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TO: Marco Schuurmans Stekhoven <[log in to unmask]> Dear Marco, thank you. I think you found very correct words -- "physiological balance". Most likely, I kept them in mind when was writing about homeostasis. The "balance" word has, as I know, two main senses in English: (1) a weighing tool; (2) an equilibrium. Probably, "physiological balance" in the former sense is simply our organism keen to a maximally possible homeostasis, and equilibrating its own defensive/compensatory potentials with potentially dangerous disturbances. In the second sense, "physiological balance" is a state of relative equilibrium between dangerous (for the organism) and defensive/compensatory processes. This equilibrium is relative but relatively steady. And it is homeostasis. This equilibrium is not, of course, something absolute and unchangable. Both bowls of the organism's weigher are not nailed to the table! They are constantly oscillating but the weigher's indicator is constantly tending to zero (if the organism has yet compensatory potentials; we do not consider here cases from reanimation practice). I think the above "theoretical" considerations have direct relation to organisms of our patients. They all have a definite state of homeostasis: one state is relatively worse, another state -- relatively better... Anyhow, we must remember that a maximally possible homeostasis is the most steady state of the body. Accordingly -- the most healthy (the case of death steady state is certainly out of our consideration). Consequently, we must simply drag our patient to his/her optimal homeostasis. All the best. And my apologies to those readers who tend to sleep reading this. Stanislav. Stanislav A. Korobov, MD, PhD Physician-Physiotherapist P.O.Box 7, Odessa, 65089, Ukraine [log in to unmask]