Living systems maintain coherence not through static homeostasis, but through continuous cycles of energy transformation, entropy export, and structural renewal. This article presents a thermodynamically grounded model of biological regulation, structured around five interdependent phases: Dynamic Homeostasis, Disruption, Reaction, Adaptation, and Refined Homeostasis. Through oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondria generate ATP, the central mediator of entropy balance. ATP hydrolysis powers essential cellular functions while inherently increasing molecular disorder; only through mitochondrial regeneration can it sustainably managed. Disruption emerges when entropy influx, driven by environmental stress or mitochondrial dysfunction, overwhelms the system’s dissipative capacity, triggering containment responses and metabolic reprogramming. Adaptation encodes new structural and energetic strategies, and Refined Homeostasis integrates them into a reorganized functional baseline. By positioning mitochondria as the thermodynamic origin of cellular order, this model reframes biological regulation as an open-system trajectory through energy flow, stress response, and structural adaptation.
This article proposes a unified theory of dynamic regulation across biological systems, grounded in thermodynamics, systems neuroscience, and evolutionary biology. It reframes disruption not as inherently pathological, but as a thermodynamic imperative, one that drives adaptation and reorganization. Physiology transitions into pathology only when a system exceeds its predefined thresholds and when initially adaptive responses evolve into maladaptive cycles. Each iteration of refined homeostasis may stabilize the system locally, yet it moves the system one loop closer to pathology and one loop further from optimal physiological function.