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The Autonomic Nervous System

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The Autonomic Nervous System

The autonomic nervous system is quite possibly one of the most important parts of the human body it is essential for our survival and in charge of our involuntary nervous system that flows throughout our bodies. The autonomic nervous system interacts with nearly every process in the body and can interact with organs in our body to help maintain homeostasis as well as having control of our digesting and rest cycles. One of its main functions is also to control the muscles of the internal organs. Although the autonomic nervous system does everything involuntarily we can train our bodies to change certain things forcefully, for example, you can hold your breath for a while and stop your body from taking in any oxygen …show more content…

The sympathetic nervous system can respond to stressful situations such as fear, cold, exercise, trauma, and hypoglycemia. The sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system works by increasing the heart rate and blood pressure by activating the energy that is otherwise stored in the body. The sympathetic division is also known by another popular name which is the fight or flight mode (sympathy-adrenal response) and the reason why they named it this is because when the body experiences stressful situation it triggers sympathetic activation in the adrenal medulla which causes it to release epinephrine and lesser amounts of norepinephrine. These hormones that are released make their way directly into the bloodstream and promote the response that affects the target organ. The sympathetic nervous system acts as an entire unit meaning that it will discharge as a whole …show more content…

In your heart when it experiences extraneous circumstances it can increase the heart rate or force a contraction to cope with the increases in physical activity. In the lungs, one can experience dilated bronchioles by circulating the adrenaline that is produced. In the kidney you will see an increase in renin secretion, the gut will also decrease peristalsis and tone while also contracting the sphincter. The salivary glands will thicken up and produce a viscous secretion. One other thing that the sympathetic nervous system will slow down and relax the bladder when it is experiencing pressure or concentrate the sphincter to help control the

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