How hormones impact your health

By Bio Island Nutrition Team

Hormones are vital to our health and wellbeing. But what exactly are hormones and how can they affect our health?

Hormones are the body’s chemical messengers that travel in the bloodstream to targeted tissues and organs to help them do their work. Every part of our body has a job to do and they take their directions from our glands in the endocrine system that produce and secrete these hormones. Our hormones tell our bodies what to do, when to do it and for how long.  

There are more than 50 different hormones which are essential in growth and development, sexual function, reproduction, repair, mood and metabolism. There are multiple hormones involved at once and they often work over different body systems.

Adolescence: 

Hormones are directly related to the growth and development of us all. It is during puberty that our hypothalamus, which is located in our brain, begins to produce hormones that causes our sex hormones, estrogen in girls and testosterone in boys to increase. Physical changes start to begin with growth spurts of our bones and muscles, a rapid increase in height and changes to our body’s shape and size. If these hormones are not being secreted properly it may cause an imbalance where developmental factors can occur such as delayed or precocious puberty.

Women & Reproductive Health:

As we continue to get older, for women the vital hormones include estrogen and progesterone as they influence a woman’s reproductive health. From menstruation to conception, these hormones act like a monthly health report letting women know how their health is tracking from month to month. It is only through a woman ovulating that these essential hormones are made. Both estrogen and progesterone work together to influence puberty, regulate your menstrual cycle and support pregnancy. They are also vital for bone health, mood and maintaining healthy cholesterol levels.

An important thing for all women to think about is that hormonal birth control shuts down ovulation. They produce pseudo-hormones that bear no resemblance to the body’s natural estrogen and progesterone. Diet, stress, environmental toxins and certain diseases can also prevent a woman from ovulating.

As a woman ages the production of these essential hormones begin to become unbalanced.  As early as your mid 30’s your progesterone levels begin to decline and fall out of balance with estrogen. Because of this imbalance it will make the menstrual cycle less predictable until your reproductive system winds down into menopause.

Men & Reproductive Health:

For men, testosterone brings about the physical changes that transforms boys into the adult male. In a healthy balance, testosterone helps maintain muscle and bone mass, sperm production and sex drive. It fuels their energy and also has a big impact on their mood. Low testosterone levels in men occurs when they age and can cause lose in body hair, decreased muscle mass and strength, low mood and the increase in body weight.

Opposites Attract: 

Although males and females have their dominant sex hormone influencing their functioning body, contrasting reproductive hormones also play an essential, although much smaller role in the opposite sex.

When we age the natural hormone shifts begin where we can see our dominant hormones being converted into another that can see our body begin to change and exert characteristics of the opposite sex. For example, in men estrogen levels rise as more testosterone is converted to estrogen so men can experience more estrogen-like effects such as experiencing characteristics often associated with women emotionally and physically.

Our bodies also make and use many other kinds of hormones that can affect other aspects of our health. Hormones that support our energy production, our mood, essential nutrients in balance, our weight and so much more.

What can cause our hormones not to work correctly?

Sometimes our hormones can get out of balance or the body fails to respond these hormones appropriately and this can result in health issues arising, such as weight gain or loss, infertility, weak bones and certain diseases.

It is not only age that can affect our hormones. As mentioned previously, diet, stress, environmental toxins and certain diseases can also affect the production of your hormones.

Diet:

We all know how important our diet is on our health. What is not commonly known is how important our diet is on our hormones. Omega 3’s found in fish, green leafy vegetables and nuts as well as saturated fats that are found in coconut oil and grass-fed meat are important for proper hormone function as they are the building blocks for hormone production. When we don’t give our body adequate amounts of these fats and are consuming our fats from other sources our body will utilise these less stable fats that are easily oxidised in our body which may have inflammatory effects on our bodies.

Stress:

Stress is a natural part of life and our body produces hormones that directly relate to the response of the stressors we face. Cortisol and adrenaline are connected to the stress response and are released into the bloodstream if we are faced with a challenging situation. They prepare our body for fight or flight response and when the threat is gone these high hormone levels in our body return to normal.

Excessively high levels of these hormones due to frequent stress and the inability to recover to normal hormone levels can cause damage over numerous body systems including our digestive, cardiovascular, immune and nervous systems. This damage can result in serious diseases or health complications. 

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDC):

EDC’s are chemicals that interfere with the way the body’s hormones work. They are substances in the environment, food sources and personal care products that disrupts the normal function of the endocrine system.

They can mimic our body’s natural hormones that trick the body into thinking they are real, block the natural hormones from doing their job or can affect hormone levels in the blood and effect our bodies sensitivity to different hormones. These disruptions have been linked to numerous health conditions.

Genetics:

While diet, stress and EDC’s can be controlled through personal changes, there are factors that are out of our control that can cause our hormones not to function correctly.

Our genes are hereditary information that is carried down from parent to child that are contained in chromosomes. Normally there are 23 pairs of chromosomes but sometimes we can either have missing, extra or damaged chromosomes that may result in diseases or conditions that affect hormone production or function. This may impact areas of growth and development and may place you at a higher risk for certain diseases throughout life.

There is still a lot more we need to investigate and understand about the complex hormone system. But what we do know for sure is that when our hormones are in balance in our body it will help us function optimally and thrive.

This information does not take into account your personal situation and is general in nature. You should consider whether the information is appropriate for your needs and seek professional medical advice.

Always consult your healthcare professional before taking any supplements or if any concerns arise.