Can Happiness Be Linked To Our Hormones?
By Dr Michelle Reiss, GP & Lifestyle Medicine Physician
The deep question philosophers and scientists have tried to fathom for centuries is “What is the meaning of life?”, or maybe more accurately, “What gives life meaning?”.
The documented answers are always very deep and philosophical, but essentially the fundamental bottom line always appears to come back to happiness, contentedness and purpose.
Purpose can guide our life decisions, influence the way we think and behave, and offer a sense of direction.
Happiness is more than just a positive mood, it is a state of well-being that encompasses living a good life, one with a sense of meaning and deep contentment where the positive emotions overrule the negative.
Maybe a more tangible question for our day to day lives is: “Does happiness and meaning come passively or actively?”. What I mean by this is… Is happiness something that we all have to work at continuously, or do we expect it to just happen?
In a recent study by psychologists at UC Davis and cited in Harvard Health Publishing, researchers had 3 groups of volunteers keep weekly journals focused on a single, focussed topic. One group wrote about daily irritations or things that had displeased them, the second group wrote about events that had affected them (with no emphasis on them being positive or negative) and the third group wrote about things they were grateful for that occurred during the week.
After 10 weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. Surprisingly, they also exercised more, felt more motivated, and had fewer physical symptoms such as fatigue and headaches with fewer visits to physicians than those who focused on sources of aggravation.
So, if actively practising gratitude can grow a sense of wellbeing, both emotionally and physically, how much control can we have on things that give our lives meaning?
As a medical doctor I like evidence-based practice, and when it comes to emotions it is often very difficult to define where evidence and objectivity becomes blurred with subjectivity. My hope with this article is that I can bring the medical evidence together with subjectivity to encourage active participation in the things that add meaning, value and happiness in our lives.
When we say “hormones”, most people think puberty and menopause. However, there are many hormones that control most bodily functions. These little chemical structures are essentially the control centres of life and travel within our blood and tissues.
We also have “neurotransmitters”, other little chemicals, that travel between our nerves. Some chemicals, such as Oxytocin, are both a hormone and a neurotransmitter.
When it comes to happiness, love and wellbeing, there are effectively 4 major neurotransmitter/ hormones that play very important roles in regulating these emotions: Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins. You might have heard of some if not all of them, but I’d like to explain their significance using the following table.
The neurological evidence is strong that the levels of these 4 neurotransmitters play a very significant role in our mood, contentedness and positivity. And the best news is that we are able to exercise control (pun intended) over their concentration levels and therefore our own feelings of wellbeing. Aptly enough, these hormones actually spell the acronym D.O.S.E.!
Realising that we are fully capable of living lives of meaning through our choices is incredibly empowering. Whether they are choices around lifestyle habits; choices in hobbies or volunteering; whether we smile or not; whether we choose to wallow in pity parties or take ownership; or if we choose to simply just sit in nature, the concentration levels of our Happy Hormones can be manipulated by ourselves.
Maybe I can encourage you to put this evidence to the test? We’re at the start of 2021, the impactful year of 2020 is behind us, kids are back at school and with autumn comes a sense of slowing down and hopefully reflection. One of the following examples may appeal to you to fuel your neurotransmitters:
Taking a Nature walk - this will increase Oxytocin, Dopamine and Serotonin: Participants in a study who went on a regular 90-min walk through a natural environment reported lower levels of rumination and showed reduced neural activity in an area of the brain linked to risk for mental illness, compared with those who walked through an urban environment. These results suggest that accessible natural areas may be vital for mental health in our rapidly urbanizing world.
Volunteering - will increase Oxytocin and Dopamine: One of the main ways you can care for yourself is to care for others... sounds counter-intuitive! There are many studies and papers that highlight the benefits of volunteering such as reduced depression, increased sense of purpose, staying physically and mentally active, reduced stress and increased longevity. Of course, you need to approach your volunteering with a smile and a good attitude.
Smile - will increase Oxytocin and Serotonin: One study examined a group of city bus drivers and found that employees who put on a fake smile for the job were in a worse mood by the end of the day compared to those drivers who genuinely smiled as a result of positive thoughts. So, when you smile, make sure to smile like you mean it!
Workout - will increase all 4 DOSE hormones: Exercise is proven to increase feel-good chemicals in the brain, reduce stress hormones, and relieve depression and anxiety. It is worth putting the effort into exercise, and any lifestyle choice for that matter, to reap the neurological and emotional benefits. Interestingly, you can achieve these positive changes in just a few short minutes. Researchers at the University of Vermont found that even just 20 minutes of exercise can give you those mood-boosting benefits for up to 12 hours afterward! Moreover, people who are active are happier and more satisfied with their lives.
Mastering a skill - will fuel Dopamine and Oxytocin: Working to improve a skill or learning a new one such as learning to drive, taking up pottery, learning to play the piano too when your kids go to music lessons, may cause some stress in the short term, but makes people feel happy and more content with their lives in the long run, a 2009 study reported.
These are just a few examples to show that taking an active approach in the way you choose to live, can have remarkable outcomes on the chemicals inside you that you are never cognisant of. Those little D.O.S.E. chemicals can be controlled by ourselves. Possibly, by being mindfully engaged in our choices, we are able to be the masters of the things that give our lives meaning and purpose.
www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/in-praise-of-gratitude
Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation
Volunteering may be good for body and mind; JUNE 26, 2013, Harvard Health Publishing.
Mayo Clinic Health Systems
Volunteering and health benefits in general adults: cumulative effects and forms. Jerf W. K. Yeung, 2017
Positive psychology interventions: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies