I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
This sounds like Mel’s question! But my understanding is that it’s actually a pretty cool way for our body to shut down energy and blood to the areas that aren’t directly needed to either run or fight, and make sure that our brains and our muscles have the sugars and oxygen that they need to get us out of danger.
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Pretty much what Carina said!
Many of the body’s everyday & essential functions are under involuntary control by what is known as the autonomic nervous system. For a passive, housekeeping-type of function such as digestion, nerves control the movement of food along the digestive tract, the release of digestive enzymes to help break down particles to a size that can be absorbed through the gut and increase blood flow to the gut to help carry absorbed nutrients to other parts of the body.
In times of stress or danger, where housekeeping functions are less essential and the priority is more for survival, nerves inhibit these processes and divert blood flow to areas such as skeletal muscles in preparation to help you “escape” a stressor. Heart rate and breathing rate also increase to aid in preparing us to make a quick escape from a stress or threat. The racing heart and dry mouth feeling are a sign of these neural processes taking place which are intended to physically prepare us to ‘fight’ or ‘fly away’ from a threat.
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Nice work, Mel!
Too bad i always feel like a sprinkle donut when i’m stressed! 😛
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Its a good thing we have the autonomic nervous system. Imagine needing to go to the toilet while running away from a lion!
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Because in a time of stress, the brain needs more fuel to keep it working at 100%. You need to eat more so you can fuel the bran better.
Hope that makes sense 🙂
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