Optimal hormone levels are the key to a full and long life.
You have probably heard this before. But do you really know what hormones are? Or why they are so important? Let’s answer these questions, once and for all.
Hormones are a bit like a military defense system. They reside or are created in specific glands (the barracks) like the testes, adrenals and thyroid. There, they await messages from your brain (the general), who directs their transmission to your cells (the troops) where a specific function is carried out. Since each messenger has a specific and unique message to transmit, (testosterone, for example, controls growth and repair; the adrenal glands control blood sugar and fat storage; the thyroid regulates energy and metabolism) it is easy to see that the battle can easily be lost when imbalances exist.
For peak mental, physical and sexual health, it is crucial to have a youthful balance of both the anabolic (testosterone) and catabolic (estrogen and cortisol) male hormones. Testosterone, your primary anabolic hormone, provides youthful vitality. It is responsible for promoting growth and recovery of the body at the cellular level. The chief antagonists working against testosterone and its anabolic properties are the catabolic estrogen and cortisol. Catabolic hormones are critical for survival, but can be damaging when their levels are become excessive or imbalanced.
High male estrogen levels will decrease both the amount and activity of testosterone and contribute to weight gain, muscle wasting and a diminished sex drive. Excessive or diminished cortisol (the fight-or-flight hormone) diminishes your body's ability to produce testosterone. High levels of cortisol push the human body into survival mode; blood sugar and fat storage levels increase while muscular strength and energy production decrease.
1 comments:
This is a well-explained blog post indeed. I, too, believe that even though hormones and hormonal imbalance are known to most people, there are only a few who understand how it really works. As you said, hormones are vital for our general well-being and the key to a full and long life. I wish that through understanding this, people will start to think of ways on how they can help their bodies achieve optimum hormone levels. Mafalda Cramer
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