Epi Ever After
Adrenaline is good for you, and could save someone else’s life.
ŽYDRŪNAS SAVICKAS IS a professional strongman. He holds the world record for the ‘deadlift’ at 524kg, or 1,155 pounds if you prefer. In anyone’s language, it’s more than half a ton. He’s very strong. He’d be the kind of person you’d want to have around when you’re struggling to open a bottle of ketchup.
In 2012, a swimming pool lifeguard, 22-year-old Lauren Kornacki, from Virginia, US, deadlifted almost three times that weight when her father was trapped under a BMW.
She came to his rescue as the car pinned him to the ground, causing him to lose consciousness, and not only did she lift the 3,000+-pound motor vehicle, she managed to slide her stricken dad from under it, before administering CPR and, ultimately, saving his life.
How did she do it? Unfortunately, no one really knows, but there are a number of theories, one of which involves adrenaline, and another of which refers to the aptly named ‘hysterical strength’.
Adrenaline doesn’t make us superhuman, although it can make us feel super-human, and while scientists point to the fact that in terms of actual strength we rarely meet our full potential and have a surprising amount in reserve, it still doesn’t account for the fact that Kornacki was capable of a feat that one of the world’s strongest men wouldn’t even have attempted. It’s obvious that adrenaline had a role to play in the proceedings. Secreted from the adrenal glands in response to a ‘stressor’ – something that causes tension, strain, panic (an average workday for some) – it plays a significant role in our species’ ‘fight or flight’ response.
When we’re in danger, breathing increases and our heart rate is elevated, and this means that more blood is pushed in the general direction of the vital organs. Cortisol floods the body, and we get excited – occasionally even euphoric. It explains why there are so many adrenaline junkies out there putting their lives on the line in the name of dangerous sports because they’ll be getting the kind of highs and rushes you don’t get sitting at a desk or shopping in a supermarket, unless you’re a Wall Street trader and your position’s just gone ‘south’, or it’s the last day of a mega-sale.
We’ve all experienced adrenaline rushes at certain points in our lives, even if being a sedentary couch potato has turned into a vocation, but few, if any of us, will have been quite as pumped up as Lauren Kornacki was seven and a half years ago.
“Everyone has a basic instinct to help the ones they love,” she said when being interviewed after the incident. If only it were that simple.