What is the difference between sympathetic and parasympathetic?!
Question: What is the difference between sympathetic and parasympathetic.?
What is the difference between sympathetic and parasympathetic.? I'm having a hard time understanding the two. Thanks!Health Question & Answer
Answers:
They are both branches of the autonomic nervous system, which deals with involuntary responses towards the external or internal environment.
the sympathetic gets your body into 'fight or flight', ie responds to heighten your body towards a stress response. your heart rate and breathing rate increase, pupils dilate etc, all to help you deal with the tiger coming to bite you or the final exam you're sitting.
the parasympathetic has opposite effects to the sympathetic; it relaxes you and gets your body back to normal after the stressful stimulus has been dealt with. your heart rate slows back down, pupils constrict, blood pressure returns to normal etc. actions associated with the PNS are salivation, urination, defecation etc (all these are suppressed by the SNS,cos you dont want to be busy digesting food when you're busy running away from a vicious animal, therefore when the PNS is activated it stimulates these)Health Question & Answer
the sympathetic gets your body into 'fight or flight', ie responds to heighten your body towards a stress response. your heart rate and breathing rate increase, pupils dilate etc, all to help you deal with the tiger coming to bite you or the final exam you're sitting.
the parasympathetic has opposite effects to the sympathetic; it relaxes you and gets your body back to normal after the stressful stimulus has been dealt with. your heart rate slows back down, pupils constrict, blood pressure returns to normal etc. actions associated with the PNS are salivation, urination, defecation etc (all these are suppressed by the SNS,cos you dont want to be busy digesting food when you're busy running away from a vicious animal, therefore when the PNS is activated it stimulates these)Health Question & Answer
"Para" is a prefix meaning 'around.'Health Question & Answer