Hormones are your body’s chemical messengers. Once released by glands into your bloodstream, they act on various organs and tissues to control everything from the way your body functions to how you feel.
One group of hormones is nicknamed the “feel-good hormones” because of the happy and, sometimes, euphoric feelings they produce. They’re also considered neurotransmitters, which means they carry messages across the spaces between nerve cells.
What are the four feel-good hormones? Dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin.
You can boost levels of these hormones with some simple lifestyle changes, like diet, exercise, and meditation, and possibly improve your mood in the process.
So, let’s review each hormone that influences your mood.
Dopamine
Dopamine can provide an intense feeling of reward.
Dopamine is most notably involved in helping us feel pleasure as part of the brain’s reward system. Sex, shopping, smelling cookies baking in the oven — all these things can trigger dopamine release or a “dopamine rush.”
This feel-good neurotransmitter is also involved in reinforcement. That’s why, once we try one of those cookies, we might come back for another one (or two, or three).
The darker side of dopamine is the intense feeling of reward people feel when they take drugs, such as heroin or cocaine, which can lead to addiction.
Dopamine also plays a role in these functions:
- learning and attention;
- mood;
- movement;
- heart rate;
- kidney function;
- blood vessel function;
- sleep;
- pain processing;
- lactation.
Serotonin
Serotonin can stave off depression and provide a feeling of euphoria.
When you feel happy and all seems right with the world, you’re feeling the effects of serotonin. This hormone is responsible for boosting mood, as well as a host of other functions.
An area in the center of the brainstem produces serotonin, which then acts on many different parts of the brain to affect a variety of functions and behaviors, including:
- memory;
- fear;
- the stress response;
- digestion;
- addiction;
- sexuality;
- sleep;
- breathing;
- body temperature.
Endorphins
Endorphins can also release stress and create a feeling of well-being.
Endorphins are the body’s natural painkillers. Endorphins are released by the hypothalamus and pituitary gland in response to pain or stress, this group of peptide hormones both relieves pain and creates a general feeling of well-being.
The name of these hormones comes from the term “endogenous morphine.” “Endogenous” because they’re produced in our bodies. Morphine refers to the opioid painkiller whose actions they mimic.
About 20 different types of endorphins exist. The best-studied of these is beta-endorphin, which is the one associated with the runner’s high. We also release endorphins when we laugh, fall in love, have sex, and even eat a delicious meal.
Oxytocin
Oxytocin can help us bond with loved ones and can be released through touch, music, and exercise.
Oxytocin is a hormone that’s produced in the hypothalamus and released into the bloodstream by the pituitary gland. Its main function is to facilitate childbirth, which is one of the reasons it is called the “love drug” or “love hormone.”
Oxytocin both stimulates the muscles of the uterus to contract and boosts the production of prostaglandins, which also increase uterine contractions.
Women whose labor is slow to proceed are sometimes given oxytocin to speed the process. Once the baby is born, oxytocin helps to move milk from the ducts in the breast to the nipple and fosters a bond between mom and baby.
Our bodies also produce oxytocin when we’re excited by our sexual partner, and when we fall in love. That’s why it has earned the nicknames, “love hormone” and “cuddle hormone.”
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