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INTRODUCTION TO THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM
Learning about and understanding hormones, and the vital role they play in
your bodies functioning and health, is the cornerstone to achieving any of your
goals. As you are well aware, hormones can make you well or make you ill. They
do strange and wonderful things to your mind and your body. They create your
physique and they have the power to destroy your physique. Hormones can turn
you into a testosterone driven focused, ambitious and strong success, or reduce
you to a frightened quivering wreck. Hormones are the key to virtually every
process in the human body and determine your success in achieving the body you
desire. This being said you should have a firm understanding of the importance
of this section alone.
So just what are hormones?
Well hormones are chemical messengers that coordinate the activities of different
cells in multicellular organisms. The term hormone (derived from the Greek -
'to spur on') was first used in 1904 by William Bayliss and Ernest Starling
to describe the action of secretin, a molecule secreted by the duodenum that
stimulates the flow of pancreatic juice. Several very fruitful concepts emerged
from their work. 1) Hormones are molecules synthesized by specific tissues (glands).
2) They are secreted directly into the blood, which carries them to their sites
of action. 3)They specifically alter the activities of responsive tissues (target
organs or target cells.)
Basically, hormones are messengers that tell the cells in your body to do things.
They send messages that may tell the body to build up protein and hence build
up muscle tissue. Or counter to that, they may tell the body to break down proteins,
breakdown muscle. This is just one example of the many functions of the many
hormones. As you will see, your hormones are generaly split into different groupings,
and those groupings generally fall into two main categories - anabolic and catabolic.
Anabolic hormones are involved in the creation and repair of cells, catabolic
- the reverse, the breakdown.
Optimising Hormone Production
You will often hear that your body is in a 'catabolic' or 'anabolic' state,
meaning it is either being broken down or being built up. The truth is more
complicated, in that your body is in both states constantly, its both breaking
down and building up, all at the same time, and at every second of the day.
Learn to shift the balance in your favour.
Further Information Hormone Actions You Need to Take
Maximising
Growth Hormone
1. Take an Arginine and Ornithine supplement before sleeping.
2. Try to take a one hour sleep after training.
3. Try to split training so that you train twice a day, rather than one long
session.
4. Take a high level of vitamin C.
Constant,
Optimum Insulin Levels
1. Eat six or more small meals a day, each a balanced meal with protein, carbs
and fats according to information presented in both the glycaemic index and
insulin index.
2. Take a post exercise drink of carbohydrates (glucose, fructose and a little
complex carbs) with a small level of whey protein.
Optimum
Thyroid Levels
1. Adequate levels of Iodine in the diet
2. Get protein from high class, well balanced sources, such as whey protein.
Maximise
Testosterone
1. Take a ZMA supplement and maybe a little Boron to provide the building materials
required by the leydig cells of the testes to produce testosterone.
2. Use a supplement containing Tribulus to stimulate luteinising hormone, the
trigger mechanism for creating androgenic hormones from progesterolne.
3. Keep training sessions to 45-60 minutes long.
4. High levels of growth hormone will stimulate high levels of testosterone.
Minimise
catecholamine hormones
1. High levels of vitamin C reduce ACTH's conversion effects on cholesterol.
2. Consume simple carbs from glucose polymers, fruit sugars (fructose) and a
little complex carbs immediately after a workout.
3. Consume about 30% of total protein and carbohydrate intake within 2-3 hours
of training in 2 spaced meals.
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