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• How Does The Sympathetic Nervous System Prepare Your Body For Emergencies?

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Your Body’s Response to Emergency
How does the body prepare for emergencies? The answer lies in the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS). It is the branch of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) that controls the body’s reaction to physical and emotional stressors. The sympathetic branch activates the glands and organs that defend the body against attack. It is called the fight-or-flight response.
This is a primitive response designed to protect from danger. When danger is perceived, the sympathetic nervous system responds immediately to prepare a person to stay and fight or take flight. Blood rushes away from nonessential systems such as the digestive and excretory systems and is redirected to the extremities. The heart beats faster to …show more content…

The glucose obtained from the liver cells produces a surge in energy better known as an “adrenaline rush”. The hormones also bind to receptor cells on smooth muscle and inhibit the muscles of the stomach and intestines, slowing down the digestive process and allowing more energy for emergency functions. When these hormones bind to the smooth muscle cells of the bronchioles, they cause the muscles to relax allowing more oxygen into the blood. At the sinoatrial node of the heart, epinephrine stimulates the pace maker cells to beat faster. Epinephrine also contracts certain types of muscles below the skin, causing beads of sweat and raised hairs. Once fight or flight has taken place, another branch of the ANS, the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) can take over again, calming everything down and returning body processes to normal.
The fight or flight response is useful in the short term because it assists the body in responding quickly and effectively in emergencies. However in the long term, the sympathetic response can become harmful. This is because the functions of sympathetic activation can put additional stress on the nervous system. If the sympathetic system remains highly active, the parasympathetic response will not activate and return the body to homeostasis. This means the body does not get the chance to recover from stress causing a number of physical and psychological disorders.
In conclusion, the brain is a complex organ with the ability to cause

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