Adrenaline

Author
Discussion

Tim Cognito

Original Poster:

344 posts

8 months

Monday 6th May
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A few months ago I was soundly sleeping in the middle of the night when our tablet/baby monitor glitched out and made a really loud continuous beep noise. My wife woke up first and saw the screen and exclaimed our child's name.

Within half a second my brain had heard the loud noise, heard my wife, concluded that our child/family is under threat, dispensed a massive hit of adrenaline and I was already out of bed and walking towards her room before I was really conscious of what was happening.

It just struck me how incredible this ancient system is to be able to get me from sleeping to ready for battle in milliseconds.

The downside is my heart didn't stop pumping for 10 minutes and there was no chance of getting back to sleep any time soon.

Any biologists have some interesting facts on adrenaline? Any interesting tales of the power of adrenaline?

Simpo Two

85,709 posts

266 months

Monday 6th May
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Tim Cognito said:
Within half a second my brain had... dispensed a massive hit of adrenaline...
I'd be surprised if it did - adrenaline comes from the adrenal glands which sit on top of the kidneys...

Tim Cognito said:
Any biologists have some interesting facts on adrenaline? Any interesting tales of the power of adrenaline?
It's the 'fight or flight' hormone, extremely useful for survival over the aeons for many species. If you consider 'survival of the fittest', it may be that the animals which didn't produce enough adrenaline just said 'Yeah whatever' - and promptly got eaten hehe

Slowboathome

3,513 posts

45 months

Monday 6th May
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I was lying on my back in a field one night, near to some woods. I could hear all the small animals going about their nocturnal business.

Suddenly I heard a growl that was too close to me. A split second later I had moved from lying flat on my back to standing upright. I didn't have to think about it; purely instinctive movement.

I remember thinking at the time that a primitive part of my brain had been in play.

Tim Cognito

Original Poster:

344 posts

8 months

Monday 6th May
quotequote all
Simpo Two said:
Tim Cognito said:
Within half a second my brain had... dispensed a massive hit of adrenaline...
I'd be surprised if it did - adrenaline comes from the adrenal glands which sit on top of the kidneys....
If it did, I didn't mean it to read as though my brain did the dispensing. But what told my adrenal glands to go into full fight or flight mode? A very ancient and subconscious part of my brain?

Simpo Two

85,709 posts

266 months

Tuesday 7th May
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Tim Cognito said:
If it did, I didn't mean it to read as though my brain did the dispensing. But what told my adrenal glands to go into full fight or flight mode? A very ancient and subconscious part of my brain?
I was going to say hippocampus but it looks like the amygdala: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC36842...

billbring

193 posts

184 months

Wednesday 8th May
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Not humans, but I read an interesting hypothesis about wolves the other day.

Apparently packs of wolves have been observed killing and eating prey animals and they noticed that the higher ranking wolves in the pack will always eat the muscles of the prey's limbs first, leaving the rest of the carcass to the lower ranked individuals.

The hypothesis is that during the chase, the prey has dumped a load of adrenaline into it's leg muscles to help it escape and the high ranking wolves want to take on that scent because it helps them maintain their social rank. The more they smell of adrenaline, the more powerful they appear.


Simpo Two

85,709 posts

266 months

Wednesday 8th May
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billbring said:
Not humans, but I read an interesting hypothesis about wolves the other day.

Apparently packs of wolves have been observed killing and eating prey animals and they noticed that the higher ranking wolves in the pack will always eat the muscles of the prey's limbs first, leaving the rest of the carcass to the lower ranked individuals.

The hypothesis is that during the chase, the prey has dumped a load of adrenaline into it's leg muscles to help it escape and the high ranking wolves want to take on that scent because it helps them maintain their social rank. The more they smell of adrenaline, the more powerful they appear.
Nuts. The adrenaline is in the bloodstream, so they should drink the blood. But even then it would be digested and broken down.

https://www.yourhormones.info/hormones/adrenaline/

CoolHands

18,764 posts

196 months

Wednesday 8th May
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Obviously cobblers

ATG

20,686 posts

273 months

Wednesday 8th May
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Had a massive dose of adrenaline when I realised I'd ballsed up badly on a Scottish mountain in the snow, by myself, as the Sun was setting. Lower half of my face felt like it was buzzing. The urge to run was hard to control. Took a while for the hit to wear off and leave me just feeling stupid and worried. Much easier to think clearly and plan then.

Flumpo

3,800 posts

74 months

Wednesday 8th May
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I’ve seen Eddie hall talk about how he prepared for his world record lift. To prepare he worked with phycologists and hypnotists to recognise the bar as a car trapped on his young son. He reckons it wouldn’t be something you could repeat and he only used the technique on that one lift.

But he claims as soon as the time came and he saw the bar he got a massive adrenaline dump from visualising it as his son being trapped which really helped him do it.

Could scientifically be total bullst, but I wouldn’t argue with him about it.

CoolHands

18,764 posts

196 months

Thursday 9th May
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Eddie hall does talk bks though so keep that in mind

Flumpo

3,800 posts

74 months

Thursday 9th May
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CoolHands said:
Eddie hall does talk bks though so keep that in mind
I was going to add he will say whatever he thinks will get him the most attention.

Simpo Two

85,709 posts

266 months

Thursday 9th May
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Flumpo said:
I’ve seen Eddie hall talk about how he prepared for his world record lift. To prepare he worked with phycologists and hypnotists to recognise the bar as a car trapped on his young son. He reckons it wouldn’t be something you could repeat and he only used the technique on that one lift.

But he claims as soon as the time came and he saw the bar he got a massive adrenaline dump from visualising it as his son being trapped which really helped him do it.

Could scientifically be total bullst, but I wouldn’t argue with him about it.
Might be true, but it doesn't mean that by eating his arms you will smell of adrenaline!

pokethepope

2,660 posts

189 months

Thursday 9th May
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Simpo Two said:
Nuts. The adrenaline is in the bloodstream, so they should drink the blood. But even then it would be digested and broken down.

https://www.yourhormones.info/hormones/adrenaline/
This may be completely daft but seems logical to me, a layman - the leg muscles will have lots of adrenaline-filled blood being pumped to and from them. The alpha will get this blood around their mouth, face, chest etc as they gorge on the leg muscles. The other wolves in the pack, with their great sense of smell, will therefore detect this adrenaline from the blood on the alpha, enhancing/cementing his status.

boyse7en

6,772 posts

166 months

Thursday 9th May
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pokethepope said:
Simpo Two said:
Nuts. The adrenaline is in the bloodstream, so they should drink the blood. But even then it would be digested and broken down.

https://www.yourhormones.info/hormones/adrenaline/
This may be completely daft but seems logical to me, a layman - the leg muscles will have lots of adrenaline-filled blood being pumped to and from them. The alpha will get this blood around their mouth, face, chest etc as they gorge on the leg muscles. The other wolves in the pack, with their great sense of smell, will therefore detect this adrenaline from the blood on the alpha, enhancing/cementing his status.
But everywhere gets more blood when in fight-or-flight mode – the heart beats faster shifting it around faster. So all parts of the animal get an increased supply of blood, not just the leg muscles. So no matter what part of the prey they eat, the wolves will get a similar intake of adrenaline

Bill

52,926 posts

256 months

Thursday 9th May
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I'm also not convinced, AIUI adrenaline smells brown... wink

Slowboathome

3,513 posts

45 months

Thursday 9th May
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I have a shed load of adrenaline a lot of the time and I'm definitely not an Alpha male.

CoolHands

18,764 posts

196 months

Thursday 9th May
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pokethepope said:
This may be completely daft but seems logical to me, a layman - the leg muscles will have lots of adrenaline-filled blood being pumped to and from them. The alpha will get this blood around their mouth, face, chest etc as they gorge on the leg muscles. The other wolves in the pack, with their great sense of smell, will therefore detect this adrenaline from the blood on the alpha, enhancing/cementing his status.
Complete fantasy

Stan the Bat

8,961 posts

213 months

Monday 13th May
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Slowboathome said:
I was lying on my back in a field one night, near to some woods. I could hear all the small animals going about their nocturnal business.

Suddenly I heard a growl that was too close to me. A split second later I had moved from lying flat on my back to standing upright. I didn't have to think about it; purely instinctive movement.

I remember thinking at the time that a primitive part of my brain had been in play.
Go on, what was it ears

CoolHands

18,764 posts

196 months

Monday 13th May
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His missus fell asleep