Dr. Louise Newson

They're not gender hormones.

They are hormones that are made in our ovaries, of course, because they can help regulate periods and help with, you know, the levels change when we become pregnant.

but they're made in our adrenal glands and they're made in our brain as well.

And, you know, they have really crucial effects throughout our body.

And if anyone has read your new book, especially Liz, they will know more and more about mitochondrial function, about oxidative stress.

about inflammation and so the role of these hormones are really crucial when we're thinking about longevity and reducing inflammation in our body we have receptors on like i say every cell but our immune cells that help fight infection but help reduce inflammation in our body and our macrophages which many people might know is my favorite cell is that these are like our bodyguard really they're

They're a bit like Pac-Man.

They can gobble up any germs and bugs that we don't want in our body.

But they also wear a suit of armor, really.

So they protect us from anything.

We want them to work really well.

And they produce cytokines, these little chemicals that will damage anything, you know, any infections or germs.

And they'll also repair or gobble up really damaged tissue because any damaged tissue can work against us as well.

But if we have hormones present, those three hormones present, the macrophages work really well.

If we don't have them, the macrophages don't just not work so well, they can work against us and can become pro-inflammatory, so they can increase inflammation.

They can produce different cytokines, so chemicals that can damage our tissues and increase inflammation.

And the same with our mitochondria.

As you know, mitochondria are the powerhouse of our cells.

They produce the energy that we need for all these lovely chemical reactions that are occurring all the time in our cells to keep us healthy.

And we have receptors for progesterone, estrogen, testosterone on our mitochondria.