Endocrine connections

Hormones - we live and flow full of them from the time we are born because of hormones. The endocrine system floods our blood stream with magic and pulses pump faster or digestive organs suck up sugar; the brain operates at super-speed and eggs move into fallopian tubes. "Where the hormones there moan I," Oscar Wilde famously quipped and he was not mistaken. We are slaves to our hormones and they push pull and drag us around in many unseen and misunderstood, or little understood ways.

The endocrine system in a human being is hardly understood unless you have an endocrine disease like diabetes - then suddenly the diabetic becomes an expert at what insulin does, what the blood sugar level in their body is doing, what foods they should and should not eat, when to eat, what they should and should not do for exercise and when to exercise etc. Oy vey - it's a veritable overflow of information and technology about fast and slow acting insulin (if they take insulin) or pills (if they take pills) or what their doctor is advising them to do to reduce their waistline and stay off pills and insulin.


And if it's not diabetes, it could be birth control pills - another classic endocrine dilemma - or the birth control "patch" - or the women's "condition" - menopause - where hormone therapy is an option. Replacing the uterine hormones and the ovarian hormones to maintain the elasticity of skin and joyful nature of even tempered moods for an extended time period is so not worth it for anyone given the cancer risks. The hot flashes and rages of the pre-menstrual syndrome are so much better - they are so energizing, enervating and elevating. A woman could fly - it's no wonder women were considered witches in earlier centuries - we likely set our hair on fire men ran away so fast from the fury they thought women were flying after them.

But let's get down to it: endocrine disease is either hyper-function or hypo-function - primarily or secondarily affecting other functions in the body that cause discomfort - hypersensitivity for example; distress - defects like abnormal growth patterns; or illness - failure of organs, and consequently death. Endocrine system changes are detected by watching for changes in secretion rates, patterns and chemical analysis. Blood tests, lymph and fluid tests. And remember, some hormones function by NOT being present - so deficient secretion can be a good thing. Then feedback systems guiding the secretion patterns have to be checked.

For all hormones there are TWO characteristics they share: specificity - they are built to aim at very narrow targets; and amplification - the capacity to increase an initial signal in terms of subsequent hormonal events (once begun, can be pumped up quickly with just a little tiny bit more like a lock and key)

There are three kinds of endocrine hormones: Steroid types, Thyroid types and Catecholamine-Polypeptide-Protein Types. Each of these 3 types work in different ways with cells in a human body - that way, any one cell could be affected by three hormones like 3 locked doors but each type has 3 different keys.

Here are some of the hormones floating around in "anyone's" body:
PITUITARY GLAND SECRETIONS
Growth hormone
Prolactin or Lactogenic Hormone
Follicle Stimulating Hormone FSH
Luteinizing Hormone or interstitial cell-stimulating hormone LH or ICSH
Thyrotropin or Thyroid Stimulating Hormone TSH
Adrenocorticotropin or ACTH
Melanocyte-Stimulating Hormone or MSH
Lipotropins and Endorphins

REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEMS
Gonadotropin
Estrogen <>Estradiol
Testosterone
Androstenedione
Progesterone
Placental Hormone affecting chorionic gonadotropin, relaxin etc

SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM - ADRENAL GLANDS
Dopamine
Norepinephrine
Epinephrine

AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
Prostaglandins
Histamine
Serotonin
Chromatophorotropic Hormone
Ketogenic Hormones - Lipolytic hormones
Inhibitory Hormones
Langerhansian Hormone - affecting both insulin and glucagon in the pancreas

PARATHYROID
Parathyroid peptide hormone
Calcitonin

Except for the female hormones and the pregnancy hormones a person is indeed literally at sea in the endocrine ocean. Avast me hearties - get educated to what your hormones are doing to your bodies - or you may fall victim to a shoal of trouble.