Not an actual hack but....Learning to control one's autonomic nervous system?

Pulled from the Human 2.0 council on Facebook because I'm a lazy shitknot:

Autonomic nervous systems. Can you learn to control yours at will and does anyone have some ideas how?

I ask because I have this issue with adrenaline...I have surges for no discernible reason. (Please don't ask me to go get seen to, because I refuse to go near Irish doctors, they suck ass).

But it isn't that I have them that's pathological, IMO, it's that they happen at times I can't use them for anything productive. I am naturally much more alert at night and a lot of them happen then.

Does anyone know a possible way to turn said adrenaline dump on when you do want it and off when you don't? I would love to be able to crank it up when I want to pull a big deadlift and off at night...
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Comments

  • Have you had any discussions with Kim Solez over at H2.0? He's a renal pathologist. 

    Whatever you do, don't listen to the guys telling you to meditate your way to self delusional Hulk states. That bullshit could take decades. There has to be a nerve that sends the signal to dump the adrenaline payload. There are ways to hijack the nerve if it can be identified. 

    I bet Kim would know. 
  • rdbrdb
    edited May 2012
    As for controlling autonomic nervous functions in general - what about bio/neurofeedback?
  • No Kim Solez isn't active right now, do you think it would be rude to PM him?
  • Good point DirectorX, thanks. There is a nerve that runs from the brain to the adrenal medulla. I'll google it. Somewhere will probably tell me exactly where that nerve inserts.
  • Googled, but so far can't find anything that tells you where that nerve is most exposed and could possibly be hijacked.
  • Okay, I got something.

    It doesn't seem to be a singular nerve, at least according to the page I'm currently reading. It's a set of nerves that apparently arc off the spine from T1 to L2.

    Any ideas as to how to hijack them? Electrodes?
  • Hi, Hypermoloch, another Paddy here.
    First off: I Am Not A Doctor, or remotely qualified in any way - not that that's ever stopped me shitting on before; that's why I have the username I do.

    Nerve inhibition is likely not doable with electrodes at current tech levels. The best way we have nowadays seems to be to gently poison the nerve cells we'd like to inhibit - see Botox treatment. You can see how injecting botulinum toxin close to your kidneys is probably not a good idea, I hope? ",)
    There might be hope in local injection of a GABA agonist, but there's a rake of assumptions in that statement, and injecting random substances (and not so random; "GABA agonist" equals things like barbiturates) into your kidneys is a Very Bad Plan - renal failure or death are kinda career-limiting moves. Consult your local neurologist for suggestions.
  • I was thinking of something more like this:
    http://www.google.com/patents?id=WW_SAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA6&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

    This device stimulates adrenaline release in the event of cardiac arrest/asthma attacks. The patent gives details of how to trigger the response and at what levels of power. The device is probably overkill for what you need and it is invasive. Mainly it proves that it can be done. It makes me wonder if a focused ultrasonic stimulation would work?
  • Stimulation isn't the hard part - well, harder part. It's the 'off' switch that's the killer.
  • Usually there are a bit more complicated ways in which the "big" nerves are wired. For many of them there are suppressing nerves. How about stimulating them to lower the adrenalin-nerve activity?
    (in this case I'd probably start by looking into the parasympathic wireing)
  • Thanks for input everyone!

    That wire implant thing sounds way cool, but probably not worth doing invasive surgery when you don't vitally need it.
  • BTW, Unqualified, no, don't worry, I'm not about to do amateur surgery on myself. 
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