Hormones
I’m a man and for some reason I love writing about hormones. They are one of the most poorly understood areas of the body and shrouded in mystery. This section will set out to dispel some myths and shed some light on the vital functioning of the hormonal system.
Lets start with a simple analogy. The hormonal system is a bit like the metronome that keeps musicians in the right timing. The entire body clock is governed by the hormonal system and upset it or ignore it at your peril.
In addition the whole process of ageing is governed by the hormonal system and all too often people simply don’t understand it.
Hormones are simple chemical messengers. They are secreted into the blood by endocrine organs.
They are carried around the body in the blood system to “target organs” which are controlled by specific hormones.
Example 1
Insulin is produced by the islets of Langerhans (small groups of cells in the pancreas); these islets (little islands) are endocrine organs. The effect of insulin is to reduce the amount of glucose in the blood.
Example 2
Adrenalin is another hormone. In this case the endocrine gland is the adrenal gland. Adrenal means attached to the kidney. The first part of the word “ad” literally means “onto”. The second part of the word “renal” means belonging to the “kidney”. Adrenalin produces all sorts of responses. The overall effect is sometimes called the “fight or flight” reaction. Adrenalin will:
- make your heart beat faster
- make you breathe more deeply
- bring you out into a cold sweat
- prepare your systems for extremes of activity
Example 3
Thyroxin controls how fast your body works and is key in regulating temperature and weight. So it is there all day and night every day of your life unless you run out of Iodine. Iodine is a mineral salt which must be present in small quantities in your diet. If you have no Iodine, you will not be able to make thyroxin. You will suffer from a disease called goitre or Derbyshire neck.
Other hormones include:
Oestrogen, Progesterone, Prolactin, Oxytocin, Testosterone, Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), Leutenising Hormone (LH) and Interstitial Cell Stimulating Hormone (ICSH).
Hormones go through a life cycle which is best describes in 6 steps:
- biosynthysis,
- storage and secretion,
- transport,
- recognition by the organ/cell,
- relay and amplification,
- and finally degradation.
If any of these areas don’t work correctly then the whole process malfunctions.
The first area where things start to go wrong is in the area of biosynthesis. The body has to make the hormones it needs and it does so from the food we eat. The food provides the raw materials that are then converted into the materials needs by the body. So let look at an example. In times gone by we all ate plants and consumed plant hormones which were then converted by the body into the human equivalents. Today we receive a tiny fraction of the amount we consumed generations ago and consequently our bodies no longer have the raw materials to make the hormones we need. It is of little surprise that our hormonal systems are malfunction to an ever increasing degree. Wherever we see a health issue we always see a link to a hormonal dysfunction.
So you are probably asking the question “what foods should I be eating to get these plant hormones?” Well the truth is that unless you are prepared to eat huge quantities of certain raw vegetables (which does have drawbacks if you happen to be close to the person eating) or choose a supplement that works for you. We can recommend specific supplements which we have seen work but we’d like you to talk with one of our “health mentors” before making any recomendation.
