We all like to think that our feelings and emotions are under our control, but are they? Hormones play a vital part in keeping our bodies working properly but they can also have a powerful and sometimes negative effect on our mood and mental health.
Scientists have long known that chemical messengers called nerotransmitters exert a huge influence on our brain cells. Yet as scientists learn more as they are finding that hormones too can mess with our heads in unexpected ways.
Now scientists are trying to harness this knowledge to find new treatments for conditions like depression and anxiety.
Hormones are chemical messengers released by certain glands, organs, and tissues and they enter the bloodstream and travel around the body, before binding to receptors in a specific place. The binding acts means as a kind of biological "handshake" which tells the body to do something such as the hormone insulin tells liver and muscle cells to suck up excess glucose from the blood and store it as glycogen.
So far, scientists have identified more than 50 hormones in the human body and together they manage hundreds of bodily processes, including a person's growth and development, sexual function, reproduction, sleep-wake cycle and importantly their mental wellbeing.
