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You can start to feel your heart pound against your chest, you feel sweat start to roll down your neck and your breath becomes heavy. You’re not dying, you just paid seventy dollars for this feeling. Why?
Your body releases epinephrine and noradrenaline while creating glucose for your body to use as fuel. Your body interprets whatever you’re doing to be dangerous, so it wants to give you fuel to “fight or flight.” As an article on theatlantic.com explained “Vision narrows. Adrenaline shoots into the body, which increases the heart rate. With the heart beating faster, we get more oxygen. The body redirects oxygen to the brain as fast as it can. The feeling often lasts less than 60 seconds, and the immediate aftermath is another flood of mood-boosting chemicals.” It protects you, as well as leaving you feeling stronger, along with a slight sense of pain and an increase in energy.
I still don’t understand why we seek adrenaline rushes. Why spend forty dollars on fear, when you could spend five on funnel cake? Between 2010 and July 28th, 2017 there were 22 deaths due to amusement parks. In 2016 there were 30,900 injuries due to fairs and amusement parks. There isn’t much data on funnel cake deaths and injuries but I am confident it was less.
There is some evidence that adrenal insufficiency can negatively impact health. Maybe we simply evolved to seek it to avoid health risks. However, if that is the reason then do other animals seek adrenaline? Specifically, do cats seek adrenaline?
All vertebrates have adrenal glands, so they do create adrenaline. But, what would they think of us paying 135 dollars to plummet 130 feet with Groot?
We also know the adrenaline affects cats by their hair falling out and their ears getting hot in stressful situations when adrenaline would be created. Cats can feel stress when their owner feels stress. As adrenaline is one of the stress hormones that is a reason to believe they do experience it emotionally. So, they do experience adrenaline as we do, although I still don’t know if they seek it.
Some see birds taunting cats or otters sliding down a hill and assume it is then seeking adrenaline. On the other hand, others say those dangerous actions are different from thrill seeking. They see it as animals having fun, which they have been proven to do.
Honeybees have many jobs. One of the recently discovered jobs is a percentage of them that go out and explore. They find new groups of flowers. Although that may not seem surprising, they do that constantly. They find a patch, lead other bees to it, then go out in search of another new patch. When scientists compared the DNA between these explorer bees and others, what they found was astonishing. As an article by seeker written by “DNEWS” said “...more than 1,000 genetic differences between risk-taking scouts and their more conservative peers.” In fact, the differences in their neural pathways mirrored those of risk-taking people and others.
We do know that cats (and other mammals) seek fun. If they jump 30 ft off of a roof for “fun”, does that qualify as adrenaline seeking? They do get an adrenaline rush when hunting. My white, clean kitten doesn’t hunt for his fancy feast, so is it purely for exhilaration? It would explain why only some house cats hunt. As some people think it’s a great idea to be swung around in circles by a screw or two and some are sane. Cats may mirror that variety, as bees do.
I got an interview with a professional. He didn’t seem to want to talk with me on the subject. To see it, scroll to “attachments” on my home page and find the video. While you’re there, you might as well be my first subscriber.
In the end, I think we need to research this further. We don’t have much information on if other mammals enjoy danger. I don’t condone the usage of animal testing for human medications and vanity products. I do think cats adrenaline being tracked while they play in the long run would help all mammals. Science is always evolving and we may need to wait to fully answer this question. One day, there will be an answer for us. It may even be in the process of being answered as I type and you read.