The Autonomic Nervous System

The Autonomic Nervous System
A major way by which the mid and body communication is through the autonomic nervous system (ANS), a group of nerves that regulate many of the body’s physiological processes, such as heart rate, blood pressure, constipation, sweating and incontinence.

Centers in the brain, principally the brain stem and hypothalamus, receive information about the state of the body and in response activate the nerve fibers of the ANS to maintain appropriate physiological balance.

For example, when you exercise, the ANS stimulates the heart’s pacemaker cells to increase your heart rate, thus increasing the amount of blood pumped to moving muscles.

The autonomic nervous system derives its name for the fact that its activities normally operate without conscious control.

Thus, you do not think about how fast your heart should beat or whether you should sweat to cool yourself when jogging.

Even though the ANS functions without conscious control the signal it sends to the body can be affected by thoughts and feelings.

For example, nearly all students are familiar with the nervous stomach and sweaty palms that accompany taking an important exam.

Realizing that it is possible to do poorly in an exam (a thought) leads to anxiety (an emotion), which activates the ANS to produce symptoms.

Panic has an immediate effect on breathing and heart rate, and stress can constrict blood vessels, causing headaches or high blood pressure.

Many students live fast-paced hectic lives that full of time pressures and stress. Besides doing school assignments many students work at jobs and nearly all try to maintain harmonious social relationship with family and friends, and which take time and attention.

More over, the modern environment is filled with cell phones, the Internet, TV video games, iPods, and other stimuli that compete for one’s attention.

Trying to accommodate all of life’s demands produces near continuous physiologic arousal mediated by the sympathetic nerves of the ANS, causing among other things, sleep disturbances, muscle tension, gastrointestinal symptoms and an increased risk for cardiovascular disease.
The Autonomic Nervous System