Its onset probably has to do with significant changes in the neuroendocrine (brain-hormone) system leading up to and occurring just after birth.
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At a certain sustained heart rate, he says, the brain releases a growth hormone that repairs and stimulates cerebral health.
Although they often get demonized, fats play an important role in our hormone levels and brain function.
The stress hormone cortisol shrinks the brain's memory centers and can hamper one's ability to learn and recall.
Flame retardants, which are found in textiles, computer casings, sofa foam and other household items, have been shown to interfere with thyroid hormone, essential for healthy brain development.
Many flame retardants raise health concerns, including cancer, hormone disruption, and harmful effects on brain development.
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Melatonin is a hormone produced in a gland in the brain, and helps maintain the natural cycle of sleep and wake.
Part of this masculinisation process affects the brain, and even quite small superfluous doses of the hormone can have effects on developing female brains.
Growth hormone is a naturally occurring substance secreted by the brain that helps guide growth in childhood and maintain muscle mass during adulthood.
Yawning can be triggered by the hormone oxytocin which is released in the brain during empathetic actions like touching, kissing or cooperating, and which triggers a release of dopamine, a feel-good neurochemical.
Melatonin products are usually synthetic versions of the hormone made naturally by the pineal gland, in the brain, which helps regulate the body's sleep-wake cycle.
At least for young girls, talking on the phone with their mothers reduces a key stress hormone and also releases oxytocin, a feel-good brain chemical that is believed to play a key role in forming bonds, the study found.
They work by inhibiting prostaglandin, a hormone-like substance that plays a part in signalling pain to the brain.
"When you irradiate a young child's brain, say less than 5 years old, you hit the pituitary gland, which controls growth hormone production, " he said.
Sharing a bed may also reduce cytokines, involved in inflammation, and boost oxytocin, the so-called love hormone that is known to ease anxiety and is produced in the same part of the brain responsible for the sleep-wake cycle.
The hypothalamus reacts to ghrelin, a hormone excreted by an empty stomach, by releasing appetite-stimulating neurotransmitters into other parts of the brain.
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