Final answer:
Vasodilation helps the body lose heat by dilating blood vessels, allowing more warm blood to reach the skin's surface. This facilitates heat radiation into the environment. Additionally, sweat production increases, with evaporation contributing to heat loss.
Step-by-step explanation:
Vasodilation plays a key role in helping the body lose heat. During vasodilation, the blood vessels in the skin dilate, meaning they widen. This process allows more blood from the warm body core to flow close to the surface of the skin. As a result, the body can radiate heat into the environment more effectively.
Increased blood flow to the skin's surface is not the only way the body loses heat through vasodilation. Sweat glands secrete fluid that, when evaporated, also assists in heat loss. This method of cooling is known as evaporative heat loss. Through the combined efforts of increased surface blood flow and the evaporation of sweat, vasodilation enables the body to lower its temperature efficiently.
In contrast, when the body needs to conserve heat, the opposite process occurs, which is known as vasoconstriction. During vasoconstriction, blood vessels contract, limiting the flow of warm blood near the surface of the skin and reducing heat loss.