Mood swings, metabolism, behavior, sleep, immune system, puberty and sex are just a few of the things that are controlled by hormones. Armed with a dose of wit and curiosity, medical journalist Randy Hutter Epstein takes us on an intriguing journey through the extraordinarily fascinating history of these powerful chemicals - from a dank nineteenth-century basement filled with brains to a fashionable twenty-first-century hormone clinic in Los Angeles. Filled with a sparkling sense of humor that highlights critical medical research, this book introduces leading endocrinology scientists to their brilliant discoveries about the hormonal imbalances that plague us so often. This is a book about charlatans who used advanced scientific discoveries for their own insidious purposes - to sell false medicines and achieve personal well-being. Epstein lifts the lid on the mystery, taking the reader into the complex world of medicine with a rich cast of characters, including a 1920s doctor who promotes vasectomies as a way to boost libido, a medical student who discovers the “pregnancy hormone” in the 1940s, and a mother who collected pituitary glands from corpses as a source of growth hormone to treat her son. Along the way, Epstein explores the functions of our body's major hormones, such as leptin, oxytocin, estrogen and testosterone, demystifying the science of endocrinology and teaching us an important truth - hormones control us!