Chemicals that control your moods

Do you want to know why it’s so peaceful to hug your mom, dad or any of your loved ones?

Yes? It’s because of a hormone called oxytocin that is responsible for making you happy, lovely, calm, peaceful and creating emotional connections.

Do you want to know more about hormones?

Hormones are the chemicals that your body parts use to communicate with each other.

Looks like our body parts also chat!

Where do hormones come from?

There are cells in your body that make hormones. These cells are called endocrine glands.

After production where do hormones go?

When endocrine glands release hormones they travel through blood and reach the targeted cells.

Let me give you an example:

Take a deep breath.

You felt good?

Now let me tell you why. When you take a deep breath, you tell your brain that everything is alright. As a response, your brain releases oxytocin and you feel good.

How do hormones work?

The hormones bind with the molecules called hormone receptors that then produce response.

Just imagine hormone receptors as a lock and hormones as a key. When you insert the wrong shaped key in the lock, it will not open(produces response). But when you insert the right key it will open.

Just like this there are different shapes of hormone receptors. So a response will only produce if a right shaped hormone receptor will bind with hormones. It means if oxytocin will go to stress hormone receptors there will be no response.

What are the roles of hormones in your body?

• Start or stop of growth
• Wake and sleep
• Mood swings
• Immune functions—protection against bacterias.
• Digestion
• Fighting
• Running
• Hunger
• Reproduction—production of children from parents.

Do you want to know the details?

So let’s read together!

Start or stop of growth:

The growth hormone is also known as somatotropin. It breaks down fats and increases the rate of protein making for your growth.

There are pea-shaped glands in your brain called pituitary glands that release this hormone.

Head injury, brain infection and brain surgery can badly affect your growth rate.

Why do humans sleep at night not in the morning?

Because our brain releases a hormone called melatonin in response to darkness. As an action, we fall asleep.

That’s the reason why when you use a mobile at night with high brightness, you don’t feel sleepy.

Why do you sometimes feel happy and sometimes sad?

Your brain has a part called hypothalamus that releases a hormone called serotonin in response to a pleasant moment that then makes you feel happy.

Your sadness or stress is because of a hormone called cortisol. Your adrenal glands release this hormone. Adrenal glands are present on the top of each kidney and are controlled by your hypothalamus.

Do hormones play a role in digestion?

Yes, they do play a role in the digestion of food. Medulla—a part of brain— is responsible for the production of digestion hormone.

There are cells on the lining of the stomach that produce a hormone called gastrin. These cells release gastrin when you eat something. This hormone then triggers the release of hydrochloric acid in stomach; this acid is responsible for digestion.

Estrogen:

Estrogen is the hormone that is responsible for enhancing the immune system.

Adrenal glands make a small amount of estrogen. But the main source of estrogen is ovaries.

Why do your heart beat faster when you are scared?

This is because of the hormone called adrenaline. It increases your heart beat because it’s preparing your body for fighting or running faster than you usually do.

Adrenaline glands release this hormone. This hormone is released when you encounter some danger.

Reproduction and hormones:

Estrogen and testosterone are your hormones that help you in reproduction.

Testes in males releases testosterone that triggers the production of sperm cells and testosterone is produced in pituitary glands. Your body starts preparing testosterone at age between 10 and 14.

Estrogen triggers the production of egg cells and estrogen is formed in hypothalamus. Ovaries start producing egg cells between age 8 and 13.

When these egg and sperm cells come in contact they form zygote. Zygote then continues its growth in the mother’s womb and develops into a baby.

Did you see how much hormones are important for you?

So shouldn’t you enhance your hormone level? Of course, you should!

Here are the ways :

• Exercise regularly
• Eat healthy food
• Maintain moderate weight
• Lower sugar intake
• Reduce stress
• Get enough sleep

Why do your parents have such a strong bond with you?

Again it’s because of oxytocin.

How! It’s because when you and your parents had skin interaction, your body released oxytocin which created an emotional connection between you and your parents.

Do plants also have hormones?

Yes, they also have hormones.

Auxin is one of the hormones in plants. Auxin is a hormone that plants release as a response to sunlight which helps plants to bend towards light.

Plants stems and roots tips produce auxin.

But if hormones are responsible for growth then why do tall parents have tall children and short parents have short children?

It’s because of the genes ( structure that is responsible for transmission of characteristics from parents to offspring). The genes give instructions for the formation of growth hormones or any other hormone.

Some lines for you:

Do you think that the hormones that make you feel stressed, sad and scared should be removed? If yes, then these hormones are important because if you learn from them you’ll have improvements. Let’s say: you had a test and you didn’t do well as you wanted to and you became sad. That time you had to face pain. But if you would not have experienced pain then you have not worked more hard. So these emotions are bad for the short term but if you learn from them you’ll get long term benefits.