What Are Hormones & Why Is Everyone Talking About Them?

Hormonal Health is a topic that has received a ton of buzz lately. Women are talking more and more about the effects of birth control, cycle syncing, and learning about their hormonal health. There’s also a lot of talk about hormones being a frustrating, problematic part of life.
But what even are hormones!? Let’s break it down.

What Are Hormones?
Hormones are simply the chemical messages that the body produces to communicate among our various tissues and organs.
Hormones are produced by glands throughout the body and send messages to our tissues and organs to facilitate bodily functions. They regulate our digestion, metabolism, human development, growth, weight maintenance, sleep, reproductive health, fertility and lactation.

The glands that produce and secrete hormones within the body make up our body’s endocrine system. The hormones deliver information and messages to various tissues, organs and cells in the body.

What Is a Hormonal Imbalance?
No part of the body is exempt from the influence of hormones so it’s extremely important that the messages are sent and received properly, to prevent dysfunctions in the body’s many systems. If even one hormone is out of balance, every other system (digestion, metabolism, immunity, reproduction, etc.) can be affected. Since hormones are the communication network of the body and carry the necessary messages to ensure our bodily functions, we can imagine what would happen if organs were receiving the wrong messages. Imagine it like whisper-down-the-lane. In the game of whisper-down-the-lane, the message that the person at the end receives is often different than the original message. This disruption in hormone balance wreaks havoc on the body’s homeostasis (balance).

How do Hormones Become Imbalanced?
There are various factors that can disrupt the normal production, secretion, or function of hormones in the body. These factors include other systemic dysfunctions within the body (immune, digestive, etc), chronic stress, circadian rhythm imbalance, poor diet, chronic inflammation, pharmaceuticals, hormonal birth controls and contraceptive practices, age, and more.

What Are Endocrine Disruptors?
Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interfere with the normal functioning of the endocrine system by mimicking, blocking, or altering the production, release, transport, metabolism, binding, or elimination of hormones in the body. In other words, they are the ones who totally alter the message in the whisper-down-the-lane game. As a reminder, even one hormonal imbalance affects all systems of the body and this can have adverse effects on health and development as a whole.

As you can see, hormones are both complicated and simple. They are simply our body’s communication network and keeping them balanced in the current world we live in can require some extra effort and commitment. It’s important to have balanced hormones in order to live a quality life of vitality.