Adrenaline is- Have you ever been in a tense situation? Like being on an extreme ride on a playground, watching a horror movie, or almost facing death while driving a vehicle. When you are in that situation, usually a person will feel adrenaline in their body which is triggered by the stressful things mentioned above.
The human body generally produces the hormone adrenaline which is used as a response for the human body when experiencing a stressful situation or when under stress to react quickly. However, it should be noted that the hormone adrenaline must also be controlled in normal amounts because it has an impact on the body if it is excess or lacking.
For this reason, Sinaumed’s friends who have experienced being in a stressful situation need to know that the body’s quick response is present because of the adrenaline hormone in the body. So, in this discussion, we will also listen to interesting facts about the adrenaline hormone.
Furthermore, the discussion about adrenaline can be listened to below!
What Is Adrenaline?
Adrenaline (English: adrenaline, epinephrine) is a drug and hormone involved in the regulation of visceral functions (eg breathing). Adrenaline is produced by the adrenal glands and a small number of nerve cells in the spinal cord. Adrenaline plays an important role in the fight-or-flight response by increasing muscle blood flow, cardiac output by acting on the SA node, the pupil dilation response, and blood sugar.
Adrenaline performs this action by binding to adrenergic receptors: alpha and beta. Adrenaline is present in many animals and some unicellular organisms. Polish physiologist Napoleon Cybulski first isolated adrenaline in 1895.
Adrenaline is a hormone produced by the body when faced with a dangerous or stressful situation. In a balanced amount, this hormone has an important role in maintaining the function of various organs in the body. However, a deficiency or excess of the adrenaline hormone can actually be dangerous to health.
The hormone adrenaline, or sometimes also called epinephrine, is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands and the brain. The body releases this hormone when it feels stressed, depressed, scared, excited, or in a stressful and dangerous situation.
“Adrenaline overload can result from prolonged stress, and this effect can increase a number of health risks. While adrenaline deficiency is rare, it can leave a person unable to react. Therefore, we must be able to manage stress well.”
Adrenaline will bring about a number of changes to the body, including a faster heart rate and more efficient lung breathing. This causes blood vessels to send more blood to the brain and muscles, increases blood pressure, makes the brain more alert, and raises blood sugar to give you energy. The pupils will also dilate and you will sweat during the experience.
When there’s more adrenaline in your blood, you don’t feel as much pain, so you can keep running or fighting, even if you get hurt. It makes you stronger and allows you to perform better.
The body also makes a similar chemical called norepinephrine (or norepinephrine). It is made in the nervous system and released into the bloodstream continuously. Unlike adrenaline, which affects many parts of the body, noradrenaline’s main role is to control blood pressure.
Adrenaline benefits
As previously explained, the function of the adrenaline hormone is to trigger the body’s fight-or-flight response. This response causes the airways to widen to deliver the oxygen needed to the muscles to fight danger or escape.
Vascular hormone explains that the hormone adrenaline also triggers the constriction of blood vessels to direct blood to major muscle groups, including the heart and lungs. The body’s ability to feel pain is also reduced by adrenaline, which is why one can continue to run away or fight danger even when injured.
The hormone adrenaline causes a marked increase in strength and performance, as well as increased alertness, during times of stress. After the stress subsides, the effects of the adrenaline hormone can last up to an hour.
When it enters the bloodstream, the hormone adrenaline will have an impact on various organs of the body such as:
- The heart beats faster and works harder so alertness increases
- Blood vessels dilate, increasing blood flow to the muscles and brain
- Sweat production increases
- The senses of sight and hearing become sharper
- Blood sugar rises, which the body uses for energy
- Breathing becomes faster
- Pain is not felt
This adrenaline hormone will be produced naturally by the body when the body is in a dangerous situation or experiencing severe stress. This response is a form of the body’s defense to deal with circumstances.
Besides being produced naturally by the body, adrenaline can also be produced as a medicine. This artificial or synthetic adrenaline hormone is commonly used for:
- Treatment of severe allergies or anaphylaxis, severe asthma attacks and heart attacks
- Treating shock, for example due to bleeding, severe dehydration, or severe infection (sepsis)
- Prolongs the duration of anesthetic effect in surgery.
- Support cardiopulmonary resuscitation
Impact of Excess Adrenaline on the Body
Excess adrenaline hormone is common. This can be caused by prolonged stress which causes a person to have too much adrenaline.
In addition, some rare medical conditions, such as tumors on the adrenal glands, can also cause a person to have too much adrenaline.
This condition can cause you to experience several health symptoms or problems, such as:
- High blood pressure
- Headache or dizziness
- Vision becomes blurred
- Restless and irritable
- Trouble sleeping or insomnia
- sweating too much
- Fast heart rate
Over time, high levels of the hormone adrenaline can increase your risk of heart attack or stroke and lead to palpitations, high blood pressure, anxiety and weight loss.
Impact of Adrenaline Deficiency for the Body
Adrenaline deficiency is rare, even if you lose both adrenal glands due to illness or surgery. This is because 90% of the body’s norepinephrine comes from the nervous system. However, if your adrenaline is low, you may not respond well to stressful situations.
Given that excess and deficiency of the hormone adrenaline has a negative effect, try to keep your hormone levels under control. When you’re stressed, you can lower adrenaline levels in your body by breathing slowly, meditating, practicing yoga, or tai chi which is beneficial for breathing. Excessive hormone levels can also be overcome by living a healthy lifestyle, such as consuming nutritious food, exercising regularly, and limiting caffeine and alcohol intake.
The hormone adrenaline is not only dangerous when there is too much of it, but also dangerous when there is too little of it. Lack of adrenaline makes the body unable to react properly in stressful situations.
In addition, low levels of the hormone adrenaline in the body will also cause:
- Depression
- sleep disorder
- fibromyalgia
- Easily tired
- migraine headaches
- restless leg syndrome
- hypoglycemia
There are several things you can do to keep your adrenaline levels in balance, including eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, relaxing with meditation or yoga, and limiting your alcohol and caffeine intake. .
If you are constantly experiencing stress or have certain diseases that can affect the production of the hormone adrenaline, such as an adrenal tumor, you should consult your doctor immediately.
How does adrenaline work?
Adrenaline starts in the brain. When you perceive a dangerous or stressful situation, that information is sent to a part of the brain called the amygdala. This area of the brain is involved in processing emotions. If the amygdala detects danger, it sends signals to another area of the brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus itself is the command center of the brain. This part communicates with the rest of the body through the sympathetic nervous system.
The hypothalamus sends signals via the autonomic nerves to the adrenal medulla. When the adrenal glands receive a signal, they respond by releasing adrenaline into the bloodstream.
Once in the bloodstream, adrenaline will work in the following way:
- Binds to receptors in liver cells to break down larger sugar molecules called glycogen into smaller, more usable sugars called glucose; it gives your muscles a boost of energy
- Binds to muscle cell receptors in the lungs, making you breathe faster
- Stimulates heart cells to beat faster
- causes blood vessels to constrict and directs blood to major muscle groups
- muscle cells contract beneath the surface of the skin to stimulate sweating
- Binds to pancreatic receptors to inhibit insulin production
The bodily changes that occur when adrenaline circulates in the blood are often called adrenaline because these changes occur quickly. In fact, it happened so quickly that you couldn’t fully process what was happening. It’s the adrenaline rush that gives you the ability to dodge oncoming cars before you even have a chance to think about it.
Adrenaline Activating Activities
When a person perceives a threat or danger, the hypothalamus or part of the limbic system at the base of the brain activates the sympathetic nervous system, also known as the fight or flight state.
The brain instructs the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline, which is then released into the bloodstream. In addition to real threats and dangerous situations, people with certain mental health conditions can also experience increased adrenaline as part of their condition.
People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may also experience increased adrenaline from memories or thoughts about the trauma. People with panic disorders, such as agoraphobia or social anxiety disorder, may experience an adrenaline rush when faced with a situation they fear or another specific phobia. Some people love the feeling of adrenaline being released and enjoy the beating heart, dilated pupils, and sweating with excitement.
Even though the purpose of adrenaline is to trigger the body’s quick response to stressful situations, sometimes some people do certain activities just to get the adrenaline pumping. Activities that can trigger adrenaline include:
- Watch horror movies
- Play Parachute
- Jump off the cliff
- Bungee jump
- Diving with sharks
- Playing bicycle on mountain track
- Play rafting
- Talk to your loved ones
Adrenaline symptoms
Adrenaline is a term sometimes described as an energy booster. Other symptoms of adrenaline rush are:
- Increase heart rate
- Sweat
- Keen senses
- Rapid breathing
- Reduced ability to feel pain
- Increased power and performance
- The pupils are dilated
- Feeling agitated or anxious
- When the stress or danger wears off, the adrenaline effects can last up to an hour.
How to Control Adrenaline
It’s important to learn techniques to combat your body’s stress response. Experiencing stress is normal and sometimes good for your health.
But over time, the constant rush of adrenaline can damage blood vessels, increase blood pressure and increase the risk of heart attack or stroke. It can also cause anxiety, weight gain, headaches, and insomnia.
To help control adrenaline, you need to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is also known as the “rest and digestive system.” The resting and digesting response is the opposite of the fight-or-flight response. This helps promote balance in the body and allows your body to rest and repair itself.
How to control adrenaline is:
- Get to know the meaning of mental training and its types
- Deep breathing exercises
- Meditation
- Yoga or tai chi exercises that combine movement and deep breathing
- Talking to friends or family about stressful situations that you don’t think about at night; similarly, you can journal about your Feelings or thoughts
- Have a healthy and balanced diet
- Exercise regularly
- Limit caffeine intake
- Avoid cell phones, bright lights, computers, loud music, and television before bed
Treatment and Treatment of Adrenaline Hormone Problems
The main treatment for adrenaline or adrenal hormone disorders is to address the underlying cause.
If the cause of your adrenaline problems is due to a biological disorder, your doctor may need time to test and find the necessary medication or other treatment. Most problems with the adrenaline hormone stem from stress.
Adrenaline and other stress hormones are great for people when situations force them to fight or flee. However, it is important to learn how to neutralize the hormone adrenaline, so that the heart rate and blood pressure return to normal, the digestive and reproductive systems function or function regularly, and a person can feel good, ready and focused.
While shutting off the stress response is not always easy, especially when life circumstances are difficult or when a person has been used to feeling stressed for long periods of time, there are several very effective treatments to help a person return to a relaxed state.
Those are some explanations related to the hormone adrenaline. In the short term, the hormone adrenaline does not have a significant impact on health. But over time, high levels of the hormone adrenaline in a person’s body can cause real health problems. If a person is constantly feeling stressed, alert, anxious or panicked, it is best to make an appointment with a doctor. After all, the hormone adrenaline can increase heart rate, blood flow, and alertness.
Conclusion
That’s all the discussion about adrenaline which has benefits as well as dangers in the body. Not only discussing adrenaline, but also discussing the benefits of adrenaline in the body, the effects of excess and deficiency of adrenaline, knowing how adrenaline works in the body, symptoms of adrenaline, adrenaline trigger factors, and how to treat an excessive adrenaline reaction.
Knowing about the hormone adrenaline gives more knowledge about every body reaction that we usually experience but we don’t know the trigger factors. Knowing about the adrenaline hormone allows us to know more about how the body reacts and not easily panic if the body’s reaction due to adrenaline is working.