We often has the tendency of escaping from a dangerous situation or sudden rush of adrenaline which let us to go for cliff-jumping or sky diving. Sounds crazy and looks Madddd right..
There’s a metabolic reason behind this set of actions. Hormones (A detailed explanation of hormones is shared at the end of this topic.)
Well, everyone has slight or somewhat bigger idea on hormones and the side-effects of imbalance in hormones. Many of us doesn’t know that how our body triggers we get into an unexpected situation.
Assume there’s a burglar is entering into our house or a dog is chases you 😀 Immediately, our brain and body co-ordinate so well like if we’ve got that super fast analyzing capability of decision making in real instances, we can achieve so many milestones 😛
In these instances, hypothalamus activates two nervous systems sympathetic nervous system and adrenal-cortical system. Simply, it will enable to release two hormones Adrenaline which alert our body to increase heart rate and blood pressure like a war is at the door and ACTH which flows through blood stream and helps in releasing 30 hormones throughout the body to deal against the so-called-threat situation.
- heart rate and blood pressure increase
- pupils dilate to take in as much light as possible
- veins in skin constrict to send more blood to major muscle groups (responsible for the “chill” sometimes associated with fear — less blood in the skin to keep it warm)
- blood-glucose level increases
- muscles tense up, energized by adrenaline and glucose (responsible for goose bumps — when tiny muscles attached to each hair on surface of skin tense up, the hairs are forced upright, pulling skin with them)
- smooth muscle relaxes in order to allow more oxygen into the lungs
- nonessential systems (like digestion and immune system) shut down to allow more energy for emergency functions
- trouble focusing on small tasks (brain is directed to focus only on big picture in order to determine where threat is coming from)
All these reactions together let us give fight towards that situation or fly away from the situation 😀
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