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MODULE 11:
The Autonomic Nervous System
PART 2 OF 7
Stina used to describe a flare as feeling ‘floored’ — heart pounding, mouth dry, a wired-but-exhausted buzz, as if her body were braced for a threat that never came. That combination is not random; it’s the signature of one of the autonomic system’s two pedals pressed to the floor.
Slide 1 Transcript
PATIENT CHART
STINA
THIS PART
Age 45
PRESENTING WITH
Disabling facial pain, hearing loss, wire-but exhausted feeling
DIAGNOSIS
Dysautonomia
DRUGS PERSCRIBED
Anti-seizure Drugs
CHART CLUES
COLLECTED AS YOU GO
Multi-Organ Autonomic Dysfunction
‘Revved’ Flares
Autonomic Symptoms Track Inflammation
Trigeminal Neuralgia
Cochlear Hair-Cell Injury
Two Cranial Nerves Affected
Dysautonomia
Put your money down: Random symptoms, or one autonomic pedal stuck down?
Stina describes her flares as feeling ‘floored’ — pounding heart, dry mouthThe opening of the digestive tract where food enters and mastication begins., wide pupils — with no threat to match.
Pick the answer you believe now. We’ll come back to it later!
Floored, Then Shut Down
Stina used to describe a flare as feeling “floored” — heart pounding, mouth dry, a wired-but-exhausted buzz, as if her body were braced for a threat that never came. In calmer stretches the opposite ruled: a sluggish, heavy, “shut-down” feeling. She didn’t have a word for it, but she was describing the two halves of her autonomic nervous systemThe part of the peripheral nervous system that controls involuntary functions such as heart rate, di fighting for the wheel.
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The ANS as a Car With Two Pedals
The ANS works like a car with two pedals. The sympathetic divisionPart of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for stress and activity. is the accelerator — “fight or flight.” It speeds the heart, dilates the pupils and airways, mobilizes energyThe capacity to do work or cause change., and diverts blood to muscle; anatomically its nerves emerge from the thoracic and lumbar spinal cordThe central nervous system structure that relays signals between the brain and body. (thoracolumbar). The parasympathetic divisionPart of the autonomic nervous system that conserves energy and promotes rest-and-digest functions. is the brake — “rest and digest.” It slows the heart, constricts pupils, and stimulates digestion and bladderA muscular organ that stores urine before excretion. emptying; its nerves emerge from the brainstemThe lower part of the brain that connects to the spinal cord and controls vital functions. and sacral cord (craniosacral), including the wide-ranging vagus nerve. Most organs receive dual innervationA situation in which most target organs receive input from both the sympathetic and parasympathetic from both divisions, and health is a moving balance between them — accelerator and brake trading control moment to moment.
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Two Pedals Out of Sync
In dysautonomia that balance breaks: a “revved” flare is the accelerator stuck down, the brake unable to answer. Stina’s contradictory feelings were two pedals out of sync.
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FINDING!
‘Revved’ Flares = Sympathetic Over-Activation Out of Context
Pounding heart, dry mouth, wide pupils, a wired-but-exhausted buzz — the signature of the sympathetic (‘fight or flight’) pedal pressed down without a matching threat. New evidence names the imbalance: not stress in the moment, but an autonomic balance tilted toward sympathetic drive during her inflammatory flares.
Confirm or refute your bet: Random symptoms, or one autonomic pedal stuck down?
You committed to a guess: random, or one pedal? Now you know sympathetic and parasympathetic. Let’s read the flare.
Slide 7 Transcript
NEXT PART
Two pedals are only as good as the signals that work them. Next: the chemical messengers and receptorsProteins located on the surface or inside cells that bind specific molecules (e.g., neurotransmitter that let each division speak — and how inflammation can scramble the message.
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All pages for Module 11 — The Autonomic Nervous System
11.0 Module Overview
11.1 The Bladder That Won’t Listen
11.2 Two Pedals
11.3 Chemical Messengers
11.4 A Stab in the Face
11.5 The Fading Sound
11.6 Windows and Receivers
11.7 Autonomic Instability
11.8 Conclusion and Assessment
11.9 Evidence Behind the Case
All Modules
- Anatomical Language, Membranes & Homeostasis
- Just Enough Chemistry
- The Cell & Its Transport
- Making Cells & Proteins
- The Integumentary System
- The Skeletal System
- The Muscular System
- Nervous Tissue & the Senses
- The Spinal Cord
- The Brain & the Blood–Brain Barrier
- The Autonomic Nervous System
- Special Senses (in developmentThe process of growth and differentiation.)
- The Endocrine System
- Blood
- The Heart
- Blood Vessels
- The Digestive System
- The Respiratory System
- The Urinary System
- Fluids, Electrolytes & Acid–Base Balance
- The Reproductive System
- The Immune System
List of terms
- mouth
- autonomic nervous system
- sympathetic division
- energy
- spinal cord
- parasympathetic division
- bladder
- brainstem
- dual innervation
- receptors
- development