Table | Stanford Health Care

1 CRACKING THE CODE OF THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
1 The autonomic nervous system reaches throughout the body to act as a silent commander of a number of elemental body activities. It controls heart rate, respiration, digestion, salivation, perspiration, pupil dilation, urination and sexual function. It controls all those minute changes in blood pressure and heart rate that keep us from feeling dizzy when we stand up. It triggers us to sweat when the weather is hot and to shiver when the weather's cold, both done to maintain an appropriate internal body temperature. Autonomic system disorders can affect one or more of the body's organs whose activity is regulated by the system. Symptoms might include dizziness, fainting, excessive fatigue, rapid heart rate, stomach pain, difficulty adjusting eyesight from light to dark, sweating abnormalities, constipation, and vomiting. Changes in the autonomic system can be triggered by diabetes, Parkinson's disease, Lyme disease, infections, lupus and other autoimmune system diseases or independent of a specific infection or other disease. Tests to diagnose autonomic system disorders will include a variety of methods to measure how the heart, blood pressure and other functions its controls react to changes in body position and temperature.

The autonomic nervous system reaches throughout the body to act as a silent commander of a number of elemental body activities. It controls heart rate, respiration, digestion, salivation, perspiration, pupil dilation, urination and sexual function. It controls all those minute changes in blood pressure and heart rate that keep us from feeling dizzy when we stand up. It triggers us to sweat when the weather is hot and to shiver when the weather's cold, both done to maintain an appropriate internal body temperature.
Autonomic system disorders can affect one or more of the body's organs whose activity is regulated by the system. Symptoms might include dizziness, fainting, excessive fatigue, rapid heart rate, stomach pain, difficulty adjusting eyesight from light to dark, sweating abnormalities, constipation, and vomiting.
Changes in the autonomic system can be triggered by diabetes, Parkinson's disease, Lyme disease, infections, lupus and other autoimmune system diseases or independent of a specific infection or other disease.
Tests to diagnose autonomic system disorders will include a variety of methods to measure how the heart, blood pressure and other functions its controls react to changes in body position and temperature.