Word: glands
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STRESS-HORMONE BOOST Responding to signals from the hypothalamus and pituitary gland, the adrenal glands pump out high levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Too much cortisol shortcircuits the cells in the hippocampus, making it difficult to organize the memory of a trauma or stressful experience. Memories lose their context and become fragmented...
...dysfunction--will vary from person to person. A new group of antidepressants, known as serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, may be even more effective in treating anxiety disorders than the SSRIs are. As the name implies, the SNRIs target a second neurotransmitter called norepinephrine, which is secreted by the adrenal gland and plays a role in triggering the fight-or-flight response--thus actually increasing anxiety symptoms in many situations. However, norepinephrine also helps control emotion and stabilize mood, and, properly manipulated along with serotonin, may be able to do just that for the anxious person...
Nuclear detonations release a hail of charged particles, common among them radioactive iodine. This is bad news for the human thyroid, which soaks up iodine like a sponge. One way to prevent the problem is to dose the body with potassium iodide, which saturates the gland and prevents the nastier form of the stuff from being absorbed. It's simple--but of limited value. First, little if any iodine is given off by a so-called dirty bomb--radioactive waste wrapped around a conventional explosive--which is the device a terrorist would be most likely to manage. Second, even...
...societies are bound together by an elaborate system of chemical signals. He went on to prove the existence of what are now called pheromones with an elegant experiment. Pied Piper-like, he lured a stream of worker ants along a chemical trail laid down with pheromones extracted from a gland in the abdomen of a fire...
...forward, despite every muscle firing in the right sequence and straining to move me forward. After a surprised moment in this strange equilibrium I let out a wheezy grunt and gently slumped forward. From this position my body somehow found one last drop of adrenaline in my already taxed gland and it squirted into my bloodstream. With this as fuel, I managed to stand up and continued my lurching progress up the hill, but this breakdown upgraded the crisis from "serious" to "red alert...