Emotions Affect the Body

Emotional life. Have you ever broken out in a cold sweat, blushed deeply, or felt "butterflies" in your stomach? If you have, you have noticed a typical reaction to strong emotion–the physical effects of emotions. In your teen-age years you are likely to react more emotionally to events than your younger brothers and sisters or your parents. Part of this increased feeling is due to the adjustments you are making to the changes in your body and to the changes in your responsibilities.

Whenever you feel a strong emotion, such as fear, embarrassment, anger, or joy, the organs in your body react. A cold sweat, a blush, and a "nervous stomach" are evidence that the sweat glands, blood vessels, and stomach are reacting to the emotions. These three reactions to emotion are evidence that there is a link between the brain and each of the organs involved. The link between the emotions and the organs of the body is the autonomic nervous system. The nervous system connects the brain with the skin, stomach, intestines, heart, and blood vessels, as well as with the glands of the body.

Whenever you feel a strong emotion, the message is transmitted to certain parts of the body and physical reactions occur.

Physical reactions to stress. Everyone has physical reactions when he feels a strong emotion. The physical reactions are the body’s way of preparing to meet an emergency. However, if the strong emotion lasts longer than a few hours, the physical reactions become harmful to the body. In cases in which people are under great emotional tension for long periods of time, their stomachs may develop ulcers, or sores, due to the prolonged increase in stomach acidity. Ulcers are common body reactions to chronic, or greatly prolonged emotional tension. Other common reactions to chronic emotional stress are high blood pressure, skin allergies, asthma, and excess weight.

It is fortunate that the periods of emotional stress and strain during the teen years are relatively short. Teenagers who develop healthy ways to cope with their emotions do not develop these physical reactions to chronic emotional strain. Probably they handle their emotions so successfully that they are seldom subjected to emotional stresses for long periods of time.

The Nervous System

Control center. Your nervous system is like a general’s headquarters in the army. It has an intelligence division to find out information, a messenger division to deliver orders to the proper units, and a general headquarters, where all but the least important decisions are made.

The general headquarters of the brain is composed of the cerebrum and cerebral cortex. These two parts of the brain control your thinking and voluntary actions.  These structures and their associated nerves are called the central nervous system. This system controls your conscious actions. These parts are in control when you lift an ice cream cone to your mouth or when you think about the answer to a math problem.

The cerebellum and cerebrum are connected to two kinds of nerves. The first, afferent nerves, pick up information from the sense organs. The second, efferent nerves, relay impulses from the conscious center to the muscles. These nerve pathways enable you to sense your surroundings and carry out your activities.

Other parts of the brain control involuntary actions such as maintaining balance, focusing the eyes, and regulating internal organs. Look at the illustration to see what areas the parts of the brain control.

The spinal cord. Within the thirty-three bones of the spine is the spinal cord. This cord is the largest central nerve trunk of the body. The nerves begin at the base of the brain and branch off the spinal cord. They connect various internal organs with the brain.

Your spinal cord also takes part in body reactions. Whenever a quick but automatic reaction is required, the reaction is made in the spinal cord. It is the spinal cord, for instance, that directs your muscles to jerk your hand away from a flame or makes you lift your foot hurriedly if you step on a tack.

Your nerves are the spies and messengers of the body. They sense the temperatures, pressures, sights, sounds, and smells around you and send tiny electrical impulses to the brain or spinal cord to be interpreted. When the control center interprets the messages, it sends back an answer along other nerves to the muscles, which carry out the body’s activities.

Regulation of the body. Some nerves and parts of the brain are part of the autonomic nervous system. This system controls the internal organs. It regulates your breathing, digestion, rate of perspiration, and even the way in which you digest your food.

The autonomic system works in the same way that the central nervous system works. There are afferent nerves that are stimulated by heat, pressure, or pain; control centers in the spinal column and the base of the brain; and efferent nerves to send the messages to muscles that can carry out the necessary action.

Nerve cells. All nerve cells, whether they are in the nerves, the spinal cord, or the brain, are similar in structure. Nerve cells have a nucleus and cell body like all cells, and they have two special structures that allow them to send and receive electrical impulses. These are the dendrites and axons.

The dendrites receive impulses from a sensory organ and pass them through the cell body to the axon, which passes them to the dendrite of the next cell in the chain. Thus, a nerve fiber is like a long bucket brigade in which an impulse is transmitted from a sensory organ to a control center. However, the "bucket" travels at 300 feet per second, much faster than a bucket has ever traveled in any human bucket brigade.

These chains of nerve cells penetrate every part of the body. The nerves that make up the central nervous system, or conscious control centers, constitute the five senses and are connected to the skeletal muscles that you can control. The nerve chains that are part of the autonomic nervous system are concentrated in the organs inside the body. You seldom feel the effects of these nerves, but their activities are essential to the operation of your organs and systems.

Have you ever had perspiring palms when you were about to take a very important examination? This condition is evidence that there is a link between the sweat glands in your hand and the higher conscious control centers of your brain. Other evidence of the great complexity of the nervous system is seen in the many ways the rest of the organs react to emotional stress.

Think for Yourself
What internal organs are controlled by the autonomic nervous system? Which by the central nervous system?