Airways: Breathing is deeper and faster.

Liver: Stored glycogen in your liver is converted to glucose to provide more energy.

Muscles: Muscles receive more blood flow and oxygen so they can react with greater strength and speed.

Heart: Heart pumps harder and faster to deliver more oxygenated blood to areas most in need, like your muscles.

Skin: Skin turns pale as blood vessels receive a signal to divert blood to areas more in need of your blood’s oxygen, such as your muscles, so you can fight or run away.

Eyes: Pupils dilate to let more light in to better see more of your surroundings.

The neurotransmitter noradrenaline reaches the following organs and tissues and causes these rapid body reactions: The neurotransmitter that transmits your brain’s nervous system message of what to do is norepinephrine (noradrenaline). Next, nerves in an area of your brain called the hypothalamus send a signal down your spinal cord, then out to your body. The term comes from the choice our ancestors faced when confronted with a dangerous situation - to stay and fight or run to safety.ĭuring the fight-or-flight response, you (your brain) perceive danger. The fight-or-flight response refers to your body’s response to a stressful situation, such as needing to escape danger (moving away from a growling dog) or facing a fear (giving a speech for school or work). This reaction causes a number of changes in your body and is known as the fight-or-flight response. Epinephrine is released by your adrenal glands in response to stress. Abnormal levels are linked to sleep disorders, anxiety, hypertension and lowered immunity.Įpinephrine’s major action is in its role as a hormone. It plays a role in metabolism, attention, focus, panic and excitement. Only a small amount is produced in your nerves.

What does epinephrine do in the body?Īs a neurotransmitter, epinephrine plays a small role. As a hormone, epinephrine is made from norepinephrine inside of your adrenal gland. They’re given this name because of a certain molecule in its structure. Medically, the flight-or-flight response is known as the acute stress response.Įpinephrine is also called a catecholamine, as are norepinephrine and dopamine. As a central nervous system neurotransmitter, it’s a chemical messenger that helps transmit nerve signals across nerve endings to another nerve cell, muscle cell or gland cell.Įpinephrine is part of your sympathetic nervous system, which is part of your body’s emergency response system to danger - the “fight-or-flight” response. As a hormone, it’s made and released by your adrenal glands, which are hat-shaped glands that sit on top of each kidney. Epinephrine, also called adrenaline, is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter.

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