explain
pain
section
4
page
84
T
he sympathetic nervous system is a powerful and rapidly
responding system that helps you to cope, protects you from
threat, and allows you to do superhuman things, for
example ‘bungee jumping’, for a short time. This is the
systemwhich liberates adrenaline into your body. Normally,
adrenaline does a lot of housekeeping in your body for you,
for example it regulates breathing and the digestive system.
It also regulatesmany things that youmay never know
about, such as blood pressure and the size of your pupils.
There are two systems that combine to liberate adrenaline.
When required, the inside of the adrenal glands (parked on
top of your kidneys) quickly pours adrenaline into the
blood. The sympathetic nervous system – a highly developed
network of neurones spread right throughout the body and
actingmore as a gland than as an electrical system – will
distribute adrenaline into all your tissues. With these two
systems, adrenaline has widespread and important effects.
It’s all brain driven and occurs in response to sensory
inputs from the tissues, the eyes and ears, thoughts, beliefs,
perceptions, moods andmemories. The blush that comes to
your face if you recall something youmight have done years
ago, is an example of the sympathetic nervous system
responding to amemory. And remember, threatening cues
can come from cuts, cats, teachers, preachers, leeches,
lergies, bumps, bruises, movies, monsters andmuggers
(just to name a few).
Together with cortisol (see next pages)
adrenaline diverts energy to the brain,
muscles and heart, makes oxygen
available, stands your hair on end,
dilates your pupils, constricts your gut,
suppresses immune activity and turns
down sperm production.
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All of
this is extremely useful in the short
term as your brain decides whether to
fight or fly.
Adrenaline and pain
The sympathetic nervous system is as an on/off system –
quickly activated and then returning to normal (up to an
hour later) once the stressful situation has gone.
Chronic pain and stress are usually associatedwith
persistently increased levels of adrenaline (although
sometimes adrenaline can become depleted). Many a patient
has said ‘I can’t turn the adrenaline switch off’. Adrenaline
doesn’t usually cause pain by itself, but with a little help
from changes in body parts and heightened alarm system
sensitivity, it can.
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Chronic inflammation, nerve damage
Response systems – the sympathetic and
parasympathetic nervous systems
The buzz on adrenaline
