Physiology of Fight or Flight Response: Explanation

To go with Cartoon file FFF_RESP.TIF.

The fight or flight response is nature's way of dealing with survival in stressful situations. When life is threatened, unnecessary functions are shut down and vital functions for dealing with the stress are enhanced. Respiration is increased in order to free up space for the rapid build up of CO2 while dealing with the crisis.

Not all stresses are life threatening, but the response is the same, although usually not quite as severe as in a life threatening situation. Any stress, whether physical, psychological, emotional will produce elements of the fight or flight response.

With chronic hyperventilation being the vestige of prolonged and undischarged stresses, many of the physiological changes brought about by the stresses remain too. This is how confusion, palpitations high blood pressure, tendency for blood to clot (and hence susceptibility to stroke), digestive problems, diabetes, etc...... can be the result of prolonged and undischarged stresses.

Now to Victor's illustration:

• Mental activity: increases - zigzags beside mans head
• Breathing: increases - movement lines by nose and chest
• Airways: dilate - Mouth Opens, nostrils flare.... must comment on bronchiole dilation
• Blood vessels: mostly constrict except some to muscles - clamp on blood vessel
• Heart: output increases - obvious
• Blood Pressure: rises - hand on dial of instrument spinning off
• Blood flow to skin: decreases - pale complexion because no blood to skin
• Blood coagulation: increases - A traffic jam - grid lock of red blood corpuscles
• Digestion: shuts down - Pizza restaurant closed
• Saliva: dries up - dried up river bed with dead fish
• Metabolism: glucose mobilized - marching sweet...
• Muscle: increased strength - muscle doing weights
• Pupils: dilate - big pupil on eyes
• Ciliary muscle: relaxed (for far-sightedness) - telescope
• Sweat glands: increase secretion - obvious!
• Apocrine glands: increase secretion - Obvious - under arm pits - produce bad smelling secretion
• Kidneys: decrease output - kidney output tube tied with string
• Bowel & Bladder sphincter close - similar to kidney - also bedpan to trigger commentary on excretary functions!
• Immune system: suppressed - white cells being hammered