The hypothalamus is a kind of factory that takes in chemical raw materials and assembles them to produce peptides. A peptide is a chemical messenger that signals the body to turn on in some fashion. In the stress response, the peptide made from the hypothalamus is called corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH). Once CRH is released, it delivers a chemical message to the pituitary gland. When the pituitary gets the signal from the hypothalamus, it makes another chemical peptide called adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). The new chemical message is now “acceptable” to the receptor sites located
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