Endocrine System: The Unknown Dangers
Author: Lauren Quinn, 17 Magazine
Many people do not know the dangers and the difficulties that their endocrine system may face. We polled our readers about the endocrine system, and many of you didn't even know what the endocrine system was. I decided that I needed to fill our readers in and let them know what's up!
First off, you need to know what the endocrine system is before you can understand why these diseases are so bad. The endocrine system is the system of organs that send messages to parts of the body to release hormones. To sum that up, this is the parts of the body that make things happen with our hormones. So once a month we can thank this lovely system for making us act like an emotional mess. Because this system is so complex, many things can go wrong.
One of the diseases is Simmond's disease. Simmond's disease, also called hypopituitarism, affects the pituitary gland. It causes progressive emaciation, which is when your body looses fat and muscle giving you a starved look. It also causes atrophy, or wasting away, of the sex organs, thyroid, and adrenal cortex, loss of hair, and premature aging. It is a chronic deficiency of the pituitary gland. This means that it is a long lasting problem and is usually caused by a different problem, such as a tumor. Simmond's disease can be helped/controlled by replacing the hormones with pills or injections.
The second disease is called Graves disease. Graves is the most popular form of hyperthyroidism (effecting the thyroid). It is caused when your immune system (the fighters in your body) mistakenly attacks your thyroid gland. This causes your thyroid to over produce the hormone called thyroxine. This over production can affect parts of your skin and the tissue behind your eyes causign them to buldge out. Graves can also increase your metabolism, causing weight loss. It can affect anyone at anytime, but women over the age of 20 age the ones most affected. You cannot stop yiour immune system, but there are treatments that can ease the symptoms and decrease the production of throxine.
The third disease we are covering in our article is Addison's disease. The disease is also called adernal insufficiency or hypocortisolism, but we love the name Addison (Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice star!!). Addison's is caused when the adrenal gland does not produce enough of the hormone called cortisol, and sometimes not enough of the hormone aldosterone. Like Graves, the immune system can be at fault because it attacks the outer layer of the adrenal glands, or the adrenal cortex. Addison's occurs when 90% of this layer has been destroyed. Symptoms of Addison's disease vary and become worse the longer you have the disease. It starts with fatigue, muscle weakness, loss of appetite, and weight loss, but then worsens and nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea start. Sometimes, women's menstural cycles slow or can even stop. Becuase symptoms can be over looked, the disease can become even worse and develope into addisonian crisis. The symptoms of a crisis include dehydration, low blood pressure, and loss of consciousness. If a addisonian crisis goes untreated it can be deadly, but there are treatments for Addison's. Like the treatments of other endocrine system diseases, replacing the hormone, cortisol, by taking hydrocortisone pills helps right the symptoms.