You Are Not In Control, Your Hormones Are

This is a topic that is not spoken about often enough.

These 4 hormones have huge power over your life, they affect your sleep, ambition, moods and your overall health.

To take back that power, you need to understand how they work. Optimise your hormones, optimise your life.

1. Dopamine: The Short-Term Reward Hormone

Most of our behaviours are driven by dopamine, whether you know it or not.

You've probably heard that dopamine gives you a pleasurable rewarding feeling.

Dopamine can motivate you and help you get out of bed in the morning, but it can also cause addictions.

You get a hit of dopamine if you achieve something you've worked hard for.

But you also get dopamine more quickly and easily from alcohol, nicotine, social media, sugar etc.

Feeding off these fake senses of achievement causes your dopamine levels to be imbalanced and even depleted making it hard to stay motivated.

Treat dopamine is a scarce resource and be aware of how you use it.

Drug addiction, alcoholism, obesity or even social media addiction are all dopamine addictions.

One of the most effective ways to increase your dopamine levels is to exercise regularly, studies show that exercise boosts motivation by increasing dopamine storage and triggering the creation of dopamine receptors in the reward centre of the brain which gives you more willpower and satisfaction to do those little things that don’t normally seem rewarding.

2. Serotonin: The Happiness Hormone

Serotonin increases our feelings of general happiness and well-being and also regulates our moods.

Dopamine can sometimes be confused with serotonin. Dopamine doesn't equal happiness but serotonin does.

Spending time on social media gives you dopamine but it doesn't necessarily make you happy.

High levels of serotonin don't only increase a sense of happiness and well-being it also leads to good sleep, high self-esteem, appetite control, and even good memory!

People with serotonin deficiency can suffer from anxiety, social withdrawal, irritability, insomnia, panic attacks, depression, fits of anger or obsessive behaviour.

90% of serotonin is found in your gut. The best way to increase serotonin is through your diet.

Tryptophan is an amino acid found in some foods that increases serotonin.

Foods that contain the highest levels of tryptophan that increase serotonin are:

Meat (Fish, Chicken, Beef)
Eggs
Cheese

3. Melatonin - The Sleep Hormone

Melatonin is responsible for regulating your body clock and helping you sleep.

When it gets dark (the sun sets), your body releases melatonin, which makes you sleepy and ready for bed.

When the sun rises your body stops releasing melatonin.

As you can imagine, nowadays our bodies have no idea when it is day or night.

In the evening most of us are in contact with fake digital blue light from screens which cause our bodies to think it's daytime.

This decreases melatonin production making it much harder to fall asleep, even once you are asleep it also affects your sleep quality.

Blue light comes from all screens and LED lights but how can we avoid them?

The ideal situation is to switch off all your screens and any other sources of blue light an hour and a half before you plan to fall asleep.

Also wearing anti-blue light glasses, changing the setting on your phone so that the screen is a warmer colour, and being aware of the lighting in your house in the evening can help.

4. Oxytocin - The Love Hormone

Oxytocin is released when you touch or interact with someone dear to you. It gives you the feeling of love and trust.

High levels of oxytocin can lower stress, lower blood pressure and improve heart health!

Low levels of oxytocin can make you feel lonely and increase stress, depression, blood pressure and more.

Research has shown that loneliness is as bad for people's health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day!

People with low levels of oxytocin tend to be the ones who stay at home and never have the energy to meet up with others or keep up a conversation.

However, this only makes it worse for people with low oxytocin and can turn into a vicious cycle.

If you recognise these symptoms in yourself, here are some ways that can help you feel better.

Go for a massage - The physical contact will release oxytocin into your body and relax your muscles.

Go hug someone - It could be a family member, friend or even your pet.

Who knew hugs could benefit your health?