This story provided a really helpful overview of how the brain and the body responds to stressful situations. When something scares or stresses you out, your adrenal glands are ready to fire hormones to the hippocampus, the part of the limbic system in the brain that is essential to processing and perceiving stress. Other calming hormones are released in an effort to counteract the others; this internal imbalance of hormones is what we call stress.
The adrenal glands release of adrenaline gives us the physical symptoms of stress: increased heart rate, sweaty palms, and shortness of breath. This is when the body enters the “fight or flight” mode, and has lots of energy and increased senses to address the situation at hand. During this time, all other systems shut down, including the immune system, growth, and reproduction. The body will release hormones to calm us down, but this process takes a while, and becomes even longer with age.
You can read more about this process here.
I chose this story because I recently had a really stressful situation after watching a movie with one of my greatest fears in it. I was shaking, my chest hurt, and I couldn’t stop thinking about what scared me. I had difficulty sleeping that night, and really did not calm down until the next day. It was super interesting to see what was happening in my body during that time, and learn why it took me so long to settle.
MadSciMag 