Inside Out: Your Hormones at Work

This month's misconception is that hormones are only related to teenagers, puberty, and sex. While it's true that there are hormones involved in those things, there are also hormones involved in a lot of other bodily functions.

According to a PBS article I read, hormones are like chemical messengers that travel all over in the body making sure that certain processes are running smoothly (1). Hormones help to regulate growth and metabolism, as well as fertility. They also influence our emotions and mood. In the movie "Inside Out," there are five characters that live in Riley's head. I like to think of hormones as being similar to these five characters because they regulated Riley's moods just like hormones regulate lots of bodily functions. Also, hormones are the reason our arms are the same length, the reason we can turn food into fuel for our bodies. Even before we are born, hormones help our brains to develop and our reproductive systems to mature.

The way that hormones work is that they are secreted by the brain and released into the blood by the endocrine glands that produce hormones and store them. One example of an endocrine gland is the pineal gland; this gland produces serotonin and some kinds of melatonin, which affects sleep. Another example of a hormone is Triiodothyronine, which affects growth and development, metabolism, body temperature, and heart rate. That's a lot of power for just one hormone!

According to the Endocrine Society, "When they are in proper balance, hormones help the body thrive, but small problems with hormones can cause serious and life-altering symptoms" (2). So you can see how important hormones are in our body's day-to-day functioning, not just for sex or puberty.

To conclude, hormones control a lot more than just teenagers, puberty and sex. They control us from before we are born up until we die, and they play a role in all sorts of processes in our body 24/7.

SOURCES:

(1) Dunn, Kyla. "How Do Hormones Work?" PBS. PBS, 1 Feb. 2016. Web. 29 Feb. 2016. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/nature/etc/hormones.html>.

(2) Endocrine Society. "What Are Hormones, And What Do They Do?" What Are Hormones and What Do They Do? Hormone Health Network, 01 Jan. 2016. Web. 29 Feb. 2016. <http://www.hormone.org/hormones-and-health/what-do-hormones-do>.