Super Strength through Adrenaline?
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
Great share!! I never broke down the root words of adrenals! 🤓🏆 Himalayan sea salt and water will calm the adrenals in case of over work. Laying off of stimulants☕️ and intermittent fasting could both help restore normal function in case anyone has got themself into a bad spot.😁👌🏼
Himalayan salt is, to your body, not different than other salt. You'd need to consume it in technically deadly quantities to have an effect. But water? Water is great. Give your body lots of water and rest.
Super agree since NaCl is NaCl but I just wanted to point at a higher mineral content salt (and pink is the one I prefer😌) without listing them out or clarifying.
Too much water without minerals sends the adrenals into overdrive. Most athletes aren’t dehydrated, they are mineral deficient and lack the ability to retain and store water properly.
Rest is my middle name.
I think I will really enjoy your blog! You have a new follower🙏🏼😌📈
When you have to recover from adrenal fatigue or burnout yo do it like that, you allow small amounts of stress and build it up until the adrenals work properly again. You r adrenals can also get fatigued when there is inflammation in the body due to for example food allergies, which in turn develop from an unbalanced gut. Just cutting back the stress won't help in that case. You have to heal your gut and balance your body with the right kinds of foods and supplements. I wrote an article on that yesterday, you're welcome to check it out: https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@clara-andriessen/natural-or-synthetic-vitamins-how-to-tell-the-difference-and-how-to-make-your-own
Have you heard of Wim Hof? The man that run a marathon in snow bare feet, climbed Everest only in shorts. All that without getting any frostbite. They put him in ice-filled container and medically supervised him for an hour and he did not show any signs of hypothermia.
He claims he can trigger an adrenaline by his will with a special method of breathing. Science tells us adrenaline is triggered spontaneously. However, this man is still a mystery.
Is there any way apart from getting an adrenaline shot directly, to stimulate adrenal gland to release adrenaline?
Never heard of him before, but there are always weird outliners
@suesa, Wim Hof isn't an outlier, he has shown his method to many people. He goes on regular outings in the mountains with light layers of clothing with a group of around 26 people or so. Through breathing methods, they are able to activate re-active their brown fat repositories and convert visceral fat into heat....That's the claim at least. I've followed his methods and I've defiantly seen personal improvement. We hardly ever get the amount to oxygen in our blood as we are capable of getting, but through hyper-ventilation, the muscles take a lot more to fatigue and gives you way more strength. As for adrenaline, any form of bio-feedback can allow you to take control over a typically autonomic function with practice.
there are cases where one can stimulate the adrenal gland to release adrenaline in animals but i never heard of a proven scientific fact that a person can trigger adrenaline by himself consciously.
sympathetic nervous system cannot be consciously triggered to release adrenaline from the adrenal medulla as claimed by the marathon runner.
agreed...
you can create a conscious adrenaline trigger and just to prove the point let's try this experiment -
close your eyes and imagine a dangerous situation you have been in, a good example will be a fight as a kid. visualize the situation with maximum detail. You will notice your heartbeat has gone up and you start to experience muscle tension around your arms and it's very likely you will clinch your teeth, your mind has triggered the adrenal gland to prepare you for a fight. multiple studies have shown that visualization triggers the same areas in the brain as a live experience - and the body reaction is set off. to train this you need to create an anchor with the desired response.
to practice this you just need to anchor the feeling
You can train yourself to adjust your heartbeat through your breath, maybe there is a way to do so with adrenaline.
Human body can so such amazing things we don't expect.
Our pituitary gland is responsible for producing those hormones too. I suffer from adrenal fatigue, and at my worst i'd go in to complete adrenaline mode with the full shakes, sweats and fast heart rate with even the slightest noise that wouldn't be stressful for most people. It was messed up. Our adrenals need loving! It's not very fun when they're not functioning properly.
Kay, the pituitary's action results in epinephrine release, but not directly from the adrenal medulla.
When stimulated, the pituitary releases ACTH, AdrenoCorticoTropic Hormone, which stimulates the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine. Suesa is correct too saying moderation is key when speaking of these stimulating hormones. It is now known that one reason sleep apnea is so dangerous is that the disturbed sleep cycles cause excess catecholamine release (substances like epinephrine) which stress the heart and blood vessels. They're normally stressed while we're awake and active, but when they're stressed when the body is in its "rest" phase, then the body essentially never rests. High blood pressure and eventually even heart failure can develop from long term sleep apnea.
This is anecdotal evidence, but I have heard multiple accounts of people in Jiu-Jitsu tournaments who are competing for the first time, and just as their fight starts they get this huge adrenaline dump that stimulates them for a few minutes... and afterwards they crash down and feel completely exhausted and even unfit for their next match.
So, it would seem like too much adrenaline at once topples the balance towards it being draining more than stimulating.
Very interesting post as per usual, @suesa!
I have heard the stories about old ladies lifting cars clear off the ground to save trapped children, and it set off my urban legend detector. I thought it must be a lie or at least an embellishment.
I can certainly see how maybe a healthy individual might be able to summon the strength to lift up maybe a corner of the car as you suggested.
I do wonder, though, what kind of damage they'd suffer as a result and how long it would take to recover. I'd imagine those "limits" adrenaline helps us break are there for a reason, right? I've read that we tear our muscles down each time we work out, just for them to be rebuilt in stronger form.... so is it too much of a "stretch" to suggest that adrenaline could cause us to snap one of our muscles in half or something?
Not necessarily snap in half but damage? Sure.
I really like your information since it basically clarifies many doubts I had about the subject. It is impressive that "everything in excess is bad" applies to everything. I never thought it would be good to get stressed from time to time! Hahaha. I think that apart from everything, we should enjoy and feel every situation, action and feeling, that is what will remind us that we are alive. Excellent post, greetings!
I think it's very good information. The other day I seriously argued with my friend and I found myself trembling in the end. Now I know it's because of adrenaline. Human body is full of mysteries.
The decrease in the immune response can be correlated with cortisol, cortisol will be released by the body on a fight or flee situation, especially when it's triggered by adrenaline, that cortisol is going to break down muscle, fat, and carbs so that you get more available energy to actually fight or flee.
This is a huge problem nowadays, ppl who work stressful jobs are less likely to have their hormone system in check, making them fat, obese, diabetic, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure and, don't quote me on this one, even suicide might be related to unstable hormones.
Great post Suesa :)