Health - Fight or Flight  (copy)

Fight or flight response is a natural biological reaction to a stressful experience. After your body sees a perceived threat, fight or flight occurs in 3 steps:

1. Alarm stage → your body mobilizes all of its resources to fight or escape the threat. During this stage, some body systems increase and decrease activity

   1. Sweating %%increases%% (as the body temperature increases, sweat is needed to cool the body)
   2. Blood glucose concentration %%increases%% (this is needed to provide fuel to the body)
   3. Blood flow to the brain %%increases%% (brain function is needed so the body can stay alert)
   4. Pupils of eyes %%widen%% (this enhances vision)
   5. Heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate %%increase%% (this helps deliver oxygen and energy rapidly through the body)
   6. Muscles tense and blood flow to the muscles %%increases%% (this helps deliver more oxygen to the muscles and carry away carbon dioxide)
   7. Immune system activity ==decreases== (the ability to fight illnesses is not necessary, so the immune system’s action decreases to conserve resources)
   8. Blood flow to the digestive tract ==decreases==, which causes digestion to slow (this conserves body resources because digesting food is not important during intense, stressful situations)
   9. Levels of sex hormone production ==decrease== (sex is not important during a fight or flight situation, and this conserves body resources)
   10. Blood flow to the skin ==decreases== (this conserved body resources)

2. Resistance stage → The body devotes energy to maintaining its stress response

3. Exhaustion stage → If the threat continues, the body will continue to maintain its stress response for as long as it can. This will use up the body’s resources and lead to exhaustion

When the stressful period is over, the body experiences a relaxation response. During a relaxation response, the body returns to its resting (normal) state.