Patients suffering from food allergy or untreated allergy to insect venom may be at risk of experiencing a severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis, if exposed to the allergen by accident. In an anaphylactic shock the main problem for the body is the relaxation of the blood vessels, which popularly spoken makes room for more blood than there is in the body.
In such cases the recommended emergency treatment is an intra-muscular injection of adrenaline followed by an immediate call for medical assistance.
The adrenaline works directly on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The adrenaline counteracts a potentially fatal anaphylactic shock by rapidly constricting the blood vessels, relaxing muscles in the lungs to improve breathing, reversing swelling, and stimulating the heartbeat.
The adrenaline corresponds to the body’s own fast acting stress hormone and that is released when people get shocked. The purpose of this hormone is in other words to concentrate the blood flow to the vital organs. Therefore it is also called the survival hormone.