Hormones are so interlinked with the body that they interact with practically every one of its systems. This includes your cardiovascular system, which simultaneously produces and receives hormones from your body.
So when your hormones are out of balance, or they’re not being produced correctly, you can imagine they might start running amok. That could cause serious damage to your heart.
And in this article, I’ll explain what you can do about it.
Article overview
- Hormones form a complex chemical network that is distributed via your bloodstream throughout your entire body, affecting countless metabolic and physiological functions.
- Hormones aren’t only critically linked to overall health but also influence it proactively by helping the body prepare for challenges and compensate for them when they arise.
- Your heart, a producer of hormones itself, both influences the body through the production of hormones and can also potentially suffer from hormone imbalances.
A quick overview of human hormones
Your endocrine system is a network of glands and tissues that produce the chemical messengers called hormones. These help control and coordinate various physiological processes throughout the body, like your metabolism and sleep-wake cycle.
Unlike nerves, which use chemical impulses to trigger certain actions, hormones are distributed through your blood. Changes aren’t fast-acting and immediate like they are with your nerves and electrical impulses. Instead, hormones produce slower, longer-lasting effects that maintain the body’s homeostasis, or balance.
There are over 50 different hormones in the human body that influence countless functions to maintain this homeostasis. It affects body systems like the:
- Integumentary
- Skeletal
- Muscular
- Nervous
- Lymphatic
- Respiratory
- Digestive
- Urinary
- Reproductive
They can also affect your cardiovascular system in a number of ways, as you’ll see below.
How hormones affect heart health
Your heart isn’t just a passive recipient of the actions of hormones, because it technically produces hormones of its own. It’s as much a part of your endocrine system as it is your cardiovascular system.
Hormones influence your heart in the following ways:
Heart rate
Hormones released by the adrenal glands, like adrenaline (epinephrine) and noradrenaline (norepinephrine), are released during periods of high physiologic demand, including when your fight-or-flight response is activated. These hormones can increase your heart rate, as well as increase the force of each cardiac contraction.
Cortisol, also known as the stress hormone, can modulate your resting heart rate, fluid balance, and nervous system activity. When you’re experiencing extended stress, the elevated level of cortisol in your bloodstream can increase your blood pressure and place strain on your heart.
Blood vessel function
Healthy blood vessels are a gift, and hormones factor heavily into their longevity.
This includes the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System (RAAS) which is the most important hormonal pathway for the tone and health of your blood vessels. It can cause vessels to constrict and your body to retain water, both of which can elevate blood pressure.
Estrogen and progesterone can also influence vascular tone and blood volume, and studies suggest they play a role in blood clotting. Even unbalanced testosterone can potentially lead to atherosclerosis. This places greater pumping demands on your heart, which can lead to high blood pressure and, over time, potentially a heart attack.
Electrical signals that control heart rhythm
Hormones affect a part of the heart known as the sinoatrial node, which is a small structure located within the heart that generates electrical impulses. This serves as the heart’s natural pacemaker, altering the rate at which it signals the heart to pump depending on the demands being placed on your body. It paces your heart at approximately 60 to 100 beats per minute at rest.
Electrical signals aren’t the only thing that can affect your heart rate, however. Hormones can also influence the autonomic nervous system, which is what regulates involuntary body functions. This includes your heart and respiratory rates, digestion, salivation, perspiration, and pupillary responses.
What changes your heart health hormones?
With so much riding on proper hormone function, what can cause them to fire incorrectly? Or more concerningly, affect your heart health?
There are several things that may interfere with normal production
- Stress: Prolonged stress can impair your body’s ability to conduct a proper immune response, affecting everything from digestion to sleep. This can also eventually lead to heart disease.
- Processed food: A steady diet of highly processed, high-sugar foods can potentially destabilize the body’s endocrine systems. This can eventually inhibit proper heart function.
- Endocrine disruptors: Also known as Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs), substances like PBA, PCB, and phthalates can disrupt the functioning of normal hormones. Some can even mimic certain hormones, fooling your body into action or disrupting normal endocrine function. They can contribute to metabolic disorders that, in turn, contribute to heart disease and strokes.
- Sex differences: In men, excess levels of testosterone can potentially lead to heart problems. Female hormones, especially estrogen, play a major role in protecting the heart and blood vessels throughout a woman’s life. Studies hypothesize this may keep women’s cardiovascular risk lower than men’s up to the age of 65. However, hormonal birth control may counteract this as most contain high levels of estrogen and progestin, which can be associated with up to double the chance of heart attacks or strokes.
Decreasing your risk for heart disease at any age
You likely already know the basics of protecting your heart. These standards apply whether or not you’re experiencing hormonal fluctuations.
If you’ve followed me for some time, you know my advice:
- Eat whole, real food
- Stay active and lift weights
- Get enough sleep and reduce stress
You might be surprised how much these four activities can help balance your hormones, even just from a lifestyle perspective.
That said, there are a few other things you may wish to explore for hormone optimization:
- Avoid tobacco and alcohol. Both are endocrine disruptors that interfere directly with hormone production and metabolism
- Get more sunlight. UVB exposure helps more than it harms by triggering vitamin D synthesis in the skin, which directly affects testosterone and estrogen production.
- Minimize exposure to endocrine disruptors. Audit your skincare and household products for chemicals like phthalates, parabens, BPA, and certain pesticides.
- Consider magnesium and zinc. Both are critical cofactors in hormone production and are chronically depleted in the standard American diet.
Worried that your hormones are already out of balance, or negatively affecting your health?
Find out for yourself with my free metabolic syndrome quiz.