Your endocrine system includes eight major glands located throughout your body, including thyroid gland, pituitary gland, and pancreas. Other glands of the endocrine system are adrenal glands, hypothalamus, ovaries, testes, thymus, and parathyroid. These glands release hormones in your body to regulate various functions. Endocrine system affects your metabolism, sexual function, growth and development. If your endocrine system is affected, it will not respond to hormones the way it should. The system will either release too much or too low hormones, resulting in hormonal imbalance.
A feedback mechanism operates in the endocrine system that signals the proper gland to secret the right amount of hormone. Hormonal imbalance occurs when the feedback system has trouble keeping the right levels of hormones in the bloodstream, or if the body is not able to clear them from your bloodstream properly. Hormonal imbalance can occur due to problems with the endocrine system’s feedback mechanism, infection, injury or tumor in the system, failure of a gland to stimulate another gland to release hormones, or a genetic disorder.
Some of the common endocrine system disorders are described below in brief.
Diabetes
The condition causes high blood glucose levels due to the body’s inability to produce or use insulin properly to regulate your glucose level. Type 2 and Type 1 are the most common types of diabetes. The affected person will experience increased thirst and urination, increased hunger, tiredness, blurry vision, numbness or tingling in the hands or feet, and persistent sores.
Hyperthyroidism
Your body will produce too many hormones. Inflammation of the thyroid gland or Grave’s Disease is a common cause of hyperthyroidism. The individual will experience a variety of symptoms like a rapid or irregular heartbeat, difficulty sleeping, frequent bowel movements, tiredness, and irritability.
Hypothyroidism
The disease occurs when your thyroid does not produce enough hormones. Some of the common symptoms of this thyroid disorder are sensitivity to cold, tiredness, dry skin, facial swelling, muscle cramps, and constipation.
Acromegaly
Your body will make too much growth hormones. The condition can cause unusual bone growth and tissue around the body. Acromegaly can result in swollen hands and feet, growth of facial features, sweating and body odor, and a deeper voice.
Crushing’s Syndrome
The condition occurs due to excessive secretion of cortisol hormone which helps you to respond to stress, maintain blood pressure, and regulate metabolic processes. Symptoms include weight gain, excessive hair growth, thin arms and legs, and a decreased sex drive.
Diagnosis of disease
Many symptoms of the endocrine system’s diseases overlap, making diagnosis difficult. However, your caregiver can use various tools and tests, such as urine tests, MRI scans, hormone tests, and blood tests, to determine the exact cause and type of endocrine disease. Different endocrine system diseases have different treatments, like acromegaly is treated by surgery wherein the tumor is removed. Radiation therapy may be used for this purpose, and medications prescribed to balance out IGF and GH levels.
Treatment of various endocrine diseases
Crushing’s Syndrome can be treated by surgically removing tumors using radiation therapy. The treatment of Grave’s disease consists of medications, thyroid surgery, and radiation therapy. Treatment of hypothyroidism involves replacing the hormones that your thyroid cannot make with levothyroxine, a synthetic hormone. Hyperthyroidism is treated by surgically removing part or the entire thyroid causing hypothyroidism. Treatment of diabetes will depend upon the type of diabetes you have. Lifestyle changes, walking, controlling sugar intake, and insulin medications are often prescribed for thyroid treatment.