relaxation response

Examples of relaxation response in the following topics:

• Tools for Managing Situational Anxiety

  • Herbert Benson described a series of physical responses you can use to calm the body down as the fear response ratchets the body up.
  • The key to triggering the relaxation response involves activating the following elements:
  • Deep breathing is one of the keys to activating the relaxation response.
  • Take a few deep breaths to trigger the relaxation response to help calm your nerves before presenting.
  • Use relaxation and warm-up techniques to mitigate the effects of anxiety

• Adrenergic Neurons and Receptors

  • Their activation leads to overall stimulatory and sympathomimetic responses.
  • Many cells possess these receptors, and the binding of an agonist will generally cause a sympathetic (or sympathomimetic) response (e.g., the fight-or-flight response).
  • Increased cAMP will promote relaxation in smooth muscle, while promoting increased contractility and pulse rate in cardiac muscle.
  • Bronchioles (although minor to the relaxing effect of β2 receptor on bronchioles).
  • Smooths muscle relaxation, e.g., in bronchi and the GI tract (decreased motility).

• Cardiac Cycle

  • The cardiac cycle describes the heart's phases of contraction and relaxation that drive blood flow throughout the body.
  • The cardiac cycle is the term used to describe the relaxation and contraction that occur as the heart works to pump blood through the body.
  • The body can increase the heart rate in response to a wide variety of conditions in order to increase the cardiac output, the blood ejected by the heart, which improves oxygen supply to the tissues.
  • The blood chambers of the heart relax and fill with blood once more, continuing the cycle.
  • Thus, there are two types of measurable blood pressure: systolic during contraction and diastolic during relaxation.

• Depressants

  • Depressants cause the body to relax by increasing the neurotransmitter GABA, which decreases neuronal excitability.
  • On the neural level, most depressants act on the brain by affecting the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is responsible for regulating (specifically, decreasing) neuronal excitability throughout the nervous system.
  • Though initially a stimulant, alcohol ultimately depresses the brain, resulting in relaxation and impaired judgment.
  • Benzodiazepines enhance the effect of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) at the GABA receptor, resulting in sedative, hypnotic (sleep-inducing), anxiolytic (anti-anxiety), anticonvulsant, and muscle-relaxant properties.
  • Although cannabis or marijuana is often considered either in its own unique category or as a mild psychedelic, the drug—notably the chemical compound cannabidiol that it contains—nevertheless has many depressant effects such as muscle relaxation, sedation, decreased alertness, and tiredness.

• The Fight-or-Flight Response

  • The fight-or-flight response is regulated by the release of adrenaline or noradrenaline.
  • The fight-or-flight response (also called the acute stress response) was first described by Walter Bradford Cannon.
  • This response was later recognized as the first stage of a general adaptation syndrome that regulates stress responses among vertebrates and other organisms.
  • The stress response halts or slows down various processes, such as sexual responses and digestive systems, to focus on the stressor situation.
  • Discuss the endocrine system's role in the fight-or-flight response to stress

• Mechanism and Contraction Events of Cardiac Muscle Fibers

  • ECC describes the process of converting an electrical stimulus from the neurons into a mechanical response that facilitates muscle movement.
  • Action potentials are the electrical stimulus that elicits the mechanical response in ECC.
  • The actual mechanical contraction response in cardiac muscle occurs via the sliding filament model of contraction.
  • In the sliding filament model, myosin filaments slide along actin filaments to shorten or lengthen the muscle fiber for contraction and relaxation.
  • Intracellular calcium is then removed by the sarcoplasmic reticulum, dropping intracellular calcium concentration, returning the troponin complex to its inhibiting position on the active site of actin, and effectively ending contraction as the actin filaments return to their initial position, relaxing the muscle.

• Short-Term Chemical Control

  • In practice, each individual's autonomic nervous system responds to and regulates all of these interacting factors so that the actual arterial pressure response varies widely because of both split-second and slow-moving responses of the nervous system and end organs.
  • These responses are very effective in changing the variables and resulting blood pressure from moment to moment.
  • This enzyme is responsible for phosphorylating the light chain of myosin to stimulate cross-bridge cycling.
  • Vasodilation is the widening of blood vessels resulting from relaxation of smooth muscle cells within the vessel walls, particularly in the large veins, large arteries, and smaller arterioles.
  • Dephosphorylation by myosin light-chain phosphatase and induction of calcium symporters and antiporters that pump calcium ions out of the intracellular compartment both contribute to smooth muscle cell relaxation and therefore vasodilation.

• Introduction to Blood Pressure

  • Diastole is the relaxation of the chambers of the heart and systole is the contraction of the heart chambers.
  • Systolic pressure is thus the pressure that your heart emits when blood is forced out of the heart and diastolic pressure is the pressure exerted when the heart is relaxed.
  • Differences in mean blood pressure are responsible for blood flow from one location to another in circulation.

• Spinal Reflexes

  • The stretch reflex (myotatic reflex) is a muscle contraction in response to stretching within the muscle.
  • A secondary set of neurons also causes the opposing muscle to relax.
  • The tendon reflex operates as a feedback mechanism to control muscle tension by causing muscle relaxation before muscle force becomes so great that tendons might be torn.
  • The reflex occurs when the flexors in the withdrawing limb contract and the extensors relax, while in the other limb, the opposite occurs.
  • The Golgi tendon organ, responsible for the Golgi tendon reflex, is diagrammed with its typical position in a muscle (left), neuronal connections in spinal cord (middle), and expanded schematic (right).

• Sympathetic Responses

  • The SNS is perhaps best known for mediating the neuronal and hormonal stress response commonly known as the fight-or-flight response, also known as sympatho-adrenal response of the body.
  • The fight-or-flight response was first described by Walter Bradford Cannon.
  • This response was later recognized as the first stage of a general adaptation syndrome that regulates stress responses among vertebrates and other organisms.
  • In current times, these responses persist, but fight-and-flight responses have assumed a wider range of behaviors.
  • During stressful times, a mother is especially likely to show protective responses toward her offspring and affiliate with others for shared social responses to threats.