Imagine this, You are riding your horse at a cater through a beautiful meadow in the early morning. The crisp cool air, the mist, and the sounds of birds singing makes this perfect. You slow your horse down to a walk and decide to just take in all of the world's beauty. All of a sudden, you see a large furry animal in the distance. You figure that it is just your neighbors dog and keep going. Your horse seems uneasy as if the dog had the intention of hurting it. You think to yourself, "That's strange, my horse has never been afraid of a dog before." As you near the dog your heart nearly stops. You now realize that what you are staring at is not even close to a dog, it's a Black Bear! You want to tell your horse to gallop, but you're scared that even the slightest move might make the bear attack. Too late! The bear is coming at you and your horse! Your horse breaks into such a gallop that not even race horses can move that fast. (Then again, race horses don't have a hungry beast chasing them.) The bear couldn't keep up and very soon, you lose him.
What was the point to my story? I am trying to give you an example of an adrenaline powered response. Adrenaline is a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal glands. It makes our blood flow quicken, it allows us to breath in more oxygen, and increases carbohydrate metabolism.
Our body knows when to use this hormone because of long-distance cell signaling. Long-distance cell signaling is a way that cells communicate from (you guessed it!) a long distance.
Alright, but what is the point of adrenaline? The point of adrenaline is to trigger that "fight or flight" response. Without adrenaline, whenever we were face to face with a lion, tiger, whoolly mammoth, cannibal, etc., we would not know weather to fly like a little bird or to sit happily like a tree frog that has found a lovely tree. (Tree frogs like trees in case you didn't know.)
I hope that you have enjoyed this essay and please let me know what you think!
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