Mam,
You have an excellent question that I will try to answer in a clear way .
First some background .... One portion of our nervous system is the autonomic
nervous system that in general terms could be said to control the activities
of cardiac muscles , glands and the smooth muscles , usually with out
conscious control . The autonomic nevous system consists of two principle
divisions :
(many organs recieve efferent neurons from both)
1.PARASYMPATHETIC The part of the autonomic nervous system which induces
secretions , increases tone and contractility of smooth muscles , causes
dialation of blood vessels and is didtributed primarily to the head and
viscera of the thorax , abdomen and pelvis .
2.SYMPATHETIC The part of the autonomic nervous system that chiefly prepares
the body to react to stress and emergency by depressing secretions decreasing
tone and contractility of smooth muscle , contracting blood vessels and is
distributed through out the body including the skin .
So......SYMPATHOMIMETICS are substances which are able to simulate sympathetic
nervous action in physiologic effect
BRONCHODIALATORS are drugs that relax bronchial muscles with the effect of
expanding bronchial air passages .
The cause for the confusion is a question of language as the effect of
decreasing tone and contractility and relaxing bronchial muscles is the same.
Albuterol falls into this as the trade name for the drug salbutamol . It is
thought to have the effect of stimulating an enzyme which forms AMP from ATP
and mediates cellular responce....relaxing smooth muscles ,decreasing
secreations constricting blood vessels and you breath easier .
Sorry for the confusion caused by the earlier message , I was hoping to help
clarify . I am still just learning and the strength of my experience is not in
academics.
Take care and hang tough
Joseph Cane
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