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There is a common notion that human beings often survive life or
death and even emergency situations because of the so-called
adrenaline rush. It is a situation where the processes in the human
anatomy automatically react or respond to a given situation which
the mind perceives to be critical.
In science, adrenaline, or epinephrine, is a
hormone produced by the adrenal gland found directly above the
kidney of the human body. They say that when adrenaline is secreted
into the bloodstream, the hormone prepares the body for action by
boosting the supply of oxygen and glucose to the brain and muscles
while reducing considerably nonemergency processes in the body like
that of digestion. Short bursts of physical prowess results from
dilated blood vessels and air passages that makes the body pass more
blood to the muscles as more oxygen are put in into the lungs in a
timely and precise manner.
They say that the discovery of the adrenaline as
a substance was first reported in May 1886 by American physician
William Bates in the New York Medical Journal. It was Napoleon
Cybulski, a Polish physiologist and a pioneer of endocrinology, who
isolated and identified the substance in 1895. German chemist
Friedrich Stolz, however, was the first person to synthesize the
hormone artificially in 1904.
Since the hormone causes an increase in heart
rate and stroke volume, constricts the small blood vessels in the
skin but dilates the arterioles in skeletal muscles, the pupils and
air passages, starts the breakdown of lipids in fat cells, elevates
blood sugar and suppresses the immune system, they say that it is
important to douse the adrenaline released in the human system after
a stressful situation. Before, this is done naturally because man is
habitually engaged in a lot of physical activity. But in today’s
world where human exertion is less, the amount of adrenaline left in
the body results in insomnia, palpitations, high blood pressure, and
restive nerves.
In 1915 American physiologist Walter Bradford
Cannon theorized the so-called fight-or-flight response by holding
that animals react to threats through a general discharge of the
sympathetic nervous system that prepares the animals either to flee
or to fight. And they say that this response system was later
recognized as the first stage of a general adaptation syndrome which
regulates stress reaction among vertebrates and other organisms.
Thus, the fight-or-flight response is often used to characterize the
situation known as adrenaline rush.
To be sure there is always the adrenaline that
serves as a lifeline in every severe and extemporaneous situation
man is confronted with. But summoning the aid and comfort of this
hormone in normal times would only mean stress, a condition that
produces unneeded bodily strain and causes much of the physical
maladies and human ailments known in today’s world. Unfortunately,
this is how nature works.
If human beings would only heed this law of
nature, they would realize that life is all about perfecting or
working for that state of constant peace and tranquility in this
hectic, fast-paced and crazier world. And it is all because everyone
has this adrenaline that rushes automatically in times of great
need.
Reality dictates that putting the adrenaline to
work unnecessarily could spell the end of life.
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