-
Asked by charlesdarwin to Jen, Mel, Stef on 21 Mar 2013.
-
Stefan Piatek answered on 21 Mar 2013:
Ahh Adrenaline, a classic. It does lots of things but basically it get’s us really pumped. So our muscles work better and we get a bit stressed. This is called the fight or flight response and the idea is that we either will run away from danger or fight it, both of those need a lot of energy and maybe courage for the fight, both of these happen because adrenaline goes around the body and affects us!
-
-
Jennifer Paxton answered on 21 Mar 2013:
Stefan has already answered this really well – adrenaline is a hormone released under situations of stress. So it opens up all the blood vessels to your muscles to increase blood flow and helps open up your lungs and increase your heart rate so that you can either run away from danger or fight it! (The fight or flight response!). Interestingly, it also closes up the blood vessels to the “non-essential” organs/bits of the body that aren’t needed for these responses so for example, your stomach.
You’re right too that adrenaline can stop us from feeling pain (not all pain though) and this helps with either running away or fighting! Pretty cool eh? -
Melissa Brereton answered on 21 Mar 2013:
Stefan and Jennifer have answered this question really well. Adrenaline doesn’t stop us from hurting ourselves- if you have really high levels of adrenaline in your body and you cut yourself, it is still going to hurt. There is a really rare form of cancer of the adrenal gland (the organ that produces adrenaline) which patients have high levels of adrenaline in their blood. These patients have a high heart rate and blood pressure because adrenaline has a really important role in ensuring your heart works. But these patient can still feel pain because the nerves that sense pain are still working properly. I think that when adrenaline is released during stress, it diverts blood away from your extremities and directs it to your internal organs
Comments