Hormones!

Ah, hormones, another down-side to being a female. LOL! I'm pretty down on all the negatives of what being a woman can be. On the other hand we have amazing power as women but I do like to complain too. We have hormones to thank for the monthly cycle, hot flashes and mood swings. What a great gift we have to live with. Of course then there are all the connections between estrogen and cancer, the speculation is it bad or good for you, does hormone therapy INCREASE the risk of cancer and how about hormone filled birth control is that a contributor? The more you look at the human body the more you learn how complex it is. The more complicated something is, the more problems it can have. Hence the human body and all it's ailments, diseases, disorders, malfunctions etc. If you have too much of one hormone, you can spend your life plucking stubborn hairs from your face, oh, the thrill of it all. Too much of another hormone will leave you sweating and panting like a dog. How attractive! The tragedies of being a woman. Not an easy burden. And as we age, the hormones change and so do we. Perhaps all women should be born with warning signs attached.
One a positive note, it is amazing how intricate the body is. Something that man cannot replicate in a lab. How do cells, hormones, and endocrine glands function so well together. It seems like there should be people within us controlling the actions. It's magically (when things are working right) how life persists without our knowledge or permission. Hormones are chemical substances that move through our blood stream. That sounds simple. But hold on, there do so many different things. If we were stripped of our Pineal gland and the melatonin it produces what would happen to our sleep patterns? Lord knows I need as much melatonin as it pumps out! I love to sleep! If it wasn't for all the sex hormones we wouldn't develop secondary sex characteristics, our accessory organs, or the egg and sperm that is essential to the advancement of life on earth. Some would argue that we should monitor who does and doesn't reproduce, but that's another matter.
One thing that is so disturbing is the drug and advertising community. We discussed this in class and you see adds ALL THE TIME about losing wait. Block Cortisol, the fat storing enemy it is! Relieve stress and loss wait at the same time. All these gimmicks that fool people into thinking they are doing something right, when it's probably very wrong and foreign to their body. Unfortunately people or so under- or mis-educated that they will grasp onto anything that says will be a miracle cure or fix for weight loss. It's sad how little we know or take responsibility for our own lives. I've learned more in this class about hormones then I ever knew before. Yet, I've had personal issues with that. I had to have an MRI because my Dr. was confident I had a tumor in my Pituitary gland. Thank god I didn't. But when she was talking to me about my FSH, LH, Prolactin levels, she could have been speaking alien to me. Now I know a little more. It's not all glamorous but it is impressive what a tiny bit of hormone (or lack of) can do to your body. Learning is a life-long process.