Hormones: Amazing Messengers
Article provided by ICPA, Inc. | By Mackenzie McNamara, DC
November is a wonderful time to focus on how grateful we are for the special things, people, and experiences in our lives. This includes your AMAZING body! Have you noticed how your body is healing, growing, and changing lately? Are you getting taller, becoming stronger, or learning new things?
Your body is doing all of this with the help of an incredible communication system – your hormonal system.
What are Hormones? Hormones are tiny chemical messengers made by special organs and glands throughout your body. They travel through your bloodstream, delivering messages to specific cells. Like a lock and key, each hormone has a special shape that perfectly matches the cells it’s meant to communicate with. How AMAZING is that?
Hormones are important for just about everything. They help control how your body turns food into energy, how you grow and develop, how you respond to stress, how you sleep, and how your body changes as you get older. Hormones also help regulate your appetite, mood, metabolism, immune function, reproduction, and many other processes happening in your body this very minute.
The Brain-Hormone Connection: One of the most amazing things about hormones is how closely they work with your brain and nervous system. Your brain helps coordinate the release of many hormones, and hormones also send messages back to the brain. Together, they respond and adapt to what’s happening around and within you. It’s kind of like your body has its own giant group text!