Did you know you have two little yellow, nine-volt-battery-sized adrenal glands in your body, just chilling out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool on top of your kidneys? Someone told me this and I checked it out. Turns out it’s true.
It seems as though your adrenal glands are kind of like those British Royal Guards with the big, black fuzzy hats who stand like statues in front of Buckingham Palace. They just stand there quietly, not doing much really, just enjoying the brown, slippery beach that is your kidneys.
However, if anything startling should happen that requires your attention — like say you’re about to give a speech at a wedding or your hear a twig crack outside your tent or your doorbell rings in the middle of the night — then they leap into action, jumping out of their peaceful slumber to squeeze out a big dose of adrenaline right into your body, pumping you up, and turning you into a primal, warrior-like version of yourself.
When tension runs high and adrenaline is secreted into your body some crazy things can happen — sometimes called the fight-or-flight response:
- Your heart rate increases. And specifically, your body starts sending blood to all your big muscles and diverts it away from “non-critical” parts of your body, like your brain, immune system, and digestive system. I guess someone figured you could digest the sandwich after you killed the bear.
- Your pupils dilate and you get tunnel vision. Quite literally, adrenaline also reduces your peripheral vision, which together with your big, wide pupils helps you focus on what lies ahead. You can’t quite see through walls, but if a crow is diving at your eyes you might be able to swat it away better.
- Your body gets ready to boot it. In addition to the rising heart rate, your body starts turning lots more stuff into sugar, raising your blood sugar level and filling you with energy. You might not even feel pain as easily, so the raspberry bushes that shred your legs when you’re running out of the forest won’t slow you down.
But what’s also great about adrenalin is that, first of all, you don’t have to control it. It just sort of kicks it into high gear when it figures you could use a boost. I think it’s kind of cool knowing that your body will help you out when you need it most. Punch me in the face and suddenly my internal British Royal Guard tosses away his fuzzy, black cap, cracks his neck, and rolls up his sleeves.
And really, isn’t it that little dose of adrenalin that helps you do a better job when you need it most? It’s a natural upper, helping you nail the big speech, ace the final exam, or perhaps flee both of those scenes.
There’s a reason some people become adrenaline junkies. The boost you get from your adrenal glands waking up and getting out of bed is intoxicating. Sure, it fuzzes up your thinking a bit and sends your intestines on sabbatical, but it sure does pump you up. And remember: when something important in your life is about to happen, you can count on your good pal adrenaline to be there, juicing you up, helping you fight the good fight.
AWESOME!
14 Comments
September 22, 2008 at 12:49 am
Two #935s!
September 22, 2008 at 3:51 am
Just to let you know, this should actually be 934.
…I feel incredibly anal right now…
September 22, 2008 at 3:52 am
…and now I notice that I’m not the first person to comment on it, making me feel inept in my anality.
I’m apparently a nit-picker with a poor eye for detail.
September 22, 2008 at 7:48 am
Sorry, temporary planetary misalignment. Fixed it up, and now I can retire a day early. Thanks for the heads up.
September 22, 2008 at 9:46 am
“but if a crow is diving at your eyes you might be able to swat it away better. ” ha ha ha, I love it!
Thanks for the biology lesson. Also, I had no idea those British Royal guards had such major guns.
September 23, 2008 at 9:03 am
[...] – For a delightful look at adrenaline, please skoot on over to this post on 1000 Awesome Things: #934 Adrenaline. I came upon this post thanks to the blog cross-referencing feature of [...]
September 24, 2008 at 1:00 am
Adreneline is a crazy beast that makes you do insane things.
November 22, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Yeah, this is good.
Did you know when your in a full adrenaline rush your strength is increased 20 times its natural state, which means it would take you a few minutes to take the bear, and I’d feel sorry for the guy you get into a fight with because if the guy already has large muscles or semi-large muscles than adrenaline will not effect his muscles but it will increase the speed that he can swing his punches.
March 8, 2009 at 1:50 pm
haha! adrenaline is truly awesome! Im a dancer and the huge year-end performances are soooooo fun bucause there is a whole bunch waiting in the dressing rooms and then you get called with your class. Then theres adrenaline from when your backstage to when your back in the dressing room again. It’s awesome!
April 1, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Adrenaline at its best: while you’re either performing on stage, playing a really expensive electric guitar, or both.
Adrenaline at its worst: when some small noise in the house wakes you up in the middle of the night – you feel the adrenaline flow into your bloodstream, and you know that no matter how hard you try to mentally stem the flow, you’ll be wide awake for the next hour or so.
April 15, 2009 at 7:33 am
Hey, cool tips. I’ll buy a glass of beer to the man from that forum who told me to visit your blog :)
April 26, 2009 at 1:09 pm
First off, love the site! got some great stuff in here and I think gone through about 300 or so of your AWESOME!(s).
However I’m kinda having an issue with this one. You’re adrenaline glands don’t just sit there dormant waiting to be squeezed into action. You use them on a constant basis, unless you lead a very very boring life. For example, getting up in the morning is EXTREMELY difficult if you didn’t have your adreno-glands providing you with a kick up and go!
Again, love the site, just thought I’d let you know that this isn’t very accurate.
September 9, 2009 at 9:44 pm
One thing I find troubling with this: I actually think more clearly when I’m in the middle of an adrenaline rush. It happens all the time when I’m at work… I’m a cashier at a grocery store, and I can sometimes trigger an adrenaline rush by increasing the rate of my breathing and starting to move faster. After just a minute or so, I feel it kicking in, and the described effects take place. (Although, reading on Wikipedia, it seems this effect of mine is caused by norepinephrine, not epinephrine. The difference: Norepinephrine also affects the person mentally, affecting the brain by accelerating it. Both are caused by stress, which is easily triggered by increasing the rate of breathing and moving faster through a normal routine… So noradrenaline is better than adrenaline!)
November 20, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Ewwww…