What is adrenaline?
Adrenaline is a hormone. Hormones are chemicals made by your body that don’t do anything by themselves – they’re just signals to get other parts of your body to do things. So you can’t put adrenaline in a jar and see something happen. In humans, it is made and released mostly by the adrenal glands which are right next to your kidneys. They store it up and release it into your bloodstream when directed to do so by your brain. The part of your brain in charge of this is not a part you normally control… it’s a rather primitive part and adrenalin plays a big part in excitement and what’s called the ‘fight or flight’ instinct. When adrenalin is in your blood, your heart speeds up, your brain and muscles get more oxygen and ‘unimportant’ systems like digestion are made less active. Blood sugar increases, more is made from fat, and the blood itself is directed to different areas of your body so you are ready to fight or run away. Doctors sometimes use adrenalin to ‘jump start’ someone’s hea
