Epinephrine: Asthma and Epinephrine Spans Essay

Submitted By danieltran8891
Words: 878
Pages: 4

Chris Alenxander
Daniel Tran
Professor: Anthony
Date: 04/29/2014
Epinephrine
Every three minutes non-lethal allergic reactions send someone to the hospital- that is more than 200,000 hospital visits a year. This totals almost $25 Billion per year. In November of 2013 President Barack Obama signed the “school access to emergency epinephrine” act. They called it the first line of defense against severe allergies. This single drug will not only reduce hospital visits but reduce medical spending dramatically. We have decided to do our research presentation on Epinephrine. Epinephrine is not only made in the lab for emergency use it is also produced in our bodies. Within our bodies it is produced in two different regions. This amazing molecule has the ability to be a neurotransmitter and a hormone. Both are very important to maintaining and the survival of human life. Epinephrine’s long list of uses included the biological response fight-or-flight and maintaining the body’s homeostasis. A more modern look at the drug’s use is in medical application. When a person comes in with a heart attack the first thing doctors do is push epinephrine into their system to try and restore blood to the heart. Additionally, epinephrine is also a vasodilator which helps people overcome their allergic reactions. This usually occurs when an individual is accidentally exposed to a food, animal, or medication they are allergic to. Lastly, epinephrine acts as a bronchodilator to help people with severe asthma attacks. Epinephrine relaxes the smooth muscle of the esophagus allowing normal breathing. The history of the discovery of epinephrine spans almost 70 years. This illusive chemical had some of the brightest minds stumped for many years just because it shows so many different traits in so many parts of the body. Including but not limited to the sympathetic and endocrine system. Its ability to be hormone allows it to travel the body’s circulatory system and bind to many different organs and tissues.
In our daily life, people normally use only a small percentage of their muscles ‘capabilities and they do not realize that they have some kind of huge potential muscle strength hidden inside them. Question is: “How to activate that kind of potential strength?” According to some researchers, adrenaline is the key point that helps people to transcend the limitations of their muscles whenever they are confronted with threatening or danger. Whenever adrenaline is produced by the adrenal medulla due to danger situations, it opens up the bloodstream which allows blood to flows more into muscles. This also means more oxygen is carried into your muscle and helps it to function at elevated level. Besides, adrenaline is just like natural energy sources of our body. It facilitates the conversion of glycogen into glucose which helps the carbohydrate to give energy to muscles, and a sudden burst of glucose also allows muscle to strengthen incredibly. Although adrenaline could give us an incredible strength, it is still not a good idea to just walk around in a constant heightened state of agitation. Many researchers believe that turning potential muscle strength into actual muscle strength takes long time and deliberate training. Muscles suddenly used beyond their limit can tear, and joints can be pulled out of their sockets. This is one of the reasons why people should stay calm!
For the past few decades, survival rates for cardiac arrest patients, both in and out of hospital, are really poor. Epinephrine has been used during cardiopulmonary resuscitation for more than 100 years, but has become controversial because it is