Adrenaline. We’ve all gotten our own natural doses of it at one point or another. We hear about it quite a bit: “Boy, that was an adrenaline rush.” “I’ve got some mad adrenaline running through me right now.” You know, that old chestnut. For the hell of it, though, let’s dive in a littler deeper and see what adrenaline really does for us.

A crash course on adrenaline By crash course, I mean a dictionary definition: Adrenaline: A hormone secreted by the adrenal glands, especially in conditions of stress, increasing rates of blood circulation, breathing, and carbohydrate metabolism and preparing muscles for exertion. It is secreted by the kidneys to help both animals and humans cope with distress. When going through an ‘adrenaline rush’ our blood vessels are contracted in order to help push blood to our major muscles should we need to flight or flee.

Adrenaline improves your vision - The more I read about adrenaline, the more kickass it seems to be. I mean, the stuff literally improves your vision because it wants you to be as sharp as you can be when focusing on your task. Whether the task is getting some work done, trying to safely scale a building, or running away from a murderer, the release of adrenaline into your system will help dilate your pupils, ultimately giving you improved eyesight.

Breathe easy, fella - Adrenaline also has the ability to cause smooth muscles to relax in a tense situation. Muscles such as the bronchioles in the lungs, which allow you to breathe a little bit easier when relaxed. It is because of this that people with asthma produce larger amounts of adrenaline.

Adrenaline heightens your other senses - When you’re, say, watching a horror flick, a little bit of adrenaline gets released into your system in an attempt to respond to the fear you are feeling. Even though you know you’re safe, your body wants to be sure, so, your vision, hearing, and quick responses are all increased. This is why people jump so easily during scary movies. It’s their body trying to keep them safe! That’s kind of nice, actually.

It can block pain - When someone breaks an arm, they typically have one of two reactions: Pain, or silence. They either let out some screams of “CALL 911!” or they look at you and go “Dude, call 911, I think I broke my arm.” People who experience the latter, are probably not just incredibly tough, but they’re not actually feeling as much pain as you would think. When adrenaline and noradrenaline are flowing through your veins, your brain will actually cut out your ability to feel intense pain for a little bit. However, once the adrenaline and noradrenaline die down, the pain will come.

It can boost your immune system - Being under stress and pumped with adrenaline constantly isn’t a good thing, but in small doses, it can be. When you have adrenaline flowing through you, your immune system can be improved. This is because adrenaline helps your ability to fight off infections, if only for a little while.

You might get a bit of “super strength” - We’ve all heard the stories about people lifting massive cars to free a trapped victim from the weight and fire of a crash. Researchers do believe that this is because, under certain situations, we may be able to access our absolute strength with the help of adrenaline.