Hormones therefore have a strong influence on a person's emotional state, well-being, health and appearance.
Various hormones (including serotonin, dopamine and endorphin) are commonly known as happiness hormones, which cause feelings of happiness and general well-being.
The hormone adrenaline, on the other hand, is a well-known stress hormone that causes the heart rate and blood pressure to rise. It puts the body in a state of alert so that it can react more quickly to danger.
Insulin is the only hormone in the human body that can lower blood sugar levels and therefore plays an important role in regulating blood sugar. People with diabetes cannot produce insulin themselves and are therefore dependent on injections.
The hormones oestrogen (women) and testosterone (men) play a key role in the development of sexual characteristics and are therefore also responsible for "typical" gender behavior. Irritability or depression in women in phases of their menstrual cycle or during pregnancy, and more aggressive behavior and a lower capacity for empathy in men do not occur to the same extent in all people, however.
Hormones are signaling and messenger molecules that play a central role in controlling various bodily functions. They are part of the endocrine system, where endocrine means "releasing inwards". This means that hormones are produced in special glands and released from there into the bloodstream. The tissues in which hormones are produced can take very different forms.
While there are hormone-producing individual cells distributed throughout the organ, the cells can also join together to form complex structures known as glands.
After the hormones are released, they have to reach their target organ and dock onto specific receptors there. Only then can the hormones exert their effect in the cells. To ensure that the hormones are released in a regulated form, they are subject to a complex and diverse regulatory mechanism.
The regulation of hormones starts at two main points: the hormone itself or the appropriate receptor. Depending on this, different areas of the hormone system can be influenced: the formation, release, transport, metabolism and activity of the respective hormones. As hormones are used as messenger substances, the endocrine system has complex interactions with the nervous system and the immune system. It already unfolds its effect during embryonic development, but also plays a decisive role in growth and metabolism.
The hormones themselves are also very different. Peptide and steroid hormones, for example, have a fundamentally different structure and behave differently once they have been released into the bloodstream (secretion). Hormones are mainly only biologically active in free form.
The hormone effect can already be regulated in the bloodstream:
- By breaking them down in the bloodstream so that only a fraction of the original amount reaches the target organ.
- When binding to specific binding proteins, certain hormones can no longer produce an effect on the target organ.
However, the effectiveness of hormones can also be controlled in the target organ via the receptors. If the receptors on the target cell are reduced or degraded, only a weak or no signal is perceived.
Hormone receptors have a dual function in the cell. On the one hand the recognition function, as they recognize and bind a specific hormone, and on the other hand the signalling function in the cell. When the hormone binds to its receptor, the structure of the receptor is changed and this leads to a chain of events in the cell that regulate the function of the cell. This sequence is known as a signaling cascade.
Endocrine dysfunctions can affect the hormone itself, the corresponding receptor or signal transmission. What appears to be a hormone deficiency or hormone excess can also be caused by an altered activity of the receptor or a change in the cellular signaling chain.
In order to treat the respective disease, it is therefore crucial to clarify the exact cause.
