Truth About Hormones [Paperback]

Vivienne Parry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009

What exactly is 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, waterbalance, body clocks, fertility, muscle bulk, mood, speed of ageing, whether we want sex or not (and whether we enjoy it) and even whom we fall in love with. Their effects may occur in seconds and be over in a flash, or emerge over months and last for years. In The Truth About Hormones, Vivienne Parry explains how exactly these mysteriously powerful chemicals affect our bodies and our behaviour.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"* 'Combining in-depth research with a good eye for a story, Parry does a grand job of steering between didacticism and sensationalism, while keeping the tone bright and breezy.' Daily Telegraph 'Fascinating. To find out more about hormone health, read this book.' She 'From understanding a teenager to discovering which diet adjustments may ease the aging process, this guide makes fascinating reading.' Good Book Guide" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Vivienne Parry is a writer and broadcaster. Familiar as the presenter of many Radio 4 series on medicine, she writes a medical science column for The Times and is the science editor of Good Housekeeping magazine. She has been a presenter of Tomorrow’s World, a columnist for the News of the World, and a reporter for Panorama. The Truth About Hormones was shortlisted for the Aventis Prize in 2006.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Books (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843544288
• ISBN-13: 978-1843544289
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,487,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 Stars for a Not Exhaustive, But Still Kaleidoscopic View in a Humorous Setting, August 15, 2008

By 

Bonam Pak (Berlin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Truth About Hormones (Paperback)

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.