Epinephrine, also called adrenaline, is a hormone and neurotransmitter. It plays an important role in the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the body’s “fight or flight” response [1].
The effects of epinephrine include increased heart rate, breathing rate, and blood flow to the muscles, to name a few. For this reason, it is also used as a medication for several conditions, such as cardiac arrest, serious allergic reactions, and asthma [1, 2, 3, 4].
Epinephrine belongs to a group of neurotransmitters called catecholamines, which also includes norepinephrine and dopamine [5].
The adrenal glands make most of the epinephrine in the body, but small amounts are also produced in other tissues, like some neurons and the kidneys [6].