While reading the text this week I was interested in everything, but especially the segment of the chapter about the adrenal glands. I think that this stood out to me a lot because it illustrates more on the topic of "fight or flight" and I've always remembered hearing this phrase throughout school and wanted to learn more. I took psychology in high school and we touched on the subject but I still want to learn more and dig deeper into how the glands work, and how they know exactly when to release since everyones levels of fear and excitement do vary. They manufacture the hormones adrenaline which boosts energy production in muscle cells which puts them into action while still conserving energy. I think its such a cool feature of our bodies that this hormone can do so much, even to the point of opening our pupils to see better during these moments of emergency. The next part that I found really intriguing is the fact that adrenaline decreases our appetites which is something I have experienced many times. I competed as a figure skater for over 15 years and experienced this feeling so many times over the years and even now when I'm nervous over an exam or quiz in school. It seems weird to me that it is released at different times, such as being nervous and scared but can even happen during an exciting or happy time as well! I'm still really wondering about how exactly our bodies know when to release these hormones, and when do they? Do they release it right when the emergency is happening or does it start to produce over a slower amount of time and how much is released? I'm also very curious about how the levels of hormones released in each person varies as well and how does our brain understand that. I guess I have a lot of questions regarding this small section of the chapter but it seems incredibly fascinating to me!
The Fascinating Adrenal Glands
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I think those are really good questions and I have the same ones. You mentioned that the hormones open our pupils to see better during moments of emergency. I have heard something about pupils growing or shrinking (cant remember whch one it is) when you tell a lie and growing when you see someone that you find attractive. I think it might not be true, but what do you think? if it is, do you think it might be related with that moment of emergency because you get nervous?
I really enjoyed all the points you brought up, especially the one about adrenaline. I'm a dancer and I can relate to you when adrenaline kicks in right before a performance and the last thing you want to do is eat a big mac. I think it's incredible what our hormones can do all based off our mood. Lastly, I also thought it was interesting about the pupils shirking or enlarging. I always thought that our pupils would only change size when the lighting change, but I was certainly wrong!
I'm really glad you chose to write about this topic because it really is very fascinating how our bodies first, have the ability to release such hormones and second, know when to release them. I like that you mentioned how the pupils open to see better during emergencies, like linde599 believed, I also thought that the pupils only enlargened or shrunk due to light. It's cool that you touched on adrenaline and the decrease in appetite, and how you related it back to yourself (it's always nice to have personal connections to things; it helps you remember certain things) After reading that, I now know why I lose my appetite before taking huge exams...like the ACT.
You asked really valid questions, which made me wonder: Does the body release a different amount of hormones for each emotion or are all the hormones released judging from the amount of emotion? (I don't know if that made sense, but hopefully it did.)
The whole lie detector test is really interesting, and I now know how my brother knows when I'm lying. Thanks for letting me know!