What are hormones anyway?

And is apple cider vinegar the solution to everything?

I spend a good part of my time these days talking about hormones. And I reckon as women we’re all across the fact that various hormones control what goes on in our bodies, a lot of the time. But do you know what hormones actually are? And did you know that hormones are a really recent discovery, relatively speaking? This is worth knowing, for reasons I’ll get into shortly.

What are hormones?

As I wrote in This Changes Everything:

Hormones are basically chemical messengers. They’re produced in the brain and body and are the way our cells communicate with each other. We have lots of different hormones in our bodies, and they drive many, many functions, from mood to digestion; sleep to stamina. Hormones are also responsible for our reproductive function, which is a big part of how they come into play for women at menopause.

Hormones are part of the endocrine system, which includes all the organs or glands that  produce, store and secrete hormones. The pituitary gland (located in the base of our brains) is the 'control centre' that’s in charge of it all: it co-ordinates the whole endocrine system and how much of a hormone the other glands or organs produce. That includes the thyroid, ovaries and adrenal glands. We have receptors for different hormones all over our bodies, everywhere from our gut to our muscles to our brains. When a hormone binds to its receptor, it causes a biological response within the cell, like a radio signal being picked up by an antenna.

So basically: there are lots of them, and they do different things, traveling around in the body to where they’re needed when they get a signal. We have hormone receptors everywhere, like tiny little wifi routers. That included oestrogen receptors, which are all over the place too; oestrogen has a role in most of the processes in our bodies.

The history of hormones

What I find fascinating is that the first hormone was only discovered in 1902. Wild, huh? That’s really recent in historical terms. Ernest Starling was the man who coined the word, from the Greek hormon, ‘to arouse or excite’. That first hormone was called secretin, and it took years and years for more hormones to be discovered and isolated. For oestrogen, that wasn’t until 1929. So the study of female hormones, really, is less than 100 years old. A baby.

And if you thought we now have all the hormones sussed, that’s probably not the case either. Hormones are still being discovered! The most recent one I can find was in 2023, hepatokine, a stress-induced hormone produced by the liver.

So what?

If you’re wondering why we should care about this, it’s really just to highlight that despite all the talk we’re surrounded by (if we’re a woman in perimenopause or menopause) about hormones, hormonal imbalance, how to ‘fix’ or ‘balance’ our hormones (not a thing btw) and what out hormones are doing to us, there is still a LOT we don’t know about hormones and how they affect us. In fact, we really don’t know what we don’t know.

In my travels around the research on menopause, I’m constantly struck by the gaps in the research; the things we just don’t know, because they’ve never been studied. Something that’s worth, I think, keeping in mind whenever you see someone claiming to have all the answers.

In other meno news…

The oestrogen patch treasure hunt is back on… with supplies of all the patches running low all over the country. Pharmac says it’s sorry, basically, but it is what it is. (I’m paraphrasing there). What it means in practice is that pharmacies are out of stock, sometimes of all the brands of patches, or (as in my case) they’re offering larger doses and advising us to cut the patches in half (doable, but bloody tricky). And as has been the case for a long time, we’re only being given one month’s supply at a time, so it’s a trek back to the pharmacy with our fingers crossed again every few weeks. So tiresome.

If this infuriates you as much as it does me, make sure you sign the petition to give Pharmac a hurry-up on funding other forms of oestrogen, like gel, which would not only ease the stress of shortages, but would allow those who don’t tolerate patches well to have an alternative.

Find the petition here

Recent coverage

I’ve done a few bits and pieces lately to pre-promote the new book, which is only a few weeks away now! One of them was appearing in the April issue of the House of Wellness magazine, which is available for another week or so at Chemist Warehouse. I must say it’s daunting seeing myself on a massive screen in my local store (especially as when I’m in there I’m usually in exercise gear and looking nothing like I look in those pics) BUT it was a really fun experience. I’ve never been a cover girl before, and I doubt I ever will again. You can read the story from inside the mag here

I loved the cover line they gave this: Find Your Joy. A lot of The Everything Guide is about this.

Back in February I also teamed up with the lovely Petra Bagust and sex therapist Meg Cowan for a fun evening on stage at the Q Theatre, for a live record of Petra’s Grey Areas podcast all about sex and relationships. The episode is out now, and you can listen here.

Don’t forget, you can pre-order the new book so you’ll be the first to get your hands on it… have a look here for stockists (and the e-book and audiobook are available now it that’s your preferred format). I will say though: the physical book is SO BEAUTIFUL. I’m really loving it.

https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/the-everything-guide-9781776950829

Can apple cider vinegar fix everything?

This one’s been rattling around since pre-social media days; I remember it from back when we were starting Healthy Food Guide: the idea that apple cider vinegar can cure everything from cancer to baldness. Lately, you might have seen it on certain influencer’s content, in claims that having it before a meal can help ‘balance blood sugar spikes’. It’s worth knowing that blood sugar is meant to go up and down – that’s what happens in every body when we eat food – and this whole thing about hyper-focusing on glucose is really just recycling old ideas in shiny new ways. I’ve written about some of that before here.

And I had a look at the apple cider vinegar thing, too, for RNZ – which you can read here.

It’s interesting, I think… and as usual a lot more nuanced than we might be being led to believe on the socials.

See you soon

Niki