Adrenaline - Summary
Adrenaline
Most of us, at some point, have been excited or thrilled as a form of entertainment. Whether it is a roller coaster at an amusement park or a scary movie, some results from this form of exciting entertainment may include tense muscles, increase in heart rate, increase in blood pressure, or excessive perspiration. Such physical effects are caused by Adrenaline. Adrenaline is a hormone that is released from a person’s adrenal medulla during emergency situations but does not have psychoactive effects. It is released into the person’s body from the adrenal glands located above the kidney. It is commonly referred to as a “fight-or-flight” hormone, because of its effects in increasing the supply of glucose and oxygen directed at a person’s brain and involuntary muscles. This allows the person to have better physical abilities to utilise during an emergency. Adrenaline is also known as epinephrine. Adrenaline is derived from the Latin roots ad, meaning towards and renes, meaning kidneys. Epinephrine originated from the Greek roots epi, meaning on, and nephros, meaning kidneys. This is in reference to the physical location of the adrenal glands in a person’s body, atop the kidneys.
Norepinephrine or noradrenaline is another hormone released from the adrenal glands. It is very closely, chemically related to adrenaline, as well as having similar effects on the human body. However, a significant difference between the two hormones is that adrenaline has no psychoactive effects, while noradrenaline does, affecting the person’s mental processes. The effects of adrenaline released with into the bloodstream include the stimulation of involuntary muscles, rising blood pressure, conversion of glycogen, a form of stored body fuel, inside the liver into glucose, heart rate increase, the dilation of the bronchioles, the fine, thin-walled, tubular extensions of the bronchus, in the lungs, increased breathing rate, increased metabolic rate, and decreased digestive and
Most of us, at some point, have been excited or thrilled as a form of entertainment. Whether it is a roller coaster at an amusement park or a scary movie, some results from this form of exciting entertainment may include tense muscles, increase in heart rate, increase in blood pressure, or excessive perspiration. Such physical effects are caused by Adrenaline. Adrenaline is a hormone that is released from a person’s adrenal medulla during emergency situations but does not have psychoactive effects. It is released into the person’s body from the adrenal glands located above the kidney. It is commonly referred to as a “fight-or-flight” hormone, because of its effects in increasing the supply of glucose and oxygen directed at a person’s brain and involuntary muscles. This allows the person to have better physical abilities to utilise during an emergency. Adrenaline is also known as epinephrine. Adrenaline is derived from the Latin roots ad, meaning towards and renes, meaning kidneys. Epinephrine originated from the Greek roots epi, meaning on, and nephros, meaning kidneys. This is in reference to the physical location of the adrenal glands in a person’s body, atop the kidneys.
Norepinephrine or noradrenaline is another hormone released from the adrenal glands. It is very closely, chemically related to adrenaline, as well as having similar effects on the human body. However, a significant difference between the two hormones is that adrenaline has no psychoactive effects, while noradrenaline does, affecting the person’s mental processes. The effects of adrenaline released with into the bloodstream include the stimulation of involuntary muscles, rising blood pressure, conversion of glycogen, a form of stored body fuel, inside the liver into glucose, heart rate increase, the dilation of the bronchioles, the fine, thin-walled, tubular extensions of the bronchus, in the lungs, increased breathing rate, increased metabolic rate, and decreased digestive and
Cited: Cohen, Barbara, and Taylor, Jason. Memmler’s Structure and Function of the Human Body. 8th Edition. Philadephia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkinson, 2005 Campbell, Neil, and Reece, Jane. Biology. 6th Edition. California: Benjamin Cummings, 2002 “Epinephrine.” Wikipedia. May 22, 2008. Wikimedia. May 26, 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epinephrine>