Why are we the way we are and what does this have to do with our hormone system?
Oxytocin lets the feelings of others into my heart
During pregnancy and the first six weeks of life, the landscape of empathy develops. First in our lives, our attention messenger, the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, is on the move and builds pathways into the landscape of attention in our brain. If we experience a lot of empathy during this time, our oxytocin levels are well adjusted. This continues to nourish the areas of empathy in our lives under the blanket of safety. Oxytocin is the confidence-building hormone for love, for sex, for interpersonal willingness to take risks and cooperate, for a sense of fairness and fidelity in a partnership as well as for morality and nobility.
With enough serotonin, I can overcome any challenge
In the first year of life, serotonin levels are adjusted through the experience of belonging. If the serotonin level corresponds to the target value, it nourishes the area of contentment under the blanket of security on a daily basis. The serotonin level is our mood enhancer and gives us freedom from anxiety, emotional balance, serenity, inner peace, calm and contentment. Among other things, serotonin is also involved in our appetite and eating behavior, the feeling of satiety. A well-functioning serotonin system transmits the message that we are full, relaxed, internally balanced, calm and satisfied. At the same time, it dampens a whole range of different emotional states such as aggression, hunger, anxiety, sorrow and worry, depression and dejection. This is why serotonin was once described by a neurobiologist as “the neurotransmitter that civilizes us”, because it allows us to participate in the world with satisfaction. “Our emotional life is like a concerto”, says Solomon Snyder from John Hopkins University, “and serotonin is the conductor that everyone follows”. It ensures from the outset that we can react more calmly to everything. For example, a few messenger substances tell us when our stomach is full. Serotonin tells us when we are full and satisfied. A few other neurotransmitters help us to perceive the water level in the proverbial glass of water. Serotonin tells us whether it is “half full” or “half empty”. It tells your brain and therefore you: you are full, relaxed, balanced, calm and content.
Dopamine leads to a good life
In the second and third year of life, dopamine levels are adjusted through cooperation with the child and learning to feel helpful. It ensures that we want, desire, joyful expectations of beautiful circumstances in our imagination, motivation, drive, attention, interest, range, pleasure, joy, enthusiasm and feelings of happiness. Without enough dopamine, we do nothing, absolutely nothing, not a handshake and not a finger lifted. Too little dopamine means a lack of joy, drive, pleasure and interest. Dopamine is the key neurotransmitter for obtaining all kinds of rewards and “happiness snacks”.
Noradrenaline provides the tingling sensation in life
In the fourth and fifth year of life, noradrenaline levels are adjusted with the experience of self-efficacy and the development of gender roles. Noradrenaline nourishes the area of responsibility on a daily basis through experiences of self-efficacy in our blanket of security. Norepinephrine excites, activates, makes us alert and responsive, and we are more attentive, motivated and willing to perform.
If our security is well nourished on a daily basis, we love to drive fast, fly and are not afraid of getting stuck in an elevator. Fears are well concealed. But they are always there, like the stars in the sky in broad daylight. We just don't see them and feel good with well-fed security.
I take 4ME Complex because bad times also need a lot of energy
Bad times cause stress and cause a lot of confusion in the body. The care team in the body is so busy tidying and cleaning that important renewals and repairs in the cells are only carried out in a makeshift manner.
If the stressed state lasts too long, the cells are heated up so that they are well supplied with energy. At the same time, the body provides a rescue team, like at a tent party, in case something happens. It is the natural killer cells, the main immune defense in our body, that act as a rescue team to guard the special energy supply in the cells. The secret service also steps up to expose any saboteurs who see an opportunity to infiltrate under stress. This secret service consists mainly of thymus epithelial cells, our autoimmune system, which can recognize and kill cells infected by viruses.
If the stress continues, the emergency crews will clearly buckle and only a few will be able to do their job. In the secret service, too, only a minimum number of emergency personnel are able to carry out their work. The heat in the cells is also increasing and the body's own fire-fighting team is deployed to keep the fires in check. Cortisol is used to extinguish them. If the stress continues, the cortisol runs out and inflammation begins to break out. Initially as gradual inflammation in the blood vessels.
Due to the constant stress on the sympathetic nervous system, which is activated in bad times, small inflammations in the cells lead to neck pain, back pain and slipped discs.
Due to the inadequate rescue team, it can happen that cell divisions that have gone wrong can no longer be transported away properly. The secret service begins to err and allergies and autoimmune diseases can occur.
Due to the lack of transport of basic substances for the production of happiness hormones, the mood collapses, anxiety and panic become loud and cardiovascular diseases can develop as a physical reaction to the overload.
It all depends on the interaction.
4ME Complex provides everything that happiness hormones need.
With the increasing activation of the happiness hormones, we once again have the energy to ensure that not so much waste is produced in the body. This is achieved through an anti-inflammatory diet.
As the happiness hormones become more active, we start to move well again and moving muscles are real hormone pumps that make good feelings possible. This in turn strengthens our mental resilience and makes us mentally stable.
As our happiness hormones become more active, our psychodynamic mental competence increases. We can once again engage in relationships with others, are motivated again and can achieve goals together with others. We can once again respect our own performance and recognize the abilities of others. Respect for experts is also easier again. In short, we can laugh heartily again, live well, perform enthusiastically and love with relish.
Erik and the happiness hormones
Erik's happiness cannot develop so well. He cannot be breastfed and he drinks from a bottle with a large opening. The milk that nourishes him flows into him in a powerful stream from the bottle. He doesn't really have to suck hard, the fullness signal is there, he is lifted up and burps. His sensations are not as rich as Lilli's sensations, whose mother was able to breastfeed her. He can never experience the many different emotional sounds of tenderness, the beguiling scent of the amniotic fluid in his mother's milk, the comfort and pleasure of his mother when he drinks his bottle. His emotional melody knows only a few variations, little variety, and so no differentiated patterns of contentment can form in his brain.
It is also said that breastfed children are more intelligent than non-breastfed children. However, this is only the case because children suck harder at the breast and have to make more of an effort to get their food. The breast has many tiny openings from which the milk comes. It flows slowly into the baby's mouth, and just as slowly, different sensations of wanting and being full spread through the brain. With all the moods that a mother experiences while breastfeeding, she imprints patterns in the sucking child. If the teats on baby bottles also had tiny openings, there would be the same opportunity to learn the many different nuances of wanting and being satisfied that promote the development of intelligence. This has nothing to do with breast milk.
Erik rarely has the chance to experience his mother calmly. She often wedges the bottle between the cushion and Erik's mouth in the baby carriage so that he can drink while she rushes to the bus with the baby carriage. He often falls asleep while sucking on his bottle and his mother thinks he is slumbering away contentedly. In reality, however, the world doesn't really offer him much. A cushion, then a gush of milk, hectic swallowing, physical satiety. It's not very stimulating for him. So he closes his eyes and dozes off.