.
Physiology is divided into normal physiology and pathologic physiology during the course of medical education.
Normal physiology studies the functions of the body of an apparently healthy person, especially the mechanisms of its resistance to the influence of various deflecting factors. Such factors include excessive physical and emotional stress, solar radiation, electromagnetic fields, technogenic pollution of the environment surrounding the individual, etc.
Normal physiology - the theoretical foundation of healthcare
For centuries, doctors focused, first and foremost, on the body of a sick person. However, a no less significant task in terms of healthcare is preventing a healthy person, despite thousands of various causes, from getting sick, i.e., to use the natural mechanisms of health under a wide variety of social, geographical, and household conditions. This is the preventive focus of medicine, and normal physiology plays a primary role here. It is only possible to understand the mechanisms of human health based on scientific knowledge - primarily, normal physiology.
Many countries around the globe and the World Health Organization (WHO) realized that the focus of medicine should be moved to an apparently healthy person, strengthening their health, something that is more justified in medical and economic terms than compared to investing funds and efforts in the treatment of existing diseases.
Hence, it is obvious that the better the mechanisms of health are understood, the more effective healthcare will be. This is why normal physiology is the scientific and theoretical foundation of healthcare.
Pathophysiology, in contrast to normal physiology, is the theoretical basis of clinical disciplines that study the mechanisms of human disease and recovery.
Characteristics of normal physiology as a science
Social orientation
Russian physiology is aimed not only at understanding the functions of the human body, but also at the scientific solution of acute social problems based on physiological knowledge.
Starting with S.G. Zybelin, the founder of Russian physiology, the outstanding Russian physiologists (S.Ya. Mudrov, A.M. Filomafitsky, I.M. Sechenov, A.A. Ukhtomsky, I.P. Pavlov, V.Ya. Danilevsky, M.N. Shaternikov, L.A. Orbeli, K.M. Bykov, I.P. Razenkov, P.K. Anokhin and others) tried to apply physiological knowledge to understand the functions of the entire body, the patterns of its relations with the environment and with social development.
I.M. Sechenov, I.P. Pavlov, A.A. Ukhtomsky, P.K. Anokhin and other major Russian physiologists extended their explanation of physiological patterns to the point of philosophical generalizations.
A new level of physiological science is associated with the development of a systematic approach to understanding the phenomena of nature and society. The systematic approach has compelled us to study specific physiological processes in their close association with other aspects of life and with the entire body. The systematic approach in the field of physiology is reflected, in particular, in the theory of functional systems proposed by P.K. Anokhin (see below).
Reasoning
In contrast to a number of morphological disciplines, the reasoning is widely used in physiology. Physiology requires the skill to formulate the tasks of research, logically and experimentally solve them, and compare various scientific facts. Reasoning also requires exact formulations of physiological patterns, the skill to express a thought in the form of a graph or drawing.
Physiology is an experimental science
In physiology, both acute and chronic humanely arranged experiments on animals are used to study patterns of vital activity. Scientific knowledge is also acquired during permitted studies on humans.
Object of physiological research
Living organisms of various levels of organization, from the simplest to humans, are the objects of physiological research.