Too right I'm hormonal. Keep up!

The term 'languishing' has been everywhere, since Adam Grant coined it to describe exactly what we were experiencing as the pandemic dragged on, and our energy and enthusiasm for life was running as a solid 3/10 most days. Even for those of us who were enjoying work with equal measure of challenge, spending more time with family because of less travel, there has been an undertone of 'meh' accompanying our days, as we get up and walk the four feet to our home office and stare at the same horizon, and the same zoom screen for another day, and manage the constant presence of anxiety about the whole bloody Covid situation.

Which makes the days when you don't feel like this worth tuning into. You know, the days when you wake up and you feel like you can conquer the world, or at least you to-do list, you decide that you might take up a new hobby and you clean out four kitchen cupboards whilst the kettle boils. You find your kids funny and adorable and you jump into your trainers for a jog that you've been putting off for days. And for me, when I really tune into the fact that those days are happening, that I feel like the best version of myself, with an extra battery in, and I bother to think about where I am in my cycle, I'm never too surprised to find it's around the middle. That's because despite the fact that the term hormonal has been reserved exclusively for women to describe how they may choose to express their emotions in the days before their period, we are all hormonal, all the time. Hormones are the very things that help our body tick along each day, smile and sleep, be motivated or mellow, develop and grow. Hormones are amazing! As women, we are lucky enough to have one of the hormone stars, oestrogen, bathing us in it's goodness each month, as an important hormone of our menstrual cycle. But far from just being responsible for helping our reproductive system function, we have receptors for oestrogen all over our body, in our muscles, our gut, our bones and our brains, and when that bad-ass beauty is on the up, we feel that way too (*caveat, except when she gets carried away and goes too 'up', that doesn't always feel great, particularly when she comes crashing down again. AKA perimenopause).

Tuning in to the rhythms of our hormones helps us understand our body better, and when it's on our side for getting sh*t done, including all the healthy stuff we want to include in our life like movement and exercise. So I loved reading this article in the New York Post today, which explained research that has been exploring the role oestrogen plays in the brain, and how it influences our desire to be active.

The research has been done in mice, so we are yet to see whether these findings translate to humans, but this n of one has a hunch that there's something similar that will show up in our species. Research already exists showing that women tend to be more motivated to train around ovulation (when oestrogen has peaked), are more social, feel more energised - so this animal research might start to reveal what's happening in our brains to cause those behaviours and perceptions.

The research showed that surges in oestrogen jump-started the process in mouse brains that prompted the animals to be more active. Mice who had oestrogen production blocked, became more sedentary than the other mice. Oestrogen was clearly linked to the urge to get up and go.

The researchers found that when bathed in oestrogen, a gene in the animals brain pumped out extra protein, but became quiet when oestrogen was absent. This gene (melanocortin-4 or Mc4r), has previously been a gene linked with food intake, but based on these new findings, if thought to be involved in the impulse to move and be physically active.

High tech gene mapping showed that oestrogen binds to the Mc4r genes in certain neurons in the brain that are involved in energy expenditure, and those neurons are connected to others which control the speed of movement. Simply put oestrogen influences the parts of the brain that control how much and how fast we move!

In mice without oestrogen, when the researchers activated the Mc4r genes artificially, the mice started exploring, standing, playing and running - so much so that they were twice as active as when these genes were silent.

As well as helping us to understand more about the influence of our menstrual cycle hormones beyond their role in helping us reproduce, this research also helps us become more curious about physical activity and the menopause, when natural oestrogen in women drops to near nothing-ness. What impact might that have on our desire to be active, and our physical activity behaviours? And is there anything we can do to ensure women have what they need to sustain a relationship with exercise, that so greatly benefits their health and happiness, after midlife?

So, when someone next calls you hormonal, take it as a compliment - the oestrogen that your cycle brings you each month is giving you some pretty powerful moves!