The ghost in the machine

Part one on understanding the autonomic nervous system to achieve homeostasis in the body.

So what is the autonomic nervous system? Think of it as the automatic part of the nervous system that functions behind the scenes of our awareness. It’s role in the body is to regulate temperature, hormones, blood supply and blood sugar levels; all of this happens without the involvement of our conscious mind. 

There are two branches in the autonomic nervous system, one is the sympathetic nervous system and the other is the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system can be thought of as the machines accelerator that moves it forward, and the parasympathetic nervous can be thought of as the brake or clutch.

The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for protection from threats and dangers in our outer environment. This accelerator function is activated when we sense external danger that might harm the gross anatomy of our body. Once the system is turned on, a host of physiological functions are mobilised automatically. When this occurs, we are mobilising all the bodies energy and resources to deal with a perceived threat or danger. When it is switched on, our body response does not go half in, it goes all the way in because we must make sure that the body is going to survive the perceived threat or danger in the outer environment. The body’s typical response is pupils dilating, respiratory rate increases, heart rate increases, glucose is mobilised, and the immune system is dialled up and then dialled down. All these bodily systems switching on is with the intention of allowing the body to adapt to threat in the outer world – this is the accelerator previously mentioned. 

The sympathetic nervous system, or the fight or flight nervous system, is designed to activate us to do a few things like run from danger, or to fight and stay, or to freeze and hide. Those are the primary choices our bodies have created, so when the sympathetic nervous system is activated, the short-term effects of this stress hormone release also trigger the other branch of the autonomic nervous system called the parasympathetic nervous system, the brake, to balance out the reaction. This is the part of the body’s nervous system that conserves energy, utilises nutrients and transports chemicals to cells. During this your metabolism increases which is when the body grows and repairs and restores. 

There is a delicate balance between these two systems and it’s important to remember that if you are feeling constant fear, anger, pain, and suffering, this means you are living on the hormones of stress. So, what was once very adaptive is now very maladaptive because if stress is making your brain and body out of balance then it’s our job to return it back to order. If we’re living in constant fear, then we are draining our bodys vital resources which means we run out of energy for growth repair and restoration and long-term health.

In the next part we’ll go into what being in the a sympathetic nervous system does to our health e.g., premature aging, erosion of tissues and fatigue. We’ll also cover how to return to a state of equilibrium and leverage our nervous system for optimal health.