Taffy Wake
Registered Senior Member
why do people sweat when they are in shock? i'd have thought the opposite would happen ie holding on to fluid....
can anyone help?
ta.
can anyone help?
ta.
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Sweating and Shock
- Thread starter Taffy Wake
- Start date
A lot of heat is created by mental stress in state of shock. Sweating helps regulate the temperature by releasing excess heat. Same as when one is nervous...due to high state of mental activity abnormal amount of heat is created all over the body ergo we sweat.
river-wind
Valued Senior Member
It's part of the Flight of Fight response-blood moves from your extermities to your core, your vision and awareness improve, digestion stops, and you sweat.
IIRC, because all the extra work raises your core temp, and sweating helps you to cool off. There are some other theories, too, though, such as the perfuse amount of sweating is a hold over from when humans/apes used to more readily transmit messages through scent. Sweating more would acompany the extretion of stress-related hormone, which other individuals could pick up on.
I forget most of the specifics, though.
IIRC, because all the extra work raises your core temp, and sweating helps you to cool off. There are some other theories, too, though, such as the perfuse amount of sweating is a hold over from when humans/apes used to more readily transmit messages through scent. Sweating more would acompany the extretion of stress-related hormone, which other individuals could pick up on.
I forget most of the specifics, though.
here’s my thoughts
The majority of body heat is produced by skeletal muscle, (which is why if the body needs heat above and beyond what is made from normal muscle activities, involuntary shivering is initiated by the hypothalamus.) So sweating in shock I don’t think is ‘due to high state of mental activity abnormal amount of heat is created all over the body ergo we sweat.’
Instead I think it’s more likely that during the flight or fight (leading to shock) the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated (to accelerate the heart rate, constrict blood vessels, and raise blood pressure) and as sweating a component part of the sympathetic nervous system it is stimulated to –as a kind of side effect, and works as a sign that the parasympathetic system hasn't kicked in.
http://home.swipnet.se/sympatiska/nervous.htm has a nice diagram.
Does anyone know if this is true?
The majority of body heat is produced by skeletal muscle, (which is why if the body needs heat above and beyond what is made from normal muscle activities, involuntary shivering is initiated by the hypothalamus.) So sweating in shock I don’t think is ‘due to high state of mental activity abnormal amount of heat is created all over the body ergo we sweat.’
Instead I think it’s more likely that during the flight or fight (leading to shock) the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated (to accelerate the heart rate, constrict blood vessels, and raise blood pressure) and as sweating a component part of the sympathetic nervous system it is stimulated to –as a kind of side effect, and works as a sign that the parasympathetic system hasn't kicked in.
http://home.swipnet.se/sympatiska/nervous.htm has a nice diagram.
Does anyone know if this is true?