A Simplified Overview of Major Hormones
I introduce eleven major hormones and explain the effects of critical ones on health, healthy weight management, and better mood.
Cells, Tissues, Organs, and Systems Talk Via Hormones and Neurotransmitters
I summarized neurotransmitters in a previous article. In this article, I provide summaries of hormones that I published previously to give you the big picture of the biochemical composition of the body from a hormonal perspective. One of my writing goals is to contribute to the hormonal intelligence of my readers.
I wrote this article for busy people who want to gain essential information distilled rather than reading long books or complex papers on hormones. This 15-minute filtered and simplified article reflects my years of reviewing biochemicals for health improvement.
As I mentioned in several articles, fat loss, and healthy weight management revolve around metabolic hormones. Even though calories play a role in weight management, actual fat loss, especially visceral fat, and lean muscles happen when we optimize our hormones. I explained why the fat loss has nothing to do with calories, as the significant players are intricate hormones.
Hormones are complex and interrelated. Pinning down the effects of a single hormone can be tricky unless you have specialist skills. Even specialists like endocrinologists face challenges with hormones. They rely on multiple tests, analyses, and assessments of patients' medical histories.
Many interrelated hormones affect our metabolism. Understanding the known functions of these hormones can give you valuable perspectives in choosing your lifestyle goals for maintaining a healthy weight and body composition, leading to better health and lifespan.
What is a hormone?
A hormone is a chemical messenger managed by a specific part of the brain residing in our bloodstream and communicating with cells, tissues, and organs via receptors. So far, scientists have identified around 50 hormones. They are all critical for the homeostasis of the body.
Hormones constantly swim in the human bloodstream. They partake in vital functions in the body and brain. For example, they can contribute to the growth of cells, management of metabolism, reproduction, and psychological aspects like our feelings and mood.
Various endocrine glands and some organs create known hormones as part of the endocrine system. Some well-known secretors are the pancreas, thyroid, adrenal, pituitary, pineal, thymus, and gonads (testes or ovaries).
A gland is an anatomical structure that can produce and secrete biochemicals, such as hormones, neurotransmitters, enzymes, or other chemicals, into the bloodstream or other body parts, such as its surface.
Glands are typically classified under two categories: endocrine and exocrine. In short, endocrine means hormones. Exocrine refers to glands that secrete their biochemicals outside the cells that produce them. I will cover them in another article.
The critical part of the brain managing hormones is called the hypothalamus. This part of the brain is vital because it connects the nervous and endocrine systems. HPA (the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis is an anatomical construct for stress response in the body.
The pituitary gland is an essential part of the brain within the hormonal context. The pituitary gland takes instructions from the hypothalamus. One part of the pituitary gland distributes the hormones produced by the hypothalamus. The other part creates its hormones.
You can learn about endocrine glands from a previous article titled Intricacies of 7 Endocrine Glands and Associated Disorders.
Hormones talk with the cells using cell receptors. They give instructions to cells in their language to turn on and off the required genes. So, hormones closely communicate with our genes, causing epigenetic effects.
Hormones need to be optimized for the body and brain to function. But, like anything else in the body, too little or too much can cause health issues.
An Overview of Metabolic, Stress, Growth, and Sex Hormones
1 — Insulin
Even though it might look simple hormone from the outset, we cannot overcommunicate the importance of insulin for our metabolic and mental health. As a master hormone for metabolism, insulin significantly impacts fat loss, muscle gain, and healthy weight management.
If you can optimize this hormone, we might substantially increase the chance of fat loss and healthy weight management. As I pointed out previously, “Fat loss isn’t complex, but we make it mysterious.” It is all about optimizing hormones, especially insulin and other I mention in the following sections.
One of the critical functions of insulin is to manage blood sugar. So, when you can control your blood sugar, you can improve your insulin profile from resistance to sensitivity.
Insulin resistance is the root cause of metabolic and some mental health disorders. For example, metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes are insulin-related conditions.
The attached article may provide valuable insights into understanding insulin resistance and sensitivity with practical tips.
Three Tips to Eliminate Insulin Resistance and Shrink Waistline
2 — Glucagon
When the brain (the hypothalamus) senses the noticeable drop in blood glucose (hypoglycemia), the pancreas creates glucagon to increase the glucose level. So your parasympathetic nervous system forwards the signal to the pancreas to cause glucagon release.
Glucagon creates two significant effects on increasing sugar levels in the bloodstream. The first mechanism signals the liver to produce glucose from the glycogen stores.
So when you don’t eat food for a while, you can quickly empty your glycogen stores. Then ketosis starts, as I explained in an article titled Here’s Why and How to Enter Ketosis via Lifestyle Choices.
Glucagon also can assist the body in generating glucose from amino acids. The technical term for this is gluconeogenesis, which I explained in multiple articles before. The body can still create sugar from proteins (amino acids) even if you don't consume sugary foods or carbohydrates.
In addition, glucagon can stop the liver from storing glucose in the glycogen store to ensure the bloodstream gets adequate sugar.
So, you cannot store sugar during the fast state or intense exercise because glucagon stops it. Glucagon can also lower fat. Therefore, an increase in glucagon for healthy people is considered one of the weight loss secrets.
The body tightly monitors and controls glucose. It requires glucose in the right amount. Too much or too little glucose is a threat to the body. Excessive glucose is toxic, and insufficient glucose cause energy deficiency in cells.
Therefore, insulin and glucagon play a critical role in creating this delicate balance in the body. Metaphorically, insulin and glucagon keep dancing to give enough energy to the body and prevent from toxic effects of glucose.
Glucagon is essential to maintain stable blood sugar levels and provide your cells energy. Both insulin and glucagon imbalances are common in people with type II diabetes.
You can learn more about glucagon in the attached story.
Here’s Why Understanding the Role of Glucagon Is Vital for Type II Diabetes.
3 — Adiponectin
Adiponectin is a type of protein, a hormone, and a cell-signaling molecule. The ADIPOQ gene encodes the adipokine molecule. As a protein and hormone, this molecule has several functions in the body.
As a protein and signaling molecule, this hormone is critical in regulating glucose levels, fatty acids, cells’ response to insulin, and inflammatory activities.
As frequently mentioned in the literature, adiponectin has “insulin-sensitizing” and “anti-inflammatory” effects on the body. These effects are critical for metabolic health affecting your cells, tissues, and organs.
These physiological effects of adiponectin, particularly on the heart, are critical because it impacts the formation of fatty deposits in the arteries by reducing inflammation. Cardiovascular diseases (heart disease and stroke) cause millions of deaths and suffering in innocent people.
Fat tissues, mainly white fat, produce adiponectin. The scientific name for white fat tissues is “adipocytes.” However, the body also creates adiponectin in muscle cells, including skeletal and heart muscles, blood vessels, and the brain.
Considering its functions and originating locations in the body, this hormone and cell-signaling molecule play a critical role in your metabolism.
So far, researchers have found these vital functions since the 1990s. However, they hypothesize adiponectin might have other roles in the body. Thus, the research is active in exploring new functions.
I documented my research and experience with adiponectin in the attached article.
Here’s Why Adiponectin Matters for Fat Loss and Inflammatory Health Conditions.
4 — Cholecystokinin (CCK)
CCK is not well known publicly but is well understood by scientists, endocrinologists, dieticians, and pharmacists. For example, pharmaceutical companies pay attention to this hormone by investigating its use for weight loss solutions and creating CCK medications.
CCK has been theoretically known since the late 1920s. However, practical studies started after Swedish biochemists isolated porcine cholecystokinin and documented its amino acid sequence in 1968.
The original name for cholecystokinin was pancreozymins, as scientists thought they were two different hormones. Later, they found these two hormones were the same. Thus, the term pancreozymins disappeared in contemporary literature.
CCK is not an anabolic hormone like insulin storing fat or a catabolic hormone like cortisol decreasing muscles. Instead, its effect is controlling the appetite like leptin. So, the closest hormone to CCK is leptin from a functionality perspective.
In addition, CCK stimulates the gallbladder to release bile into the intestine. This process can stimulate the secretion of pancreatic fluid, inducing satiety.
I’d like to touch on CCK tests, as they are used for various reasons. For example, the CCK test is used to diagnose digestion issues. According to this resource published by NIH, “CCK increases pancreatic enzyme output and causes gallbladder contraction. Therefore, the CCK test can help to diagnose biliary tract diseases.”
Even though CCK has multiple functions, its prominent role is to improve fat digestion by stimulating bile production, as documented in the literature. Besides, CCK can release enzymes from the pancreas to break down proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.
The second function related to the purpose of my article is the role of CCK in appetite management. CCK can enhance the feeling of fullness while eating. Even though the research is still nascent, it is believed that the role of CCK causes the satiety sensation.
I documented my research on CCK in the attached article.
Here’s How CCK Hormone Might Contribute to Fat Loss and Lean Muscle Retention.
5 — Human Growth Hormone
Growth hormone is critical for several reasons while growing and in adulthood. This hormone also plays a role in healthy weight management and longevity. Even though growth hormone looks less relevant to fat metabolism, it impacts losing fat and gaining lean muscle.
Growth hormone is essential for building muscles. It also boosts metabolism hence increasing the chance of fat burning. We don’t have to supplement with growth hormones.
Most of us don’t need supplements or medications to increase growth hormone secretion unless there are underlying medical conditions. We can increase growth hormone naturally. The pituitary gland makes growth hormones in the brain.
The growth hormone is known as the longevity hormone. The natural production of this hormone is desirable because the synthetic one can cause problems with side effects. Its potential side effects are still not thoroughly understood by scientists.
In the literature, using a synthetic version of growth hormone may cause health conditions such as high blood sugar, high cholesterol, fluid retention, joint pain, and muscle pain.
We usually experience increased growth hormone levels naturally during childhood and puberty, when we need our bones to grow. However, it starts reducing after the 20s. Growth hormone regulates muscle, fat, bones, and metabolism in adulthood.
You can get your growth hormone levels tested by specialists as referred by physicians. These blood tests help determine if your body produces an average amount of this hormone.
You need to identify growth hormone deficiency in children as it affects their growth and especially delays puberty. There are also tests to detect gigantism in children and acromegaly in adults caused by too much growth hormone secretion.
Boosting growth hormones is not tricky for healthy adults. It requires simple lifestyle changes, which can be gradually improved. I introduce three proven and effective ways of increasing growth hormone naturally.
From my experience, high-intensity interval training, calisthenics, restorative sleep, intermittent fasting, and a ketogenic diet significantly increased growth hormone and defined my body after 50 paradoxically.
You can learn more about the growth hormone in the attached article.
Optimize Your Growth Hormone Levels With 6 Healthy Lifestyle Choices.
6 — Cortisol
Cortisol is a highly tricky hormone. People usually do not pay attention to it as it is a stress management hormone-like metabolic hormone (insulin and leptin). Thus, this hormone’s metabolic effect is less known and understood than insulin, as its primary function is managing stress.
Many fitness enthusiasts with elevated cortisol struggle to lose belly fat even if they run ten miles or spend their day at the gym and cut calories to the extreme. As a result, they lose weight but not belly fat.
From my experience, one of the secrets to melting belly fat is beating the cortisol monster. It affects fat loss and lean muscle as much as metabolic hormones like insulin, glucagon, and adiponectin.
I highlight the importance of cortisol in my fat loss, healthy weight management, and mental health articles because I unknowingly suffered from the effects of elevated cortisol for several years.
For example, until I resolved my cortisol issues, I could not tap into my fat stores even though I was highly active and closely watched my calories.
After optimizing cortisol, I managed to have a defined body, especially by losing visceral fat, dissolving loose skin, having more brown fat, and gaining lean muscles. As I mentioned in my pertinent stories, optimizing cortisol also contributed to my mental health.
The key point is when cortisol is elevated in the bloodstream frequently and for a long time, it indicates that we experience chronic stress. In addition, elevated cortisol prevents the use of visceral fat for energy even if we don’t consume food, as I explained in a previous article.
I documented my experience in the attached article.
Optimize Cortisol to Melt Belly Fat and Keep Lean Muscles with Three Tips
I also introduce two other hormones and neurotransmitters related to stress response in the body and mind. They are norepinephrine and adrenaline.
In addition, reviewing the following three articles can provide valuable insights to beginners.
7 — Leptin
Leptin is a hormone that signals the brain when we consume enough food. In addition to being a signaling hormone, leptin regulates energy balance and counteracts the hunger hormone called ghrelin.
Like other hormones, leptin is also highly complex. However, we don’t need to know the details unless we work as medical specialists. Scientists made it easy for us to manage and optimize this hormone with healthy lifestyle modifications.
Nevertheless, a fundamental understanding of this hormone, its impact, and its implications can be invaluable for appetite management and preventing undesirable fat gain leading to metabolic disorders.
Unfortunately, if leptin does not function correctly, we will continue eating and consuming excess calories, which turns into visceral fat. Consequently, this condition can imbalance other hormones and lead to metabolic disorders.
Excess calories might be from carbs, fats, or proteins. However, the ones from carbs can much more quickly turn into fat molecules, and they accumulate, leading to obesity.
When leptin signals work properly, you stop eating naturally as the brain creates necessary signals that turn into feelings. Having a leptin-sensitive body prevents you from overeating as it opposes the hunger hormone ghrelin.
However, leptin resistance is an agonizing health condition if it persists. It prevents the brain from receiving satiety signals causing emotional food consumption of more than what we need. A leptin-resistant body might lead to binge eating due to the constantly activated hunger hormone ghrelin.
When the body is leptin resistant, the ghrelin hormone creates hunger feelings, and these signals can get so strong that we might feel like starving even though the body has adequate stored energy.
This awful and paradoxical feeling encourages us to eat emotionally even if we physically have more energy than needed to survive. Fat accumulation and utilization are closely related to leptin, a signaling hormone for satiety. If we cannot control our hunger and keep eating, using and losing fat is almost impossible unless we work out non-stop.
Overeating, unfortunately, causes weight gain, might lead to obesity, and cause metabolic disorders such as type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and even some cancers.
I documented my experience with leptin in the attached story.
Here’s How I Made My Body Leptin Sensitive and Stopped Food Cravings in 3 Steps.
8— Ghrelin
Ghrelin has the opposite effect of the leptin hormone. This hormone makes you feel hungry. When leptin is dominant, ghrelin gets silenced. Watching the effects of ghrelin is vital during the fat loss period. The effects do not remain permanent. They come and go.
Learning about this intricacy of ghrelin during the early days of fasting practice can help you control your hunger more efficiently. A mindful approach is essential to manage the effects of ghrelin.
The feeling of hunger comes and goes. However, emotional stress can trigger the urge and significantly increase hunger effects. Therefore we need to optimize stress hormones like cortisol, norepinephrine, and adrenaline.
When we are under constant pressure or sleep-deprived, we feel starving. So, controlling cortisol and other stress hormones can contribute to the control of ghrelin.
It is also critical to know that fat loss becomes tough when reducing calories as ghrelin levels significantly increase, leading to starvation.
During starvation, our metabolism slows down, and the leptin levels diminish. Thus, calorie reduction is not an effective way to tap into belly fat.
I documented my experience with handling hunger and appetite in the attached story.
Turn off the Hunger Switch and Enhance the Satiety Signals with 7 Lifestyle Habits.
9 — Estrogen, Testosterone, and Other Sex Hormones
There are several sex hormones, but estrogen for women and testosterone for men are the most common. As we age, the level of these hormones significantly drops.
For example, men with testosterone below the threshold due to testicular failure accumulate belly fat. Therefore, endocrinologists get them started with testosterone replacement therapy.
Research suggests that sex hormones in both women and men are closely related to adiposity and fat distribution in the body. For example, as pointed out in this paper, sex hormones play a prominent role in determining healthy body composition.
I haven’t written about estrogen, but I plan to document my research in a forthcoming article soon. I documented my experience and observations with testosterone in the attached stories.
Dominic Naturally Doubled His Testosterone in 3 Steps After 40 and Shrank His Waistline.
Here’s How Alberto Melted His Potbelly and Doubled Testosterone in a Year.
10 — Thyroid Hormones
Thyroid hormones can affect the body at cellular, mitochondrial, and genetic levels as they exist in all cells involved in energy creation and utilization, increasing or decreasing the metabolic rate based on their levels.
Besides metabolism, thyroid hormones affect breathing, the nervous system, heart function, brain development, body temperature, skin moisture, and menstruation in women.
Thyroid hormones regulate proteins, fats, and carbs for energy utilization and the growth of tissues in various parts of the body.
These hormones play a metabolic role in mitochondria. For example, they can increase the number and activity of mitochondria, affecting energy expenditure and metabolism.
In addition, thyroid hormones can increase the expression of genes involved in glucose metabolism, impacting metabolic health.
In summary, thyroid hormones can affect metabolic health via five significant mechanisms: regulating energy expenditure, appetite, fatty acid metabolism, thermogenesis, and insulin sensitivity.
Untreated hypothyroidism can contribute to “hypertension, dyslipidemia, infertility, cognitive impairment, and neuromuscular dysfunction.”
Untreated hyperthyroidism can lead to “significant morbidity and mortality, manifesting as thyroid storm, thyroid nodules, thyroid cancer, cardiovascular problems, eye problems, osteoporosis, and muscle weakness.”
I documented the details of thyroid hormones in the attached article.
Here’s How Thyroid Hormones Can Affect Our Health and Well-Being.
11 — Vitamin D
Vitamin D differs from the previous hormones. It is considered a steroid hormone but not produced by endocrine glands. But like other steroid hormones, vitamin D is fat-soluble and can pass through cell membranes.
Vitamin D is synthesized in the skin and metabolized by the liver and kidneys into its active form. Once inside the cell, it binds to specific receptors and regulates gene expression. Vitamin D is essential for bone health, immune function, and other physiological processes.
Vitamin D is a potent epigenetic regulator influencing more than 2,500 genes. Therefore, any improvement in vitamin D status will significantly affect the expression of genes with a wide variety of biological functions of more than 160 pathways.
These pathways have links to cancer, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and acute respiratory tract infections associated with vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D can enhance the function of immune cells, such as T cells and macrophages.
As a nutrient, vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, one of the main building blocks for strong bones. As informed by ODC, “together with calcium, vitamin D helps protect you from developing osteoporosis, a disease that thins and weakens the bones and makes them more likely to break.”
In addition, the ODS fact sheet states that “our body needs vitamin D for other functions too. Our muscles need it to move, and our nerves need it to carry messages between our brain and the body. In addition, our immune system needs vitamin D.”
After suffering from hormonal and inflammatory issues, learning the criticality of vitamin D for my health was an eye-opener and game-changer. Vitamin D, after magnesium, was one of the most effective interventions for my health transformation.
I had many blood tests. However, my family doctor never requested Vitamin D tests when I was younger. There was not much awareness and research about the topic in those days.
The first test happened when I was referred to a rheumatologist due to excessive pain and inflammation. The rheumatologist informed me about mild arthritis, an autoimmune condition, and requested more tests. Not to his surprise, my blood tests showed vitamin D deficiency.
In my younger years, two reasons caused this deficiency. First, living in the Southern Hemisphere, I was scared of sunlight due to fear of melanoma which is common in Australia.
The second reason was I was consuming only plant-based, no animal products as a vegetarian. I did not know the importance of animal nutrients for my health. I learned that vitamin D was mainly in animal products and sunlight, which I ignored.
I documented my research and experience on vitamin D in the attached story.
Here’s Why Vitamin D As a Steroid Hormone, Not Just Another Supplement.
Summary
Learning the language of hormones is valuable, but you don’t need to become a specialist. Understanding the subtle languages of hormones is essential for everyone. Hormones communicate with us via our emotions.
Balanced hormones make us feel good, while imbalanced hormones cause unpleasant feelings. Pain and pleasure are high-level indicators of hormones.
Regarding fat loss or gain, hormones do not care about calorie counting. They are so intelligent, collaborative with each other, and powerful that they can talk to our genes and manipulate the body as they need.
Major hormones like insulin, glucagon, cortisol, leptin, vitamin D, sex hormones, and growth hormones are good friends. These hormones run the metabolic show in harmony. But they also fight when imbalanced, making the body and mind miserable.
You must make these crucial hormones happy by balancing them with healthy lifestyle habits if you want good metabolic and mental health. You must also protect your body from toxins like polluted air, water, burned food, cigarette smoke, and excessive alcohol to keep your hormones healthy.
Scientists and practitioners like endocrinologists study hormones extensively and interpret their messages by observing their effect on bodily fluids.
Takeaways
Here are takeaways points to naturally optimize hormones.
1 — Customize your nutrition based on your bodily needs.
2 — Personalize your workouts and move the body regularly.
3 — Create a rock-solid sleep regimen and get restorative sleep nightly.
4 — Act mindfully, work in a flow state, and meditate daily.
5 — Increase your adversity quotient and emotional mastery.
6 — Improve your relationships and develop meaningful connections.
7 — Get your hormones checked regularly and treated timely.
Managing stress is the most critical aspect of optimizing hormones. We also need to induce manageable stress to support the healing process of the body and mind by initiating autophagy and mitophagy and lowering oxidative stress and chronic inflammation.
For example, I use fasting, cold showers, and dry saunas to create temporary acute stress to defeat chronic stress and inflammation. The body and mind are connected, as explained by holistic health principles.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
I aim to increase the hormonal intelligence of my readers and write about neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, acetylcholine, norepinephrine, adrenaline, glutamate, and histamine.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
Petechiae, ALS, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorders, Anemia, Dysautonomia, cardiac output, and urinary track disorders.
I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients.
Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
Sample Humorous Stories
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