Vivienne Parry

The truth about Hormones

Some adult education colleges offer women's health courses, and if a man should accidentally turn up at one he would probably be rather embarrased. I sometimes had a feeling of this sort while reading this book, since its a book written by a woman and is clearly aimed at women readers. However, further on I felt the book progressed towards its main subject, that is sorting out some of the myths about hormones and treatments based on them. Some, such as HRT are well researched, others such as slimming or anti-aging treatments are less so. Anyone who is contemplating such a treatment or is worried about the effects of hormones in the environment would do well to read this book.

The first chapter is entitled 'A bluffer's guide to hormones', and is there to introduce the reader to the subject. However, I felt that this was unnecessary - the book doesn't go that deeply into the science of hormones, and introducing new words in the first chapter gives no benefit over introducing them when the need arises.

I have to say that I found the last few chapters of the book the most interesting, as they moved away from sex and reproduction, and on to the involvement of hormones in biological clocks, appetite and ageing. I'll probably follow up some of the references for these chapters - always a good sign.

Amazon.com info

Paperback 224 pages
ISBN: 1843544288
Salesrank: 1796854
Weight:1.01 lbs

Published: 2005 Atlantic Books

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Amazon.co.uk info

Paperback 224 pages
ISBN: 1843544288
Salesrank: 205950
Weight:1.01 lbs

Published: 2005 Atlantic Books

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Amazon.ca info

Paperback 224 pages
ISBN: 1843544288
Salesrank: 1000948
Weight:1.01 lbs

Published: 2005 Atlantic Books

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Synopsis
What's going on when we're tetchy, spotty, fearful, tearful or just plain awful? Hormones rule our internal world: they control our growth, our metabolism, weight, water balance, body clocks, fertility, muscle tone, mood, the speed of ageing, whether you want sex or not (and whether you enjoy it) and even who we fall in love with. Their effects may occur in seconds and be over in a flash, or take months and last for thirty years. While we can name some hormones we rarely know what they actually do. But that doesn't stop us claiming that 'it's my hormones' whenever our behaviour seems erratic. As it happens, we're right. It is our hormones. And yes, we are completely in the thrall of things we know nothing about. In The Truth About Hormones Vivienne Parry explains how, exactly, these mysteriously powerful things affect us. The Truth About Hormones is also a treasure trove of fascinating stories. For example: Were Brad Pitt a true Trojan, he would have practised the first known instance of hormone replacement therapy, by eating the glands of his dead conquests. It's a fact that growth hormone that is released mainly at night. Cut back on sleep and your growth can be stunted. The hormones used for infertility treatment are still manufactured using nun's urine, collected daily from the Vatican City.

Synopsis

What's going on when we're tetchy, spotty, fearful, tearful or just plain awful? Hormones rule our internal world: they control our growth, our metabolism, weight, water balance, body clocks, fertility, muscle tone, mood, the speed of ageing, whether you want sex or not (and whether you enjoy it) and even who we fall in love with. Their effects may occur in seconds and be over in a flash, or take months and last for thirty years. While we can name some hormones we rarely know what they actually do. But that doesn't stop us claiming that 'it's my hormones' whenever our behaviour seems erratic. As it happens, we're right. It is our hormones. And yes, we are completely in the thrall of things we know nothing about. In The Truth About Hormones Vivienne Parry explains how, exactly, these mysteriously powerful things affect us. The Truth About Hormones is also a treasure trove of fascinating stories. For example: Were Brad Pitt a true Trojan, he would have practised the first known instance of hormone replacement therapy, by eating the glands of his dead conquests. It's a fact that growth hormone that is released mainly at night. Cut back on sleep and your growth can be stunted.

The hormones used for infertility treatment are still manufactured using nun's urine, collected daily from the Vatican City.

3.5 Stars for a Not Exhaustive, But Still Kaleidoscopic View in a Humorous Setting ****
I read the paperback edition of the original publishing year of 2005. It is written by a British science commentator/editor for various newspapers/magazines and a presenter of a BBC science program. For one thing, this means that this book is written in British English, which is fine, unless when it comes to measurements. I simply had no idea what it meant, when she wrote about a 10-year-old girl weighing 13.5 stones and a 2-year-old boy weighing 5 stones. Until I transcalculated that into 189 lbs (85.7 kg) and 70 lbs (31.8 kg) respectively. All due to the power of hormones (in these specific cases). The other issue I initially had was that I had my doubts about the non-professional writing about such a specific topic. But I do not regret having read the book. It has been criticized of not really explaining how the hormones make us tick the way we do (as in biochemistry), describing the resulting effects only. So you should know that beforehand. Of course, this meant also that the book is written in a highly entertaining fashion. Which I appreciated very much, as I like to laugh once in a while during my textbook prone reading habits. You will find many hormone issues, you may have wondered about for a long time or never knew existed. Is it true that semen makes you happy when swallowing it? Will nipple-twiddling of pregnant women really effect the onset of labour or remain just a fun thing to do? Is it an urban legend or scientific fact that women on the pill change the sex of fish in the Themes? Is it true that girlfriends can synchronize their menstruation? And other essential questions for the not-too-squeamish. Other issues include breast and prostate cancer, baldness, body hair, ageing and JFK's severe hormone syndrome. And everything you need to know about teenagers, of course. Such as that it would be a very good idea to change school hours for adolescents. The book will open you up to the idea that in some areas you are much less in charge of yourself by the so-called free will than you think. Some points of criticism are that it jumps into your face that some parts are heterocentristic. Occasionally I wondered how hormones work in homosexuals as the respective gender studies were blatantly heterosexual. As the book is a lot about both sexes producing all the same hormones (just in different dosages), it would have been not far to seek an answer, for example, wether homosexual men would find pictures of women more attractive, too, (or of men) when they sniff vaginal hormones of ovulating women. Especially, since heterosexual men don't like the smell either WITHOUT the pictures. I also don't remember having read anything about such issues as male lactation, which would have been obvious in a book like this. On another topic, the term "race" for humans isn't scientific and I seriously doubt that the (West African) Dogon are "the nearest we have to representations of early humans". What about the so called San or Mbuti? Africa is a bit more diverse. Actually more diverse genetically than the entire rest of the world put together. This isn't the definitive book about hormones, but a worthy introduction. Some topics should be checked from other perspectives. For example on ageing, you may wanna read also The Science of Orgasm, Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body, Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World (Popular Science) and Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life.

3.5 Stars for a Not Exhaustive, But Still Kaleidoscopic View in a Humorous Setting ****

I read the paperback edition of the original publishing year of 2005. It is written by a British science commentator/editor for various newspapers/magazines and a presenter of a BBC science program. For one thing, this means that this book is written in British English, which is fine, unless when it comes to measurements. I simply had no idea what it meant, when she wrote about a 10-year-old girl weighing 13.5 stones and a 2-year-old boy weighing 5 stones. Until I transcalculated that into 189 lbs (85.7 kg) and 70 lbs (31.8 kg) respectively. All due to the power of hormones (in these specific cases). The other issue I initially had was that I had my doubts about the non-professional writing about such a specific topic. But I do not regret having read the book. It has been criticized of not really explaining how the hormones make us tick the way we do (as in biochemistry), describing the resulting effects only. So you should know that beforehand. Of course, this meant also that the book is written in a highly entertaining fashion. Which I appreciated very much, as I like to laugh once in a while during my textbook prone reading habits.

You will find many hormone issues, you may have wondered about for a long time or never knew existed. Is it true that semen makes you happy when swallowing it? Will nipple-twiddling of pregnant women really effect the onset of labour or remain just a fun thing to do? Is it an urban legend or scientific fact that women on the pill change the sex of fish in the Themes? Is it true that girlfriends can synchronize their menstruation? And other essential questions for the not-too-squeamish. Other issues include breast and prostate cancer, baldness, body hair, ageing and JFK's severe hormone syndrome. And everything you need to know about teenagers, of course. Such as that it would be a very good idea to change school hours for adolescents.

The book will open you up to the idea that in some areas you are much less in charge of yourself by the so-called free will than you think.

Some points of criticism are that it jumps into your face that some parts are heterocentristic. Occasionally I wondered how hormones work in homosexuals as the respective gender studies were blatantly heterosexual. As the book is a lot about both sexes producing all the same hormones (just in different dosages), it would have been not far to seek an answer, for example, wether homosexual men would find pictures of women more attractive, too, (or of men) when they sniff vaginal hormones of ovulating women. Especially, since heterosexual men don't like the smell either WITHOUT the pictures. I also don't remember having read anything about such issues as male lactation, which would have been obvious in a book like this. On another topic, the term "race" for humans isn't scientific and I seriously doubt that the (West African) Dogon are "the nearest we have to representations of early humans". What about the so called San or Mbuti? Africa is a bit more diverse. Actually more diverse genetically than the entire rest of the world put together.

This isn't the definitive book about hormones, but a worthy introduction. Some topics should be checked from other perspectives. For example on ageing, you may wanna read also The Science of Orgasm, Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body, Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World (Popular Science) and Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life.

Too light, too many claims, too little to back it up **
I was disappointed in this book. I was hoping for a book that would actually explain how hormones affect us, in the sense of having an in depth lay person understandable discussion of how hormones do the work they do. How do specific hormones affect the neurons in our brains. Instead what I got was this book that asks me to take everything by faith. It is no way to write a science book for literate people. It has loads and loads of claims with few or no explanations backing them up. The claims about how different hormones affect our minds, or our immune systems are unsubstantiated - note that I don't say they are wrong; the author just does not explain the mechanisms of how they do what the book claims they do, leaving the reader in a difficult position of either accepting the claims at face value or not at all. Basically, the book is on par with Cosmopolitan on the level of discussion. If that's the level you're comfortable with, go ahead. It's probably more right about things than Cosmo - but if it isn't you won't be able to know it.

Too light, too many claims, too little to back it up **

I was disappointed in this book. I was hoping for a book that would actually explain how hormones affect us, in the sense of having an in depth lay person understandable discussion of how hormones do the work they do. How do specific hormones affect the neurons in our brains.

Instead what I got was this book that asks me to take everything by faith. It is no way to write a science book for literate people. It has loads and loads of claims with few or no explanations backing them up. The claims about how different hormones affect our minds, or our immune systems are unsubstantiated - note that I don't say they are wrong; the author just does not explain the mechanisms of how they do what the book claims they do, leaving the reader in a difficult position of either accepting the claims at face value or not at all.

Basically, the book is on par with Cosmopolitan on the level of discussion. If that's the level you're comfortable with, go ahead. It's probably more right about things than Cosmo - but if it isn't you won't be able to know it.

A brilliant science writer *****
It is impossible to think of anyone to whom, or for whom, this book is not relevant. The challenging tone is set in the first sentence: “Hormones rule your world.” “Oh no they don’t”, I reply to myself - or more precisely, as befits my senior citizen status - “Oh no they didn’t.” But read on. It has life-altering messages for parents, teenagers, teachers, prison and parole officers, judges, juries, doctors, menopausal women, fading Don Juans, and everyone else I have neglected to list. She explains science to non-scientists in a clear, amusing, non-condescending, and utterly riveting way. The book deserves a central role in all debates about nature versus nurture. The penultimate sentence asserts “Hormones rule your internal world." The addition of the word “internal” saves the book from a depressingly deterministic fate: “As for hormone determinism – in particular that levels of testosterone decide the future direction of people’s lives – I am suspicious, yet recognize all the same what testosterone does show us about teenagers – which is that keeping the wrong company can set behaviour, and turn a potential leader into a gang member with no future.” Vivienne Parry is a brilliant science writer. Buy this book or, if your hormones dictate, steal it. If you avoid being caught for shoplifting it may save you from a life of crime.

A brilliant science writer *****

It is impossible to think of anyone to whom, or for whom, this book is not relevant. The challenging tone is set in the first sentence: “Hormones rule your world.” “Oh no they don’t”, I reply to myself - or more precisely, as befits my senior citizen status - “Oh no they didn’t.” But read on.

It has life-altering messages for parents, teenagers, teachers, prison and parole officers, judges, juries, doctors, menopausal women, fading Don Juans, and everyone else I have neglected to list. She explains science to non-scientists in a clear, amusing, non-condescending, and utterly riveting way.

The book deserves a central role in all debates about nature versus nurture. The penultimate sentence asserts “Hormones rule your internal world." The addition of the word “internal” saves the book from a depressingly deterministic fate:
“As for hormone determinism – in particular that levels of testosterone decide the future direction of people’s lives – I am suspicious, yet recognize all the same what testosterone does show us about teenagers – which is that keeping the wrong company can set behaviour, and turn a potential leader into a gang member with no future.”

Vivienne Parry is a brilliant science writer. Buy this book or, if your hormones dictate, steal it. If you avoid being caught for shoplifting it may save you from a life of crime.