The system turns out to be incredibly sensitive to the size of the stressor, demonstrating a linear relationship between, for example, the extent of the drop in blood pressure and the extent of epinephrine secretion, between the degree of hypoglycemia (drop in blood sugar) and glucagon release. The body not only can sense something stressful, but it also is amazingly accurate at measuring just how far and how fast that stressor is throwing the body out of allostatic balance.
