Lifestyle Choices

When I was a child growing up in Portsmouth, the naval town on the south coast, and we saw someone who was grossly obese, my mother would say pityingly, in a knowing stage whisper, ‘Trouble with their glands, dear.’ In those days Portsmouth was full of sailors of all nationalities and anyone who was very fat was unusual. Now, when I go back to my home town forty years later, the sailors have all gone and people who are very overweight are so common as to be unremarkable. The attitude to these heavyweights has also changed. They are no longer the subject of pity, but of a kind of loathing. Fat today says greedy, slothful and self-indulgent. As I will show you, hormones and obesity and intimately bound together. Trouble with your glands is indeed part of the obesity equation, including a gland that has only in the last decade been discovered to be secreting hormones — fat itself. (more…)

Anything that increases the sticking of cells to the skin or the secretion of sebum can cause acne. The three main influences are hormones, diet (and medications), and the products you use on your skin.

Hormones

These are those magical chemicals that are secreted by your endocrine glands to regulate your metabolism, your sexuality, your growth, your cycles, your mood and your reaction to stress. The hormones that affect your skin come primarily from your sexual organs and from your adrenal glands, the latter of which become more active when you feel either excitement or anxiety. When the adrenals are stimulated they produce more hormones. (more…)

Marriage is a merger of two different individuals. These differences are perfectly natural, some of them arising from powerful substances produced in the human body. The presence of these chemicals brings on profound changes in form and behavior, especially in the female, while in the male there may be little change from day to day. The woman is never quite the same from one day to the next. Every month she passes through what is known as her menstrual cycle. This is brought about by the ebb and flow of the chemical hormones in her blood stream. This results in a wide variation of feelings toward herself, her husband, and those around her. (more…)

Although physical diseases can cause or mimic depression, they are a comparatively rare cause. Most of the specific illnesses mentioned here are uncommon and, with the possible exception of hypothyroidism, they start with depression in only a relatively small number of cases.

Several hormones have an effect on mood. As well as the female sexual hormones, hormones from the pituitary gland, adrenal glands, thyroid glands, parathyroid glands and pancreas may all affect energy and mood. However, such effects occur only when there is a significant disease in therelevant gland, which is fairly rare, and in which case there are usually also physical symptoms. (more…)

Many hormones affect mood. With the exception of female hormones, hormonal treatment is indicated only when there is disease of the gland secreting the hormone. In these uncommon cases the gland may be treated, by surgery for example, or the missing hormone may be replaced thyroxine given to a hypothyroid person removes depression. There is considerable controversy in medical circles about the use of female hormones. They have been used to prevent and treat post-natal depression, for premenstrual tension, and for menopausal depression. The clearest useful effects have been inthe prevention and treatment of pre-menstrual tension. (more…)