How Hormones Affect your Immune System

Do Hormones Affect your Immune System?

Hormones do affect your immune system and they affect it either good or bad. If your hormones are unbalanced or you have a lower level of certain hormones, it affects the strength of your immune system.

Likewise, if you are overall healthy and your hormone levels are stable then your immune system will be stronger. There are many things you can do to strengthen your immune system like eating healthy, exercising, and increasing the hours you sleep, but not many think about their hormones affecting their immune system and that by balancing their hormone levels, you can strengthen your body’s natural defense system.

What Exactly is our Immune System?

The immune system is a complex network of cells and proteins that defends the body against infection. It is what helps keep you from becoming ill, or if you do become ill it helps to fight the disease and get you feeling better again.

How Specifically do Hormones Affect your Immune System?

For starters, hormones are chemical messengers produced by your body that regulate many jobs, from your mood and your energy level to your blood pressure, appetite, sex drive, physical performance, and your immune system. Thus, hormones control how you feel and function.

The hormones that affect your immune system the most are estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. As we age, these hormone levels drop and it creates an imbalance in our bodies which cause multiple things to occur like weight gain, fatigue, low libido, mood swings, and more, and yes, a weakened immune system, and this occurs mostly due to menopause in women and low testosterone levels in men. Hence why as we get older, our health tends to worsen as well.

Hormones affect your immune system by weakening it and making it easier to become ill, and harder for your immune system to help you fight off diseases when you do become sick. Also, in some cases, hormones can cause an immune system to overreact, meaning that your immune system can overwork and accidentally attack itself, making you sick.

How can I improve my Immune System?

As mentioned, there are ways to strengthen your immune system by eating a well-balanced diet, exercising, getting at least eight hours of sleep every night, and checking your hormones. Not solely for women and men as they age, because an imbalance of hormones can occur at any age, but lower hormone levels mostly occur as we are older. Thus, hormone replacement therapy which is the process of replacing the hormones we lose in our bodies due to aging will strengthen your immune system, making it harder for you to get sick and easier for your body to defend you

when you do. It is essential, especially as you age because your health deteriorates as you get older and by doing everything you can such as eating healthier, staying active, and doing hormonal therapy, you can keep your body and immune system in the best shape to continue having a healthy and long life.