Week Seven: Hormones

This is a pretty easy topic to talk about it - it's so prevalent in everybody's life! I mean two things that immediately come to mind are: PMS and studying for exams.

PMS mood effects are, I think, caused by a imbalance between estrogen and progesterone, and this disruption causes mood swings and food cravings etc. I, for one, know for sure that I get cranky and hungry (for chocolate especially).

Second situation, is when we study for tests (this week of midterms has been hellacious). I can feel the stress hormone, cortisol, rushing through me during my long sessions at Perkins... I suddenly feel extremely hungry for those delicious cookies downstairs, I'm snappy if someone disturbs me, and I definitely feel like I might have gotten sick this week (perhaps due to a weakened immune system this week?).

Both of these examples are pretty negative, but I know they're really important! For example, the steroid, testosterone, can help some of my favorite basketball players (like Kevin Durant or Andre Dawkins) get more aggressive and play better!