What are hormones? The effects of hormones

Hormones are not unfamiliar to many people and they are often heard of. However, some people do not have a deep understanding of hormones. Many people want to know what hormones are specifically. In fact, hormones are what people often call hormones. This is a chemical substance, and the effects of hormones are very wide.

1. Hormone is also transliterated as hormone or hormone, and its original meaning in Greek is "exciting activity". Hormones are chemical substances produced by certain cells, glands or organs in the body that can affect the activity of other cells in the body. Only very small doses of hormones are needed to alter cellular metabolism. It can be said that hormones are chemical messengers that travel from one cell to another. All multicellular organisms produce hormones, and the hormones produced by plants are also called phytohormones. Hormones produced by animals are usually transported to designated locations in the body through the blood, and cells respond to the hormones through their special receptors that receive certain hormones. After the hormone molecule binds to the receptor protein, it opens the signal pathway for signal transduction and ultimately causes the cell to respond specifically.

2. Hormones are chemical information substances synthesized by highly differentiated endocrine cells and directly secreted into the blood. They affect the physiological activities of the human body by regulating the metabolic activities of various tissue cells. Highly effective biologically active substances secreted by endocrine glands or endocrine cells, which act as messengers to transmit information in the body and regulate the body's physiological processes, are called hormones. It is an important substance in our life. Chemical substances that transmit information through blood circulation or tissue fluid are called hormones. The secretion of hormones is extremely small, at the nanogram (one billionth of a gram) level, but their regulatory effects are extremely obvious. Hormones have a wide range of effects, but they do not participate in specific metabolic processes. They only regulate specific metabolic and physiological processes, regulating the speed and direction of metabolic and physiological processes, thereby making the body's activities more adaptable to changes in the internal and external environment.

3. Hormones are generally divided into four categories according to their chemical structure.

The first category is steroids, such as adrenal cortical hormones (cortisol, aldosterone, etc.) and sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone and androgen, etc.). The second category is amino acid derivatives, including thyroxine, adrenal medullary hormone, pineal hormone, etc. The structure of the third type of hormones is peptides and proteins, such as hypothalamic hormones, pituitary hormones, gastrointestinal hormones, insulin, calcitonin, etc. The fourth category is fatty acid derivatives, such as prostaglandins.