You think you have control over your thoughts and feelings?
It seems logical to you because it feels that way: The control center is the brain and we are conscious thinking and feeling individuals who can make free decisions.

Yes, that’s true to a certain extent. But think about it more carefully, every thought, every feeling is based on an impulse. Based on this, you can decide whether you want to think the thought through to the end or deepen the feeling and feel it or push it away. But what about these impulses?

Our body is a very complex system in which many different factors interact with each other and influence our mood, our behavior and our emotions. Our hormones have a considerable influence; they are produced by various glands and organs in the body and regulate a wide range of bodily functions.

They give commands to the respective target cells to whose receptors they dock. The pituitary gland (hypophysis) is the control center of the hormones, constantly monitoring surpluses and deficiencies and regulating their production. Hormones are also produced in the pineal gland, the thyroid gland, the adrenal gland, in gonads such as the ovaries or testicles and in the pancreas. Our body is virtually full of glands and hormones, they have very different tasks to fulfill and work diligently every day. Some hormones are very familiar to us, such as the blood sugar-lowering effect of the hormone insulin produced in the pancreas or the happiness hormone serotonin.

We can already see that:

Hormones control our bodies and, to a certain extent, our lives. With their “messages”, they intervene so strongly in what we feel and think, how we behave and what we desire that a look behind the scenes of hormone-controlled perception can be quite revealing.

Hormones have an influence on what kind of impulses of feelings/thoughts we get and perhaps also how intense they are.

So sit back, relax (it’s good for your hormone balance;-) ) and I’ll show you some interesting examples of how unexpected and emphatic the influence can be…

1 Sewage treatment plants, estrogens and birdsong

A few years ago, a team of researchers studied the behavior of birds that fed on microorganisms from sewage treatment plants. The water in sewage treatment plants is not the finest, that is clear, but above all it is full of hormones. A lot of hormones from the contraceptive pill, hormone-like plasticizers and hardeners from the plastics industry and many more migrate into the water and from there into everything that lives in the water.

The hormonally influenced animals had an excess of oestrogen and their singing became more extended, louder and more devotional. You could say solemn and soulful! But the joy did not last long: the immune system of these birds had been compromised and attacked. The animals fell ill more quickly than their balanced counterparts.

2 Small pill and big consequences

The contraceptive pill has been one of the most widely used methods of contraception for over 50 years. It was celebrated as the liberation of female sexuality and enabled many women to have self-determined contraception. However, women have been struggling for just as long with the unpleasant or even harmful side effects, about which they were often not informed in advance.

In the normal hormonal cycle of women who do not take the pill, a lot of oestrogen is released at the time of ovulation. Oestrogen makes the skin and hair more beautiful and, as some studies have already shown, women are perceived as more attractive by men during this time. The pill suppresses this cycle.

But of course a lot also happens in the body: the pill significantly increases a woman’s nutrient requirements, the consumption of antioxidants increases, there is a lack of B vitamins, vitamin C, zinc and magnesium under the influence of the pill. Iron, selenium and vitamin D levels can also be reduced. More iodine is needed as the body has to produce significantly more thyroid hormones to maintain hormonal balance. If iodine levels are not taken into account, this can lead to hypothyroidism.

Incredible figures: 70 percent of women who take the pill become so depressed that they take psychotropic drugs. Among very young women aged 13 to 17, the number of depressives is even 120 percent higher.

According to a study from 2018, this suicide risk is so high in some cases that the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) decided in winter 2018 that this point should be included as a possible side effect on the package leaflet. The duration of use is irrelevant here – side effects of the pill can even occur years later.

‘Small pill, big consequences: What no one tells you about the contraceptive pill’ , is the book I got some of this information from, Isabel Morelli provides clarity – the book is recommended if you want to look into the subject more.

3 Parallel cycles and fragrance

We are probably all aware that scents – so-called pheromones – can have an effect on our senses and our behavior.
But it is astonishing that the scent that women emit under their armpits can have a strong effect on the sex hormones of other women and interfere with the regularity of their menstrual cycles. This culminates in the fact that women who live in the same apartment for a longer period of time can interfere with the menstrual cycles of their roommates and – as used to be the norm among primitive peoples – often have their menstruation together.

Apparently, our bodies and our hormones can communicate and interact with each other in subtle ways. The scent that women emit under their armpits triggers a kind of pheromonal communication. So body chemistry not only influences behavior, but also interactions and relationships between people.

After all, a woman’s menstrual cycle is not a minor matter, it is decisive and life-influencing. The effects of body odor and pheromones on our health and behavior have not yet been fully researched. But it is clear that our sense of smell and our hormones are more closely linked than we might think.

3 Men, saliva, the waist-to-hip ratio and the search for estrogen

While women and their hormonal fluctuations are always a topic (often quite unpleasant for us women), men are mentioned in a different context.

“This guy is totally hormone-driven!”. Yes, he probably is, because we all are!

With one man it is obvious, the other knows how to conceal it with good manners or an insecure demeanor.

Experiments have shown that even a conversation with a beautiful woman can trigger a certain readiness for more on a physical level. After a short time, increased testosterone can be detected in the saliva of young men and the brain’s messenger substances release happiness hormones such as serotonin and dopamine – men feel inspired.

They unconsciously react to attractiveness. Attractiveness follows the same pattern for most people – a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7 magically attracts men.

Why? Because this ratio suggests a lot of oestrogen. All this happens unconsciously, of course! For many men, the figure can be curvy as long as the narrow waist is maintained.

Testosterone belongs to the group of androgens and is the most important male sex hormone. It is ultimately testosterone that makes men look masculine, gives them a beautiful muscular body without belly fat and, in excess, is associated with disadvantages such as more aggressive behavior. Desire is controlled by testosterone in both sexes and is also important for women. Anyone who would like to find out more:

INCREASE TESTOSTERONE LEVELS NATURALLY?

4 Men and women tick differently

It’s nothing new. But it’s always entertaining: the eternal question of gender. What distinguishes women from men? Let’s take a look at whether stereotypes actually have a biological basis.

Are women more sensitive than men and why?

25 women and 21 men were shown different pictures and asked to describe their emotions while their brain activity was monitored using magnetic resonance imaging and their blood hormone levels were analyzed. The results showed that women experience negative emotions more intensely and that their reactions are more sensitive the lower their testosterone levels are.

The amygdala, the emotional center of the brain, and the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for rational control, were the two brain regions that were most active in both sexes when they viewed the images.

The study found that the higher the testosterone level, the stronger the connection between these two regions in the brain.

Women, who on average have lower testosterone levels, showed a weaker connection between the emotional and control centers, which makes them more susceptible to negative emotions. This could explain why women suffer from depression and anxiety disorders more often than men. However, hormone composition varies greatly from person to person and changes over time, including the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and menopause, which can also affect brain structure and function.

Once again for the record:

The study explains why men can often react more rationally to negative emotions than women. For us women, the connection between the emotional and control centers in the brain is weaker. So what effect does a testosterone deficiency have on men? The answer is obvious.

4 Oestrogens and facial preferences

Men and women are equally “gifted” at recognizing objects such as tools, but women are often better at recognizing faces and interpreting their emotions than men.

Researchers have discovered that the hormone oestrogen plays a crucial role in this ability. It appears that the female brain is more sensitive to fluctuations in estrogen levels when it comes to recognizing faces and emotions. Women with Turner syndrome, which impairs the ability to produce oestrogen, have difficulty recognizing and emotionally interpreting faces.

It is also interesting to note that this makes women very flexible, if not fickle, when it comes to the attractiveness of men. When oestrogen levels are high, women prefer masculine, angular and symmetrical faces, whereas at other times of their menstrual cycle they prefer softer facial features. At these times, cooperation and empathy are required, women want less dominance and more care and can quickly become dissatisfied with their partner. Who is always the same.

Of course, this again suggests that hormonal contraceptives influence us more than we think – it is possible that a woman may even look for a partner who does not match her natural preferences.

Hormones are therefore extremely important for our perception of faces and also for our relationships – an imbalance of hormones leads us astray.

A tip to the possibly desperate male world: you should learn to offer the subtle nuances that women prefer at different times of the month and keep an eye on your partner’s cycle.

And it is important for women to know that contraceptives can influence preferences and that fluctuations – with or without contraceptives – are normal and perfectly fine. We just need to know about it.

5 Hormones and depression

The gut is not only a food processor, but also a hormone producer and therefore a regulator of emotions. More than 20 hormones interact here and influence our mood.

If one of these gut hormones is missing, it can even lead to depression. This was discovered by researchers who observed the behavior of genetically modified mice. If mice do not have this hormone, they exhibit greatly altered behavior and even become depressed, anxious and more prone to stress. But what is even more exciting is the fact that the release of the hormone can be boosted by the intestinal bacteria. Healthy gut flora could therefore actually have an influence on our mood and behavior.

The hormone that is of particular interest to us is serotonin. It is important for regulating mood and emotions in the brain and is produced in the intestines. There it regulates digestive processes.

Once again, the poor mice had to be used: Studies have shown that mice that are unable to produce serotonin in their gut exhibit altered behavior that is associated with depression and anxiety. This is only logical, as serotonin is the number one happiness hormone.

Conversely, there is also a connection:

The composition of the intestinal flora has a direct influence on the production of serotonin. A healthy intestinal flora with many different bacterial strains can therefore contribute to the production of more serotonin, while a disturbed intestinal flora with few bacterial strains can inhibit the production of serotonin.

Depression and other mental illnesses can arise not only in the brain, but also in the gut and through the interaction between the brain and the gut.

Conclusion

As we have now read in a wide variety of situations and circumstances, our hormones have a subtle yet enormous influence on us that we are often unaware of. But of course this is not arbitrary. We decide for ourselves what our hormonal situation is like. Whether our hormones are in balance or not depends on a wide variety of factors – diet, stress management, quality of sleep, etc.

Our next article will be about this and in particular about stress and hormone deficiency. Feel free to write your thoughts and possible suggestions in the comments!