Hormones

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss some of the chemical signals coursing through our bodies throughout our lives, produced in separate areas and spreading via the bloodstream. We call these 'hormones' and we produce more than 80 of them of which the best known are arguably oestrogen, testosterone, adrenalin, insulin and cortisol. On the whole hormones operate without us being immediately conscious of them as their goal is homeostasis, maintaining the levels of everything in the body as required without us having to think about them first. Their actions are vital for our health and wellbeing and influence many different aspects of the way our bodies work.

With

Sadaf Farooqi Professor of Metabolism and Medicine at the University of Cambridge

Rebecca Reynolds Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Edinburgh

And

Andrew Bicknell Associate Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading

Produced by Victoria Brignell

Reading list:

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (first published 1962; Penguin Classics, 2000)

Stephen Nussey and Saffron Whitehead, Endocrinology: An Integrated Approach (BIOS Scientific Publishers; 2001)

Aylinr Y. Yilmaz, Comprehensive Introduction to Endocrinology for Novices (Independently published, 2023)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:05.0	This is in our time from BBC Radio 4,
0:07.5	and this is one of more than a thousand episodes
0:10.1	you can find on BBC Sounds and on our website.
0:13.0	If you scroll down the page for this edition,
0:15.0	you can find a reading list to go with it.
0:17.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:19.0	Hello, at any moment of the day,
0:22.0	throughout our lives, our bodies are producing chemical
0:24.8	signals that are sent to other parts of the body. We call these chemicals
0:28.8	hormones and we produce more than 80 of them, of which the best known are arguably estrogen, testosterone,
0:35.8	adrenaline, insulin and cortisol.
0:38.9	On the whole, we don't notice hormones as their goal is homeostasis, keeping the levels of everything in the body
0:45.0	as they are meant to be. But their actions are vital for our health and well-being
0:49.7	and influence many different aspects of the way our bodies work.
0:53.2	With me to discuss hormones are Andrew Bicknell, associate professor in the School of Biological
0:58.8	Sciences at the University of Reading.
1:01.5	Rebecca Reynolds, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Redding, Rebecca Reynolds, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the
1:04.7	University of Edinburgh, and Sadat Paruki, Professor of Metabolism and Medicine
1:09.3	at the University of Cambridge. So, Daph now what are hormones? So hormones are effectively proteins
1:16.2	which are made by one particular gland in the body and then circulate in the
1:20.3	bloodstream to go and act at another different site.
	...

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