• Question: What are the main stress hormones, where are they released from and what factors affect when these are released?

    Asked by 873strk36 to Chris, Georgina, Kristi, Laura, Livia on 13 Nov 2017. This question was also asked by amylivesatstarbucks.
    • Photo: Livia Carvalho

      Livia Carvalho answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      Main adrenaline and cortisol released by the adrenal glands. Factors affecting when these are released include time of the day (cortisol has two daily peaks one in the morning and one in the afternoon), and it is also released if we have any stress psychological or physical.

    • Photo: Laura Ginesi

      Laura Ginesi answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      The adrenal glands – sitting on top of your kidneys – make the key stress hormones that are essential for our survival.

      Feeling excited or a bit afraid and anxious stimulates the adrenals to pump a hormone called adrenaline (sometimes called epinephrine) into your blood. It causes lots of effects in your body – you breathe faster, your might feel your heart pounding or racing, your mouth might feel dry and levels of sugars in blood rise to give you energy. This intense feeling is called an “adrenaline rush” – you are ready for action.

      Doing something like a bungee jump is likely to give anyone an adrenaline rush! This response is sometimes known as fight or flight reaction, but different things make different people feel excited or afraid. Things should go back to normal when the cause of the stress goes away.

      LIvia has written about the way the other adrenal hormone, cortisol, has two peaks every day. But when stress doesn’t go away cortisol helps people to adapt to the changing circumstances. If this happens, people may need some help to manage stress and improve their resilience.

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