Medical Assistant Prep / Unit 3 MAS 064 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Autonomic Nervous System
The idea
The autonomic nervous system runs the body's automatic work, controlling smooth muscle, cardiac muscle and glands without conscious effort.
In practice
It has two divisions that usually work against each other. The first is the sympathetic division, linked with the "fight or flight" response: it prepares the body to meet a threat, for example by speeding up the heart. The second is the parasympathetic division, often called "rest and digest": it supports calmer functions such as digestion. Many organs receive fibers from both, so that one division stimulates an organ and the other slows it, and the balance between them keeps the body steady.
Where people slip
Many common medications act on these two divisions, which is why one drug class can slow the heart and another can speed it. Unit five returns to those drug classes and what they are used for.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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