Fight or Flight Response
Walter B. Cannon, a physiologist, laid the groundwork for the modern meaning of “stress” at Harvard around the turn of the century. He was the first to describe the “fight or flight response” as a series of biochemical changes that prepare you to deal with threat or danger. Primitive man needed quick bursts of energy to fight or flight response served you well, such as when you had to weave through an aggressive defense to make a touchdown. These days, however, when social custom prevents you from fighting or running away, this “emergency response” is rarely useful.
Fight or Flight Response
Hans Selye, the first major researcher on stress, was able to trace exactly what happens in your body during the flight response. He found that any problem, imagined or real, can cause cerebral cortex (the thinking part of the brain) to send an alarm to the hypothalamus (the main switch for the stress response, located in the midbrain). The hypothalamus then stimulates the sympathetic nervous system to make a series of changes in your body. Your heart rate, breathing rate, muscle tension, metabolism, and your extremities and digestive system into the larger muscles that can help you fight or run. You experience butterflies in your stomach. Your diaphragm and your anus lock. Your pupils dilate to sharpen your vision and your hearing becomes more acute. Read more…
