How Your Brain Responds to Stress
Did you know that the emotional and physical responses you have to stress are set in motion by a series of chemical releases and reactions?
Curious to find out what is really going on inside your body?...
"Attack of the Adrenals" - A Metabolic Story
You are mugging to the wee hours of the night, way long past your usual bedtime. You then wake up late at 6.45am, and adding to that you have found out that you forgot to complete one of your very important homework assignments which your teacher has constantly reminded the class to do, fearing a few minutes of massive nagging from him (which of course seems like an eternity). You then proceed towards your bus stop but find that your bus is approaching. You make a run for it bus missed it. You wait there, looking your CASIO watch which shows 7.00am and it will take approximately 20 minutes for the next bus to come, and another 40 minutes to reach school which starts at 7.30am!! You reach school at 8am, well at least the prefects on duty have all left. Phew, you go to your classroom. Your teacher asks you why you are late, you do not know how to explain. He then asks you to hand up your assignment, the one which you forgot to do. After that 10 minutes of nagging and scolding accompanied with the laughter of all your peers around you. Meanwhile, you are beginning to feel a spectrum of emotions - Anger, stupidity, sadness, etc (anything but positive feelings). The story is just beginning.
You are about to enter the stress zone.
Inside your body the alert goes out.
"Attention all parasympathetic forces. Urgent. Adrenal gland missile silos mounted atop kidneys have just released chemical cortisol weapons of brain destruction. Mobilize all internal defenses. Launch immediate counter-calm hormones before hippocampus is hammered by cortisol."
Hormones rush to your adrenal glands to suppress the streaming cortisol on its way to your brain. Other hormones rush to your brain to round up all the remnants of cortisol missles that made it to your hippocampus. These hormones escort the cortisol remnants back to Kidneyland for a one-way ride on the Bladderhorn. You have now reached metabolic equilibrium, also known as homeostasis.
(to be continued)
Did you know that the emotional and physical responses you have to stress are set in motion by a series of chemical releases and reactions?
Curious to find out what is really going on inside your body?...
"Attack of the Adrenals" - A Metabolic Story
You are mugging to the wee hours of the night, way long past your usual bedtime. You then wake up late at 6.45am, and adding to that you have found out that you forgot to complete one of your very important homework assignments which your teacher has constantly reminded the class to do, fearing a few minutes of massive nagging from him (which of course seems like an eternity). You then proceed towards your bus stop but find that your bus is approaching. You make a run for it bus missed it. You wait there, looking your CASIO watch which shows 7.00am and it will take approximately 20 minutes for the next bus to come, and another 40 minutes to reach school which starts at 7.30am!! You reach school at 8am, well at least the prefects on duty have all left. Phew, you go to your classroom. Your teacher asks you why you are late, you do not know how to explain. He then asks you to hand up your assignment, the one which you forgot to do. After that 10 minutes of nagging and scolding accompanied with the laughter of all your peers around you. Meanwhile, you are beginning to feel a spectrum of emotions - Anger, stupidity, sadness, etc (anything but positive feelings). The story is just beginning.
You are about to enter the stress zone.
Inside your body the alert goes out.
"Attention all parasympathetic forces. Urgent. Adrenal gland missile silos mounted atop kidneys have just released chemical cortisol weapons of brain destruction. Mobilize all internal defenses. Launch immediate counter-calm hormones before hippocampus is hammered by cortisol."
Hormones rush to your adrenal glands to suppress the streaming cortisol on its way to your brain. Other hormones rush to your brain to round up all the remnants of cortisol missles that made it to your hippocampus. These hormones escort the cortisol remnants back to Kidneyland for a one-way ride on the Bladderhorn. You have now reached metabolic equilibrium, also known as homeostasis.
(to be continued)
posted by The Phantom Novelist at
4:41 pm
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