🧪 The 4 Happy Hormones

Ever wondered why folks at 65 visit museums? Turns out, it's all connected to our happy hormones.

🥼 The Chemical Messengers

Without getting too biological, let's understand what hormones are and what they do.

Hormones are basically chemical messengers in our body produced by different glands and each has a significant role majorly affecting the physiological and psychological behaviour of a human being.

And I wanted to double-click on 4 happy hormones specifically. (These are facts)

​Endorphins	Happiness of excitement. Associated with feelings of happiness and excitement.
Serotonin	Happiness of Satisfaction. Associated with feelings of well-being, contentment, and satisfaction.
Dopamine	Happiness of Achievement. Associated with the brain's reward and pleasure
Oxytocin	Happiness of love and affection. Released during social bonding, intimacy, and positive social interactions.

🚫 The Resistors

Now that I have established the facts, I wanted to talk about a very (weird) theory that I saw somewhere but it made sense actually and this theory is highly debatable and it has no data or evidence to support it.

It is entirely a theory and my perspective on this.

We all know that our human body has an immune system and this system tries to develop a resistance to all the enzymes and the germs. That's how we are designed and that's how we are protected from all the harmful pathogens. While some people have a well-strong immune while others don't. It depends on a lot of factors - genes, the food we consume, etc.

So the theory is that, if the immune system develops a resistance to all the drugs, germs, etc., it is also capable of developing a resistance to these hormones which are also nothing but enzymes.

I know right? Sounds very weird, isn't it?

But hold on, it might make a little bit of sense when you put this theory to human life behaviour.

• Age 0-20: You are very young. You want to run around. Do sports. Do exciting activities. Date a few in your teens. Fall in love. All these give immense happiness and excitement - releasing Endorphins.

Post 20, your body might develop resistance to Endorphins and it is constantly seeking a new high. That is why after a point in your teenage, you don't feel the same excitement of having a chocolate or playing games. It actually becomes too boring for you.

• Age 20-40: Finding a new job or starting a new venture. Earning money. Taking care of health. Going to the gym, maintaining your body fitness. Getting married and having kids. All these give you the new high that your body was looking for, which is basically Serotonin kicking in.

• Age 40-60: Now that your body has become tolerant to Serotonin and looking for a new high, that's when Dopamine comes into play. You want to achieve something big. Grow up on the corporate ladder and make a ton amount of money. You wanted to take care of your parents. All these satisfactions and rewards give you a new high.

• Age 60-80: This is when people realise that they don't need money and money is not making them happy. This is when they give out money to others. Charity and donations. Seeing happiness in other people's faces makes them happier and gives them a new high. All thanks to Oxytocin. This is also because humans travel a lot in this age. Visit museums, and take on city walk tours. Try to understand the history and culture of various countries.

Now that you know why human behaviour changes over the different periods of their life, go back to the 4 hormones table and re-read them and it will make sense.

As I said earlier, this is entirely a theory and there is no data point or research to prove this. Feel free to drop a comment to have a healthy debate!