• Question: What happens when you have too many hormones?

    Asked by sampalmer16 to Elaine, Heather, Keith on 27 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Heather Eyre

      Heather Eyre answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      It really depends on which hormone you have too much of!

      If a man has to much oestrogen he might get gynecomastia or man boobs! If a woman has to much testosterone she may get facial hair. but both situations can cause infertility.

      Too much thyroxine can cause palpitations (that’s when you can feel your heart racing), nervousness and weight loss.

    • Photo: Keith Siew

      Keith Siew answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      Funny little factoid about gynecomastia that Heather mentioned was told to me by my old lecturer in pharmacology… Alcohol cause gynecomastia!

      In males… excessive alcohol consumption can trigger a lot of different enzyme activity… and as a side effect of trying to process the alcohol… you end up converting testosterone to oestrogen and inducing gynecomastia… and there have even been documented cases of functional breast development… i.e lactation!

      But to answer you question yes! Too much of anything can be a bad thing! Excess growth hormone can lead to giantism and deformations, an overdose of insulin can cause very dangerous drops in blood sugar levels and induce a coma, excess cortisol and adrenaline chronically due to stress can suppress your immune system and put strain on other organ systems!

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