FitSugar

Health Junkie: Hormones and Chemicals Released Due to Exercise

Anna Monette Roberts — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 01:17:15 PDT

Ever wonder what is going on chemically in the body while you sweat it out at the gym? The euphoric feelings during and after exercise, as well as the muscle soreness that might just come a day later, don't just appear magically. Your body is made up of millions of chemical reactions, which result in different physical and mental feelings. Take a look at some of the top hormones and chemicals that are released when you workout.

Endorphins
These chemicals are released by your pituitary gland, which is located in the base of your brain. Endorphins make you feel exhilarated and happy and block any feelings of pain, so you can power through any discomfort caused by exercising. That's why people become addicted to strenuous forms of exercises and experience "runner's high."

Estrogen
Estrogen determines whether carbs or fat fuel the body during an intense exercise session. Women tend to burn fat for fuel, while men tend to burn carbs, because women have higher estrogen levels. When women undergo menopause, they usually experience some weight gain because of lowered estrogen levels.

See more chemicals released while exercising.

Tame Your Hormones Naturally

Heather Dale — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:20:25 PST

If you ever suffer from cramps, bloating, insomnia, breast tenderness, headaches, acne, or food cravings, your hormones may be in flux and need to be balanced. Hormones are crucial to our well-being since they impact our bodies at the cellular level and, if stabilized, many of the above symptoms can be alleviated.

According to The Biggest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels, the toxins in processed foods, nonorganic produce, prescription medicine, and the environment can throw our hormones out of whack, wreaking havoc on our systems. In her book Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones For a Hot and Healthy Body!, Jillian talks about the important role our hormones play in our endocrine system and how we can rebalance them through diet, sleep, and exercise.

Reducing stress, drinking lots of water to flush out toxins, and getting your circadian rhythms on track are all steps in the right direction toward getting your hormones balanced out, but to learn about the easiest and most effective change you can make right now, just keep reading.

Author of The Female Brain Shares Her Knowledge

Annie Scudder — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:00:01 PDT

Dr. Louann Brizendine's brain is filled with information about why women and men act the way they do. As the founder of UCSF's Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic, the neuropsychiatrist uses brain science to try to give us insights into our behavior. She wrote The Female Brain, which looks at the female brain from birth, to motherhood, to menopause, and followed up with The Male Brain, which came out earlier this year.

Dr. Brizendine's notion that differences between the sexes can be traced to the brain has been met with significant criticism, and some have claimed to debunk her conclusions. I spoke with her at the Women's Conference, and she explained her findings, while also noting that there is a wide variety of behavior in either sex. Check out my interview above.

Call Your Mom: Her Cuddles Come Through on the Phone

TresSugar — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:00:00 PDT

I'm not embarrassed to admit it: no matter how old I get, sometimes I just need to talk to my mom. I call her to share good news, to whine, to vent, to admit things I'm too self-conscious to share with anyone else. Now, science proves I'm not just a big wuss.

In a new study of mothers, daughters, and hormones, researchers discovered that hearing a mother's voice on the phone can provide the same soothing, stress-relieving effect as a hug. (Interestingly, it turns out therapy by phone may work, too.) It's one of the many talents of oxytocin, the so-called "cuddle hormone," which aids mother-child bonding at birth and makes men more empathetic. In the study, girls ages 7 to 12, girls were put into stressful situations, such as giving a speech, then comforted three different ways: by a mom hug, by a mom phone call, and "by watching a film deemed emotionally neutral, the March of the Penguins."

The girls who were physically comforted and comforted by a phone call saw similar increases in oxytocin and decreases in cortisol. Basically, the stress-lessening effect was the same, regardless of physical distance. No conclusions were reached regarding the effect of watching March of the Penguins while sitting in your mom's lap.

So call your mom and tell her the news! Posting a link on her Facebook wall doesn't count.

Scientists Identify the Cuddle Hormone

TresSugar — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:15:30 PDT

Take a snort, get more cuddly. No, I'm not talking about a new designer nightclub drug, but a new study of how the hormone oxytocin can make men more empathetic.

The same hormone that is elevated during sex, brings on labor pains during childbirth, stimulates the production of breast milk, and aids mother-child bonding may also help men get more in touch with other people's emotions.

In a fascinating study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, volunteers were given an inhaled nasal spray containing the hormone, then shown photos that were likely to trigger emotions, such as "a crying child, a girl hugging her cat, and a grieving man." Half the men got the spray, and another half received a placebo:

Those who had the hormone spray had markedly higher levels of empathy - of a similar magnitude to those only usually seen in women who are naturally more sensitive to the feelings of others.

Women's hormones get blamed for a lot of things, but it seems our oxytocin is a help, not a hindrance. But don't expect to be able to rush out and buy the cuddle drug for your boyfriend just yet; there are far more pressing applications for this potential psychiatric medication first, so

read more. The most promising results of the study suggest that oxytocin spray could help treat schizophrenia, autism, and other conditions that cause social withdrawal and a lack of empathy. That's because patients given the spray were also better able to respond to positive and negative facial feedback, suggesting it could help people who have difficulty responding to social cues. Do you think that women are fundamentally better at empathy than men?

Say What? Man With "Manopause" Blames Hormones

TresSugar — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:00:00 PDT

"So, with the help of Lupron, I spent a few months aboard the Good Ship Menopause with all the physical baggage that entails. It’s a trip that most men don’t expect to take . . .

And, guys, when your significant female other bursts into tears at the drop of a dinner plate or turns on you like a rabid pit bull - whether she’s pregnant, having her period or in the throes of menopause - believe her when she blames it on the hormones."

- Dana Jennings, in a New York Times piece about how being on hormone therapy for an aggressive case of prostate cancer gave him menopause-like symptoms including hot flashes, unexpected crying jags, intense food cravings, and weight gain.

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Weekend Reading: Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels

FitSugar — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 03:30:00 PDT

The key to mastering your metabolism, according to the new book by Jillian Michaels? Hormones! But not in the way you normally think of hormones.

In Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones For a Hot and Healthy Body!, the Biggest Loser trainer explains how the myriad hormones that make up your endocrine system - including cortisol, ghrelin, testosterone, and leptin - work to keep your body healthy and balanced.

One of the new anti-diet books, this incredibly detailed guide combines personal memoir, serious science, and healthy eating recommendations to shed light on how artificial additives and other external factors can sabotage our weight-loss efforts. The book starts out incredibly academic, defining the various hormones and how they work; it was too much scientific jargon for me. But after wading through that I learned a lot. To find out what,

read more. Michaels's basic premise is that the toxins in processed foods, nonorganic produce, prescription medications, and the environment can throw our hormones out of whack, wreaking havoc on our systems. She writes, "Any and every body function you can imagine is controlled by your hormones." Her "three diet secrets" divide the book into three phases: removing these toxins from your life, replacing them with healthy foods, and rebalancing your hormones through diet, sleep, and exercise. She offers a strict and simple meal plan that involves eating every four hours and tells you how to look at all the labels in your pantry and toss out the really bad stuff. She also acknowledges that we can't eat perfectly all the time and offers suggestions for good but not great foods. Along the way, she adds personal touches, like memories of being an overweight kid and confessing that she hates to exercise (which I have a hard time believing). I like how the book offers different reasons for eating healthy than the ones we're used to hearing. It really made me think about how bad junk food really is and how every decision about what we put in our bodies has a ripple effect. This certainly isn't a book you can absorb with a quick skim; it's very dense with information. But I learned a great deal reading it and plan to return to it as a reference.

Where Do You Stand? Taking Hormonal Birth Control

DearSugar — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:00:00 PST

Many women use hormonal birth control such as the pill, the NuvaRing, or the patch because it's effective, it's easy, it can control or eliminate your period, and it allows you to be more spontaneous when having sex. I know some women, though, who refuse to use it because they don't like how it decreases their sex drive, makes them moody, or makes their breasts grow. Still others just don't like the idea of putting chemicals into their bodies.

So where do you stand? Are you for or against using hormonal birth control?

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Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me: Devil Woman

babysugar — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:00:20 PDT

When I realized I was pregnant, I knew I was embarking on a long and arduous, be it, exciting time of my life. Knowing that my body was going to take a hit for the process, I expected my hubby to treat me like a queen. Little did I know, my tiara would look more like devil horns.

To see why I evolved into a demonic crab,

read more. On the surface, pregnant women deal with changes like swollen feet and burgeoning bellies but it is inside where the massive changes are taking place. While the babe grows, the mama's hormones rush like a raging bull. One night, I asked my mate to take out the trash and walk our rent check upstairs while I finished dinner. He absolutely did not want to do either as it was drizzling outside. At first we joked about it but I felt if I was going to cook, he could do those quick chores. In a flash, I went from a jesting laughing wife to a cloven–footed Cruella De Vil type character. My man finally fell prey to my hellish pleas and took the trash to the curb. Once he was out the door, I locked it. And, wouldn't let him back in until he dropped off the check, too. I thought this was funny, but he didn't. He caved, but later that evening, I was the one petitioning for forgiveness. The next time I'm expecting, I hope I'll have a better hold on my horns. Source

Sunscreen and Breast Cancer Risk

FitSugar — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:30:00 PDT

I have heard rumors lately that sunscreen can cause breast cancer. Sounds frightening doesn't it? Our tried and true enemy against skin cancer and wrinkling may be an enemy itself? Well, it doesn't seem to be true, but the answer is a little bit more complicated.

Here's the deal: some ultraviolet (UV) filters used in sunscreen may mimic estrogen according to animal and laboratory studies and thereby disrupt the endocrine system. Just to review a little human biology, the endocrine system uses hormones to regulate functions like metabolism, growth and development. However, there is no evidence that human exposure to these types of endocrine disruptors in the low levels used in sunscreen create health problems. In fact, a study using human volunteers found that even though UV filters were absorbed by the skin, they had no effect on the volunteers over all health or hormone levels, even estrogen.

Hopefully more research will be done on this matter. In the mean time, if you are concerned about messing with your endocrine system look for sunscreens containing zinc oxide or titanium dioxide (these block the UV rays rather than filter them), since these ingredients are not absorbed by your skin and they don't mimic estrogen.

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