What is epinephrine and Norepinephrine?
Epinephrine and Norepinephrine are hormones and neurotransmitters classed as a catecholamines.
Epinephrine is also known as adrenaline. When you are stressed, your body releases adrenaline. Norephinephrine is also known as noradrenaline.
Both play a role in the fight or flight response.
The difference
Both epinephrine and norepinephrine can affect your heart, blood sugar levels, and blood vessels.
The main difference between the two is that norepinephrine can also make your blood vessels become narrower which increases blood pressure.
Symptoms of low epinephrine include:
- anxiety
- depression
- fibromyalgia
- hypoglycemia
- migraine
- restless legs syndrome
- sleep disorders
Norepinephrine and mental health
Norepinephrine is made from dopamine.
Norepinephrine is also known to influence areas of cognition and behaviour such as attention and working memory.
Dysregulation of the norepinephrine system can result in anxiety and depression and ADHD.
Genetics
When your COMT gene has a lower enzymatic activity, this can increase epinephrine and norepinephrine
in the peripheral and central nervous system, which can result in a high pain sensitivity.
When dopamine and norepinephrine levels rise, it can disrupt the regulation of the prefrontal cortex, leading to a diminished ability to cope with negative emotions.
Genetic testing
The DNA resilience test looks at seven molecular areas of resilience: serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, BDNF, Neuropeptide Y, Oxytocin and the stress axis in order to help identify strengths and hurdles, as well as recommending personalised interventions which can help you to improve your resilience outcomes and health performance.
If you are interested in getting your genetic test, please contact me. I am an accredited genetic practitioner.