Adrenaline (also called epinephrine). It’s a hormone most people are aware of and they usually think they know exactly what it is. Where does it come from? Well, it’s the hormone produced by the adrenal gland, “ad” means “near” and “renes” means kidney. A gland next to the kidney. Slow clap for the creative biologists, again. Epinephrine isn’t better, as “Epi” means “on top of” and “nephros” is “the kidney” too.
We know it’s related to stress. We’ve all heard stories about “mothers lifting cars” and such. @bachuslib asked me how that works after I referenced adrenaline in my latest fiction story. That was the moment I noticed that I don’t know as much about this topic as I should, so I thought “sure, why not, let’s research and write”.
And then I learned, I knew even less than expected. And the generally available knowledge on this topic isn’t as great as I expected it to be.
First and foremost, the “lifted a whole car”-thing is likely a myth. A car is way too heavy. Sure, we’re unable to use 100% of our strength, even a weightlifter uses only a maximum of 80% according to one of my sources below. But how big is your strength? @suesa
I can deadlift maybe about 40 - 50 kg but I’ve been working out. Let’s shoot low and say that’s half my absolute strength … 100% would still be a maximum of 100 kg. Not enough to lift a car. But enough to lift part of a car! Which might be enough to get a child out or lift it a few centimeters to put a car-jack under it.
Still, that’s far from the superhuman strength often reported in a high-stress situation. And in any case, it’ll be hard to research, as you can’t scare humans in a controlled setting so much that they go into survival mode. That’d be unethical!
What does adrenaline do then?
It increases the bodily functions needed to either fight or flee: Heart rate goes up and so does breathing, which increases the oxygen available for our muscles. And yes, we use more of our muscle strength.
These effects are used to “bring back” people that suffered cardiac arrest. An adrenaline injection can restart the heart, if it works as intended. And if you have an anaphylactic shock, it also opens up your airways and gives you precious time to get to the hospital.
But hey, increased heartbeat, increased breathing, more oxygen, more muscle strength? That sounds great for sport! I mean, of course, it’d count as doping, so we have to be very careful not to be caught, but in theory, we could boost ourselves with an adrenaline shot and set a new world record? And who would catch us? Maybe we’re just very excited!
In theory, that might work. The high pressure during those events causes us to produce adrenaline anyway, how else would athletes be possible to suddenly break their own records during a competition? But although there are effects, it seems like the performance can’t be significantly improved. And even worse, if you do it wrong and get a dose that’s too high for you, you might kill yourself. Is that really worth it?
An increased heart rate is not that great!
A constantly high level of adrenaline has negative effects on our body. You’ve all experienced this during stressful times when you just couldn’t wind down. You become sick faster, feel tired all the time and it just generally sucks.
That makes the following info almost unbelievable: Short-term stress actually enhances the response of your innate *and adaptive immune system! Especially during the early stages of an immune response, a little bit of stress can be beneficial.
When it goes on for too long though, it’ll harm you again. Small doses of everything I guess. Too much of anything is never good.
So, what do we learn from that info?
Take care of yourself! If you’re in a high-stress environment, find ways to calm yourself down from time to time. Don’t let the stress take over and ruin your immune system. We weren’t built to be in a constant fight-or-flight mode, even though our current environment tends to force us to.
And if you belong to the lucky people who are never stressed, ever! You might consider stressing yourself once in a while. Get that heart pumping! That adrenaline flowing through your veins! And then go back to being relaxed and enjoy your day.
Sources:
How it’s possible for an ordinary person to lift a car
The rush to adrenaline: drugs in sport acting on the β-adrenergic system
Adrenaline and the plateau phase of the cardiac action potential
Pictures taken from pixabay.com
