Hormones Responsible for Happy Brain And How to Hack Them: The body is truly a miracle in every sense of the word. In terms of biology, physics and chemistry, it has a most wondrous way of functioning, one very small part of the miracle that the human body is, is the hormonal system. Hormones are chemical messengers that travel through the bloodstream to reach specific target organs and take specific actions on them. The thyroxine hormone, for instance, stimulates growth while the insulin hormone regulates sugar level. A subclass of these hormones is the happy hormones category. These hormones, through different ways, dedicate themselves to keeping you happy. Here’s how you can hack them.
Hormones Responsible for Happiness And How to Hack Them:
Endorphins
Every time you get hurt, or cause the body’s wear and tear through exercise, the pain reliever hormones endorphins come to the rescue. If you are under extreme stress of a physical kind, a surge of endorphins through your bloodstream helps relieve the stress a little bit. As a result, the presence of endorphins in the body acts as a natural painkiller of sorts, and also eases and relaxes the body, making you feel better.
Now, if you actively do things that cause a surge of endorphins without causing any harm to the body, you’ll get a mood boost and feel even more relaxed. Any physical activity or exercise like running, skipping, swimming, gymming, even having sex can release endorphins. Even laughing burns calories, so laughing hard releases endorphins as well. Apart from this, meditation is a good way to release endorphins.
Serotonin
Anyone who visits the psychiatrist for depression receives medication that contains artificially created serotonin. Serotonin thus stabilizes and even boosts the mood of any individual it operates in. This is not just a hormone but also a neurotransmitter than jumps over brain cells to create a happy impulse system. Serotonin makes a person feel euphoric and also regulates sleep, appetite and sexual desire in the person.
Activities that can release serotonin in the body include getting some vitamin D in your body by being in the sunlight and eating clean. Tryptophan, which exists in chocolate, is a great way to give your brain a serotonin boost. Apart from this, self care activities like massages, aerobic exercises, meditation and even reflecting on some happier moments in your life can release serotonin.
Dopamine
Basically, dopamine is the reward hormone of the brain, because it regulates reward systems and circuits in the brain. It is often linked with pleasure because of the sense of reward its release induces. Thus, it is a ‘feel-good’ hormone and a neurotransmitter which also has a role to play in learning and memory. However, certain activities like smoking and drinking alcohol also stimulate its release but they cause addiction and are harmful.
Some other activities that release dopamine in the body are exciting, novel activities. Visiting a theme park, travelling, trying something new like baking releases dopamine. Since dopamine is a chemical, certain foods also influence it – limiting intake of saturated fat and increasing protein intake helps. Plus, listening to music, dancing, exercising and sleeping enough can give your brain a dopamine boost.
Oxytocin
Do you know which chemical is released when a woman gives birth? It is Oxytocin. It is oxytocin which induces labour by stimulating uterine contractions. But that is not where its job ends. Oxytocin also stimulates feelings of maternal love and affection in the mother. Hence it cements the initial bond between the child and mother. In non maternal situations, too, it stimulates feelings of love and affection, and is thus the love hormone.
The hormone oxytocin is associated with trust, empathy and human connection. Thus any activity which stimulates that will boost the levels of the hormone in the brain. This includes physical affection of any kind, like holding hands, kissing, hugging, having sex or any other kind of affectionate physical touch. Having a nice conversation, spending quality time together, doing something nice for someone or even compliments can boost the hormone.
Adrenaline
Adrenaline isn’t usually considered a happy hormone, but it still helps boost the mood in a slightly different way. Usually, adrenaline is released in extremely stressful situations wherein the person feels threatened in some way, For instance, during situations of “flight, fight or fright” wherein the person either runs away, needs to stand up and fight or gets scared, this hormone provides extra energy.
This energizing hormone thus causes the heart to pump more blood (pacing of the hear), the lungs to breathe more heavily (gasping for breath), moves fluids to the areas that need most activity (parched throat) and releases water to cool the body down (sweating). All of these factors, due to the sympathetic nervous system activation, give you an energy boost and make you feel you can take on anything in the world. Exercise releases adrenaline too.
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