What we'll talk about
Hormones are one of the tools of overall body regulation, falling under the endocrine system. Hormones influence everything from structure of our body and formation of tissues, to the metabolism rate, water management, stress management, the rate of aging, or even our emotions and mood. Hormonal balance is one of the three basic pillars of health, when its disruption leads to a decrease in health and the gradual onset of disease. The AboveYourLimits system aims to look at the human body precisely in this context, which manifests itself at the hormonal level as a hormonal optimisation. A disruption of the hormonal balance can first manifest itself in terms of poor digestion, lack of energy or, most often, in the storage of new adipose tissue.
Understanding Hormones
Hormones and their role
Hormones are protein structures that serve as chemical messengers, carrying information to our body. Information that cells can read through receptors on their membrane and trigger based on a series of intracellular reactions. For that reason, hormones are one of the tools of overall body regulation, falling under the endocrine system.
Endocrine system components
The endocrine system includes glands with internal secretion, which include the pineal gland producing melatonin, the thyroid gland producing thyroid hormones, the parathyroid glands producing parathormone, the adrenal glands producing aldosterone and cortisol, the pancreas producing insulin and glucagon, and the ovaries in women and the testes in men, producing sex hormones (testosterone and estrogens).
At the same time, these glands are subordinate to the regulatory system located in the hypothalamus, which produces statins, liberins, antidiuretic hormone and oxytocin, and the adenohypophysis, where prolactin, growth hormone, adrenocorticotropic hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone and thyrotropin are produced, which regulate the activity of lower-level endocrine glands. respectively, they have a direct effect on various biochemical processes in our organism.
However, in addition to these endocrine glands, hormones are also produced by all other organs (such as the small and large intestines) and tissues (muscle, fat, and even nerve tissue have their hormones).
Hormones as chemical messengers
In contrast to the outdated view of cascading hormonal control, modern science looks at hormones more like chemical messengers, produced by all organs and tissues so that information can be exchanged between different parts of the body.
Hormonal Regulation
Influence of hormones on the body
Individual hormones bind to the relevant receptors on the cell membranes, thereby influencing their activity, which at a higher level manifests itself as a change in the activity of the entire organ or even the body system, and at a lower level leads to the synthesis of new structural or process proteins (enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters ), respectively switching on and off specific genes.
Thanks to this, hormones influence everything from the structure of our body and the formation of tissues, to the metabolism rate, water management, stress management, the rate of aging, or even our emotions and mood.
The concept of Hormonal Balance
The amount of individual hormones produced by our body depends on signals from the external and internal environment and can therefore vary over time. However, there are some intermediate values, dependent on circadian rhythm (varies during the day or season), which are healthy for our body. This dynamic maintenance of the level of individual hormones and their mutual ratios is called HORMONAL BALANCE.
Importance of Hormonal Balance
Hormonal balance and health
From the point of view of the AboveYourLimits system, hormonal balance is one of the three basic pillars of health (next to the healthy GIT, immunity system, and effective detoxification), when its disruption leads to a decrease in health and the gradual onset of disease.
For hormonal balance, and thus our health, it is not only important to maintain healthy values of individual hormones, but also their mutual ratios, which are woven into the fragile network of our regulatory mechanisms.
External factors affecting balance
In recent years, it has been increasingly proven that the ability to influence hormonal balance is not only a natural regulatory mechanism originating from our internal environment but also several influences from the external environment. The negative ones mainly include excessive stress, toxins, poor diet, lack of micronutrients, poor quality sleep, and a hectic lifestyle.
In the case of excessive exposure to these negative influences, so typical of today’s society, the secretion of a certain hormone is subsequently reduced or increased, which in turn affects other hormones, disturbs the hormonal balance, and triggers a cascade of related events throughout the body. This can subsequently manifest as reduced health or disease, even in completely different parts of the body than where their cause is located.
The AboveYourLimits Approach
A holistic perspective on the body
For that reason, the symptom-oriented approach of classical medicine is ineffective in the treatment of these problems and diseases. This is because it divides the human body into individual systems, which are treated separately (in the sense of individual medical specialties) and thus misses the most important thing: CONTEXT.
The AboveYourLimits system, built on the connection of current science and the wisdom of traditional medical systems, aims to look at the human body precisely in this context, which manifests itself at the hormonal level as a hormonal optimisation.
Hormonal optimization defined
As HORMONAL OPTIMISATION I refer to efforts to balance individual hormones to their healthy values through natural procedures (mostly in terms of diet, supplementation, regeneration, training, and other procedures) and thus reduce the symptoms of illness or strengthen health.
Another interesting phenomenon is connected with the hormonal balance: We can point to its disturbance well in advance indirectly, especially through the water retention and the formation of fatty tissue in certain places of our body.
Hormones and Fat Accumulation
Hormonal imbalance warning signs
Similar to other pillars of health, a disruption of the hormonal balance can first manifest itself in terms of poor digestion, lack of energy, or, most often, in the storage of new adipose tissue, or as a problem with body transformation, when we try to reverse it.
In such cases, it is our body’s first warning call that something is wrong inside, and it is only up to us to understand these signals, be able to interpret them and then influence them. Thanks to this, we can not only prevent the onset of diseases in advance but above all effectively influence how we will look, how we will feel, and how efficient we will be.
Bodily signals even go so far that, based on bodily symptoms (which will be given for individual hormones), we can subsequently determine quite precisely which hormone is disturbed, without the need for objective diagnostics (in the form of a blood test). One of these symptoms is the formation of fatty tissue.
Relationship between hormones and fat
The unusual increase of new adipose tissue always signals that there is something wrong with our body, where this tissue is formed then points to WHAT. The relationship between hormones and local fat storage has been proven in controlled scientific research as well as empirically in human practice.
Behind the second mentioned approach is la coach extraordinaire Charles R. Poliquin, who, based on statistical measurements of the thickness of the skin fold and blood results of thousands of his clients, created a system of correlation between individual hormones and the formation of adipose tissue in specific areas of the body. He named this method BIOPRINT, which is currently referred to as Metabolic analytics.
But don’t be mistaken! Although it may seem to you that you have more adipose tissue in some part of your body than elsewhere, and you should therefore optimize the corresponding hormone, without actual measurement with calipers and evaluation through the algorithm contained in the Metabolic analytics application, you cannot assess whether it is this formation of adipose tissue statistically significant or not and whether it is, therefore, important to deal more with the given hormone.
Since the Metabolic analytics method is qualitative and requires the presence of a certified trainer, and since it makes no sense to estimate the distribution of adipose tissue with the naked eye, I took the liberty of omitting the topic of local deposition of adipose tissue and the connection with individual hormones in my AboveYourLimits system.
Conclusion and Future Topics
In the next articles, you can find out more about the most important hormones in our body, their function, and why and how to optimize them.