The catalyst within

HORMONES NOT ONLY SHAPE ONE'S HEALTH, BUT HAVE LIKELY IMPACTED GLOBAL EVENTS

- ROHINI KRISHNAMURTHY

IF YOU are a history enthusiast, chances are that you would have heard of the Cuban missile crisis, the 1962 standoff between the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union that brought the world on the verge of a nuclear war. But what you might not be aware of is that hormones—chemicals that circulate in the bloodstream to carry messages or signals to different parts of the body—are likely to have precipitated the crisis.

The year was 1961. American President John F Kennedy, who had taken office just a few months ago, and Soviet prime minister Nikita Khrushchev met in Austria to discuss nuclear proliferation and the status of the German city of Berlin, which was controlled post World War II by the US and its allies (West Berlin) and the Soviet Union (East Berlin). Kennedy, who had Addison's disease—a chronic condition characterised by low production of the hormone cortisol—could not get his cortisol shot for a prolonged period since Khrushchev turned up late to the meeting. As Kennedy waited, he probably experienced fatigue, muscle weakness and low mood due to decreasing cortisol levels. Khurshchev, who did not know of Kennedy's ailment since the affliction had not been revealed to the public, took Kennedy to be weak and defensive, hypothesises author Max Nieuwdorp in The Power of Hormones. This is the reason for the Russian leader's misadventure of setting up missiles in Cuba, resulting in a naval blockade of the island nation by the US, writes Nieuwdorp.