Signals

A Financial Times Best Book of the Summer • A New Scientist Best Popular Science Book of the Year
"An utterly fascinating guide to who you are and how you work. Saira Hameed reveals the endocrine system, and places it at the center of self-knowledge; a system of control, but also a set of signals we can learn to interpret." -Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People In the tradition of Atul Gawande and Henry Marsh, a physician writer's expert examination of the extraordinary power of hormones and the miraculous story of the life force signals that make us. Hormones write life's masterplan - building a new human being in utero, transforming a helpless newborn into a sturdy toddler, igniting the firestorm of puberty, conjuring the alchemy of fertilization and directing the transition into menopause and beyond. And all the while, day-to-day, minute-by-minute, hormones control our mood and stress levels, how hungry we feel and how much we weigh, changes in libido and blood sugar, the circadian rhythm of our energy balance and sleep-wake cycle. In Signals, Dr. Saira Hameed takes us on a journey through the endocrine system, the body's miraculous and often misunderstood communication network of endocrine glands and hormone signals. We barely notice these internal signals efficiently carrying messages from cell to cell because the power of hormones over our brains and bodies is so fundamental that their omnipotent control is simply felt as life itself. Yet when the body's signaling system breaks, we see with hindsight that be 'hormonal' is in fact to be human. Here Dr. Hameed combines expert experience, revelatory science, medical history, and cultural commentary with compelling compassionately recounted patient cases. In this special confluence of storytelling Dr. Hameed invites readers to share in the mysterious, magical inner world of the endocrine system, going beyond hormone hacks and hype to tune out the noise and instead listen into the signals - to the powerful endocrine life force of how the body talks to itself.

Dr. Saira Hameed is a Consultant Endocrinologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, a Senior Tutor at Imperial College London and a prizewinning teacher in the Imperial College School of Medicine. She studied medicine at Oxford University and University College London and was a visiting medical student in endocrinology at the Mayo Clinic. She has been a Medical Research Council Training Fellow and National Institute for Health and Care Research Clinical Lecturer. Dr Hameed holds a PhD from Imperial College London and in 2024 was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. She lives in London with her husband and four children.