Within the body are glands which create and secrete hormones. Hormones are responsible for helping regulate almost every aspect of your body. Hormones help people grow, reproduce and manage their day to day lives. Hormones help in dangerous or stressful situations. The delicate balance of hormones within the body can often be damaged through injuries, medications or diseases. 

When too much or too little of a hormone is released, the body will suffer from an imbalance. Typically these imbalances can be alright temporarily. However, once this imbalance is more prevalent, there’s more damage caused to the body. People can suffer from physical and mental consequences due to hormone imbalance. Since hormones are so important to the body, it’s good to know what many of them do in case you feel something is amiss. 

1 - Serotonin

Some people refer to serotonin as the feel good hormone. This is because serotonin is one of the hormones that is important for keeping mood elevated. Serotonin has many uses, and is important for allowing people to sleep properly and to digest their food regularly. It also helps with memory and some muscle jobs. Unsurprisingly, for a hormone responsible for so many aspects, having an imbalance can result in some serious issues. Not enough serotonin can lead to insomnia, migranise, depression and weight gain. People who suffer from too much serotonin can feel confused and agitated for no reason. 

2 - Estrogen

Estrogen is crucial to women and is responsible for maintaining their menstrual cycle and reproduction. During menopause, when reproduction is deemed no longer needed, estrogen levels will drop precipitously. Hormone replacement therapy can be needed if a woman finds her estrogen levels drop too low during menopause. Too much estrogen has been known to play a role in some cancers, as well as often causing depression and moodiness. 

3 - Cortisol

This important little hormone is produced in the adrenal gland. The goal of cortisol is to improve health and energy for people. How does it do it? By managing the silent killer: stress! When people are in a dangerous and stressful situation, cortisol is reduced to assist the body in managing it. Heart rate and blood pressure will usually increase as a response to high levels of stress, which will return to normal afterwards. Cortisol is great in the appropriate doses, however it can do damage when it is found in large amounts for long periods of time. Long term high levels of cortisol will lead to the issues commonly associated with high stress levels. This includes ulcers, high cholesterol, problems with anxiety and very high blood pressure. 

4 - Adrenaline

Adrenaline is one of the best known hormones and is often called the “emergency” hormone. Adrenaline is released when people see themselves in an emergency stress situation. It gives people a sudden burst of action in the brain to respond to these dangerous stresses. The metabolic rate increases heavily. Many people hunt out the feeling of adrenaline being released into their body by putting themselves in dangerous adventure sports and situations like bungee jumping, skydiving or cliff diving. 

5 - Thyroid Hormones 

This is grouped into one, despite the thyroid actually releasing two different hormones into the body. These hormones are Thyroxine (which is known as T4) and Triiodothyronine (Known as T3). From the names you can understand why they are simply called T3 and T4 in common parlance. Thyroid hormones have multiple responsibilities within the body. Combining them together essentially creates the concept of metabolism. These hormones help determine how much energy a person has, their internal temperature and regulates weight. They also play a role in a person’s skin and hair growth.