10 Body Hormones That Can Transform Your Life

Your mind translates how you feel into chemicals or hormones that send signals to other parts of your body. The process is quite complicated but to put it down in simple terms, everything boils down to chemicals. The release of certain chemicals triggers the release of other chemicals which go about to their target organs and produce certain hormones which have specific functions. It is all like perfectly connected circuits with predetermined pathways depending on the desired outcome. Hormones are like chemical messengers that when attached to a cell, they trigger it to perform some functions and undergo some changes that bring about the desired effects. For that reasons, imbalances in the body hormones will offset the balance of our bodily functions, too little or too much of a hormone will trigger a cascade of undesirable effects that could lead to a disease such as depression, chronic fatigue, memory problems as well as other clinical conditions.

1 Serotonin

Known as the happiness hormone, this neurotransmitter has the ability to affect your mood. It is called the natural mood stabilizer. Serotonin functions go way beyond mood stabilizing only. It interferes with regulating your sleep cycle, improving your motor skills, increasing your natural wound healing rate and enhancing your digestion, thereby regulating your appetite. As you can see, having regulated levels of serotonin can affect your life quality by a large percentage. People diagnosed with chronic depression have abnormally low levels of serotonin and their treatment involves giving them serotonin tablets. Meditation and being mindful bathes the brain with other relaxation chemicals that induce the brain to produce serotonin, bringing about its happiness and mood-lifting benefits as well as regulating your sleep and appetite.

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2 Cortisol

It is known as the stress hormone. It is produced during pain or stress along with adrenaline. These two hormones can wear out your body, blocking the production of positive and good hormones. The stress hormone is part of our evolution and protective mechanism as it prepares our body for fight or flight. However, nowadays most stressful situations can’t be solved by fight or flight so the hormone remains being produced, causing high blood pressure, depression, insomnia, anxiety and other problems which alter our overall well-being. Meditation can relieve our stress and anxiety, therefore, preventing the production of cortisol and bringing about calming and relaxing effects on your body and mind.

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3 DHEA

It is known as the longevity molecule. It is considered the marker for our true physiological age. Its levels peak during our youth and as we age, the level of DHEA in our body decreases and this is associated with mortality. Meaning, the less DHEA you have, the closer you are to death, biologically speaking. Regular DHEA levels ensure you maintain your youth, level of energy and provides strength for your bones and muscles while decreased levels reverse those effects. Studies, however, have shown that people who meditated maintained a normal level of DHEA production even as they aged.

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