Fight or Flight, Forbearance and Fortitude: The Spectrum of Actions of the Catecholamines and Their Cousins
Catecholamines are recognized to play an important part in the fight-or-flight response to impending stress. Catecholamine and other phase-reactant levels are raised in the first 24 h following acute stress, but the bigger picture of their action on the organism is unavailable. In this article, we examine their actions in light of the theory of phase transitions borrowed from the numerate sciences. Phase transitions involve changes in the state of matter or an organism with a common example of what is termed a first-order phase transition (sudden change) being provided by the popular expression the straw that broke the camel's back. We propose that the response to catecholamines follows a triphasic response
catecholamines phase transition critical phenomena collapsible tube stress physiology