Health and Relationships

Dear Minette,

Did you know that the quality of a relationship influences your health? Your relationships and health are so closely related.

Stress plays a huge role. If any of your relationships are under stress, it harms your health and vice versa. It could lead to hypertension, eating disorders or even heart disease.

It is Hormones, Health and Relationships that keep us going.

Emotions

The thoughts, everyday situations and events, trigger feelings that in their turn, trigger a chemical reaction in your brain. It is mostly emotional messages that have a positive or negative effect.

Rarely enough, certain foods you eat can also have the same effect and all influence your moods.

It acts as a very important biochemical messenger, sending messages, received from your five senses to your brain along with the neurotransmitters, with either a good or bad message.

Your brain will send a distress message to run for survival and your muscles will, therefore, react in a certain way to get you away from danger. Sometimes it triggers an emotion, through memories in your mind, that makes you laugh or cry.

The mind reacts to these messages with immediate effect and it shows in your behaviour.

The quality of your relationship matters to the extent that it can help to prevent cardiovascular disease and depression. It has a direct influence on your metabolism, sleeping patterns, and mood swings.

Studies found that people, unhappy in a relationship, have a negative outlook, depression and many times poor health. Positive social engagement is one of the most important factors of longevity.

Make sure to be a happy person. People will want to be with you because it makes them feel good and that is a win-win situation.

Lifestyle and Habits play a huge role in your health and happiness. It spills over into your relationships and affects the quality of your connections.

Your brain is the big regulator, its task is to keep the balance perfectly. It reacts to the messages it gets from the neurotransmitters and adjusts accordingly.

A happy relationship is responsible for the feel-good hormones released in your brain, making you feel happy and healthy. It happens through incidents that create the feelings that will dictate your behaviour.

You can also enhance the function of the neurotransmitters, sending messages in your body, with certain foods and exercise.

Let’s have a look and see how it creates the feelings you experience.

Firstly, I have to say, there are no good or bad hormones. All have a function and a role to play. One without the other will create more health problems.

Like anything else in life, the magic is to keep the balance. When out of balance, the good ones can have bad effects on the body too, but in general, this is how it is perceived. The best way is to eat healthy to be healthy.

Health and Relationships and Hormones

Feel-Good Hormones

1.  Dopamine.

2.  Serotonin.

3. Oxytocin

4.  Endorphins.

The Feel Good Hormones

1. Dopamine

Benefits for the Body

• You will be willing to listen to one another more often and have more patience

• Prepared to compromise. Communicate openly without judgment

• Teammates in every situation and engage with each other

• Remember dates and details about each other’s lives

• Have similar interests and do activities together

• Couples respect and trust each other more.

Activities to enhance Dopamine

•  Exercise daily, alter between high intensity and super slow movements for 15 min

•  Get at least 7 hours of sleep

•  Practice Yoga or Meditate every day, go into a calm state of mind

•  Listen to music

•  Sauerkraut, pickles and kefir is natural probiotics

•  Eat more Protein, meat, eggs, cheese, nuts, and beans in particular black beans

•  Eat less saturated fats

Foods to Eat

• Eggs

• Nuts such as walnuts and almonds

• Vegetables and fruit in particular bananas

• Salmon, Sardines and Mackerel

• Unprocessed meats such as beef, chicken, pork and turkey

• All dairy products, milk, yoghurt, cheese, and butter

• Best of all Dark Chocolate

2. Serotonin

The Benefits for the Body

Maybe best-known as, the happiness hormone. It helps regulate your moods, appetite, memory, digestive system and sexual desires.

Activities that will enhance Serotonin

•  Exercise daily

•  Spend time in the sun and nature

•  Meditate daily or practice Yoga, keeping the mind calm

•  Eat healthy in particular Omega-3 fatty acid

•  Reminiscent of happy memories

•  The feeling of greatness and gratitude when you reach a goal

•  Use your sense of smell and taste. The smell of freshly baked bread and walking past a coffee shop, the aromas recall happy memories. The use of essential oils like Lavender has a calming effect as well.

Foods to Eat

• Eggs

• Milk

• Tofu

• Nuts

• Turkey

• Spinach

• Pineapples

• Salmon

• Seeds

3. Oxytocin

The Love Hormone

Benefits for the Body

Well known, as the hormone that promotes warm fuzzy feelings of love, and makes social bonding and well-being possible. It all happens when you touch and cuddle a loved one.

Activity that enhances the release of Oxytocin

• Share something with somebody, from a kiss to a memory.

• Practise an activity that gives excitement, for instance, a computer game, a roller coaster ride or bungee jumping

• Get socially involved and focus on others

• Soak and relax in a bubble bath

• The excitement of giving someone a gift

• Become a visual listener, use pictures to learn something

• Stroke and cuddle your pet

Foods to Eat

• Green tea

• Spinach

• Avocado

• Watermelon

  

• Figs

4. Endorphins

It is similar in structure to the drug morphine. Concentrating in the specific area in the brain alleviates pain, and give the feeling of euphoria, all-natural.

The Benefits for the Body

• Helps you deal with the pain

•  Reduce anxiety and stress

•  Helps with weight control

•  Boost confidence and self-esteem

•  Helps to keep depression in check

•  Give the Feel-Good feeling

Activities to enhance the release of Endorphins

•  Do Cardiovascular and aerobic exercise, get the heartbeat up and sweat a little. Take a bike ride or run in nature. Walk in the sand on the beach.

•  Drink wine, in particular dry red wine.

•  Make love

•  Laugh a lot

•  Give each other an essential oil massage

•  Practice Yoga or Meditate

Foods to Eat

•  Eat spicy foods

•  Chocolates and Strawberries

• Animal meats, eggs and dairy

• Ginseng

•  Seeds and nuts

•  Fruit like grapes and oranges

Hormones with a Bad Reputation

The Bad Boys

There are no bad hormones. Every one of them has a function in your body.

Hormones that have negative Affects

1.  Cortisol

2.  Adrenaline

3.  Norepinephrine, also called noradrenaline

Human behaviour

Isolation is the biggest factor to triggers these hormones. Being negative, unhappy and stressed can have the effect that people will avoid being with you.

They do not avoid you, as a person, they still love you, but it is your behaviour that scares them away.

The risk of obesity, inflammation and high blood pressure can be caused by social isolation.

1. Cortisol

Known as the Stress Hormone

The security system of the body sends out stress signals if something is out of balance. It is wise to recognise the signs. If you do not give attention, it will create havoc in the body and make you sick.

Find the problem, solve it and all will be peaceful again. In other words, don’t ignore and blame. As an example, I have a cardiac problem, I know part of it was an emotional problem that caused it. I realized it and rectify it, all is now well again.

Benefits for the Body

• It plays a beneficiary role if in normal status

• Regulates your sleeping patterns

• Help to keep inflammation in check

• Boosts your energy levels

• Restore the body to normal after stressful situations

• Regulates blood pressure and blood sugar levels

Activities for Cortisol

• Meditate or practice Yoga

• Regular aerobic exercises

• Listen to music or play an instrument

• Practice a hobby

• Eat less sugar when obese

2. Adrenaline

The warning system of the body.

Benefits for the Body

• Enlarge the pupils of your eyes

• Increase your heart rate, normal heart rate is around 70 to 75 beats per minute

• Relaxing your air passages for easier breathing

• Change in the rate of your metabolism

• Directing more blood to your muscles

Activities for Adrenaline

• Deep breathing exercises with slow movements

• Meditating to calm the mind

• Eat a balanced diet, concentrating on foods for hormones

• Have a bedtime schedule

• Limit alcohol

• Avoid processed foods, foods in a tin, caffeine and sugar

4. Norepinephrine

This is the hormone that causes mood swings from feeling happy the one moment to having panic attacks next. Making you excited, impulsive, lower inhibitions and in the process make bad choices. Alcohol can enhance the situation.

Many people suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), so here is the culprit.

Treat with great care.

Benefits for the Body

• This is the alert system of the body

• It increases alertness and arousal

• Helps with focus and attention when normal

• Builds memory and helps to retrieve it

Activities for Norepinephrine

• Meditation or Yoga

• Calming music.

• Reaching small goals.

• Regular sleep pattern

• Daily exercise

• Eating dopamine rich foods such as dark chocolate, even licking body paint will do.

Conclusion

In conclusion my dear, a happy relationship is dependent on good health. Eat a healthy diet. Listen to your body, it gives you signals all the time.

Pay attention, learn to recognize them and act immediately. If you look closely you will see a golden thread of similarities weaved through them all. Find it and live by it.

Know what is best for you, your body, and your mind. Your Health and Relationships affect your emotions and moods.

Treat them both with the necessary respect and you will have a wonderful balanced happy content life.

Until the next time, take care, my dear.

Moms