Archive for the ‘Hormones’ Category

For a vitamin that has just in recent years come into the spotlight, vitamin D has sure made a splash. Technically vitamin D doesn’t fit the classic definition of a vitamin. A vitamin is a substance that is crucial to normal everyday life function but can’t be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet.

Your skin has the ability to manufacture as much as 10,000 IU of vitamin D after just 20-30 minutes of summer sun exposure. But limiting factors like age, skin color, your geographic latitude and seasonal variation in sunlight, plus the necessity of sunblock all play a role in how much vitamin D is actually produced.

Too much sun damages the skin, creating wrinkles and fine lines, while increasing the risk of skin cancer.

Actually vitamin D more closely resembles a hormone than a vitamin. Hormones are chemical messengers produced by certain glands and cells in your body that bind to specific receptors in order to produce a targeted biological response. The active form of vitamin D, calcitriol is one of the most powerful hormones in the body which has the ability to activate over 2,000 genes – roughly 10% of the human genome.

Read the rest of the story in Life Extension, June 2010, p. 74

I recently read this wonderful passage on hormones in Suzanne Somers book BREAKTHROUGH that I would like to share with my readers. (1)

“Because hormones do so much for the body. Your body contains more than one hundred different types of hormones, and they pour into your bloodstream at the rate of thousands of billions of units a day. Hormones regulate your heartbeat and your breathing. Hormones make men men and women women. Hormones put you to sleep at night and they wake you up in the morning. They control your blood pressure, build up bone, maintain muscle tone, and lubricate joints. Hormones govern growth; they make the body produce energy and heat. Hormones burn fat. Hormones govern the menstrual cycle and allow pregnancy (and birth) to occur. They fight stress, prevent fatigue, calm anxiety, and relieve depression. Hormones make and keep memories. Hormones maintain the correct level of sugar in the blood and tissues. They resist allergic reactions and infections. They soothe pain. Hormones control your sex drive, virility, and fertility. They stimulate your brain and your immune system. For all these reasons I am passionate about the subject.” Dr. Thierry Hertoghe, the most respected doctor in his field and known all over Europe as the “father of bioidenticals”.

I am learning so much more about health as I steer away from pharmaceuticals and look at the world of opportunities for real health care and not living on synthetic drugs and poisoned food. I would encourage all my readers to read Suzanne Somers book BREAKTHROUGH.

1)      Suzanne Somers, Breakthrough, p. 130