Endocrine System And Type 2 Diabetes

[Adelaida Frodge]

Theendocrine system is a network of glands that produce and release hormones. These hormones help control many important body functions, including the body's ability to change calories into energy that powers cells and organs. The endocrine system affects how your heart beats, how your bones and tissues grow, and even your ability to make a baby.

Disorders of the endocrine system happen if your hormone levels are too high or too low, or if your body doesn't respond to hormones in the expected way. You may develop diabetes, thyroid disease, growth disorders, sexual dysfunction, and a host of other hormone-related disorders.

The endocrine feedback system helps control the balance of hormones in the bloodstream. If your body has too much or too little of a certain hormone, the feedback system signals the proper gland or glands to correct the problem. A hormone imbalance may occur if this feedback system has trouble keeping the right level of hormones in the bloodstream, or if your body doesn't clear them out of the bloodstream properly.

Most endocrine tumors and nodules (lumps) are noncancerous. They usually don't spread to other parts of the body. However, a tumor or nodule on the gland may interfere with the gland's hormone production.

The symptoms of an endocrine disorder vary widely and depend on the specific gland involved. However, most people with endocrine disease complain of fatigue and weakness. Certain symptoms may make you think you have a different disease or disorder. Some symptoms that are worth talking to your doctor about include:

Adrenal insufficiency. The adrenal gland releases too little of the hormone cortisol and sometimes, aldosterone. Symptoms include fatigue, stomach upset, dehydration, and skin changes. Addison's disease is a type of adrenal insufficiency.

Cushing's disease. The overproduction of a pituitary gland hormone leads to an overactive adrenal gland. A similar condition called Cushing's syndrome may occur in people, particularly children, who take high doses of corticosteroid medications.

Hyperthyroidism. The thyroid gland produces too much thyroid hormone, leading to weight loss, fast heart rate, sweating, and nervousness. The most common cause for an overactive thyroid is an autoimmune disorder called Grave's disease.

Hypothyroidism. The thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone, leading to fatigue, constipation, dry skin, and depression. The underactive gland can cause slowed development in children. Some types of hypothyroidism are present at birth.

Hypopituitarism. In this condition, the pituitary gland releases little or no hormones. It may be caused by several different diseases. Women with this condition may stop getting their periods.

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 and 2 (MEN1 and MEN2). These rare, genetic conditions are passed down through families. They cause tumors of the parathyroid, adrenal, and thyroid glands, leading to overproduction of hormones.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The overproduction of androgens interferes with the development of eggs and their release from the female ovaries. PCOS is a leading cause of infertility.

Treatment of endocrine disorders can be complicated, as a change in one hormone level can throw off another. Your doctor or specialist may order routine blood work to check for problems or to determine if your medication or treatment plan needs to be adjusted.

Your endocrine system releases hormones that affect how your body develops and functions. An endocrine system malfunction, caused by genetics, infection, or other factors, can result in various disorders such as diabetes, hyperthyroidism, and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). If you have fatigue or weakness regularly, it could be a sign of an endocrine disorder, so consult your doctor so that they can diagnose and treat your condition.

Prediabetes occurs when blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough for a diabetes diagnosis. Over time, this can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately, prediabetes symptoms are hard to spot, so many people have the condition and do not know it.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control indicates that about 79 million American adults over the age of 20 have prediabetes. As the population ages, becomes increasingly overweight and increasingly inactive, the number of adults with prediabetes continues to grow. The number of young people with this condition is also increasing. Common risk factors include:

In addition to lifestyle changes, a few drugs have been proven to lower the risk of developing diabetes if you have prediabetes. These drugs do have side effects, and their benefits wear off when you stop taking the drug, making lifestyle change the best option for tackling this problem.

People with type 1 diabetes must have daily injections of insulin to keep a normal level of glucose in the blood. Blood glucose is kept under the best control with three or more injections per day using long and short acting insulin, or when insulin is delivered throughout the day with an insulin pump. A healthy diet, exercise, and regular monitoring of blood glucose levels are also important to manage diabetes.

Individuals with this condition have a pancreas that is able to produce insulin, but their bodies are unable to use or process the insulin that is made. Over time, the pancreas may stop creating insulin altogether, but type 2 diabetes starts with the inability to process the insulin that is made.

Age of diagnosis: Type 1 is typically diagnosed in children or young people (but it can be diagnosed in older individuals as well), while type 2 diabetes is generally diagnosed in adults and occasionally children.

Hypoglycemia: Blood sugar levels can drop to dangerously low levels in people with type I diabetes, but it can also occur in individuals with type 2 diabetes. Certain medications, such as insulin, may increase the risk of hypoglycemia.

Preventability: While certain experimental medications may postpone the development of type 1 diabetes, there are no means of preventing type 1 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes can sometimes be prevented with lifestyle changes.

If a woman has high blood sugar in pregnanct, she will have to follow a special diet for the rest of the pregnancy. In some cases, she may also need to take insulin. High blood sugar in women with gestational diabetes can affect them and their baby. These risks include:

In type 2 diabetes , the body is unable to respond effectively to insulin, which can also result in higher than normal blood glucose levels. Medications for type 2 diabetes include those which help to increase insulin sensitivity, those which stimulate the pancreas to release more insulin and other medications which inhibit the release of glucagon.

Diabetes is the most common endocrine disorder in the United States, with over 10% of Americans struggling with either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. But what exactly is an endocrine disorder, and how is the endocrine system related to diabetes?

Quite simply, diabetes occurs when the pancreas cannot release the normal regulatory hormones, or when the body cannot respond properly to those hormones. The result is an inability to regulate blood sugar levels, which can cause serious and wide-reaching symptoms. To understand how this happens, we first have to understand how the pancreas functions in a healthy endocrine system.

The endocrine system consists of all the glands in your body that secrete hormones. This includes, among others, the pituitary gland in the brain, which regulates growth; the ovaries and testes, which control the reproduction and secondary sex characteristics; and the pancreas, which regulates blood sugar and metabolism.

Although the glands and hormones that comprise the endocrine system are diverse, they share one goal: to maintain homeostasis or a stable and balanced condition inside the body. The endocrine system works together with the nervous and immune systems to sense changes in your body's condition and return things to normal. To do this, it releases hormones into the bloodstream. These hormones travel through the bloodstream to other organs and tissues, where they influence cells to behave differently.

It's easiest to understand endocrine regulation through an example. Imagine you've just eaten an apple. By eating the apple, you've unknowingly caused huge physiological changes in your body. For instance, digesting the sugars from the fruit increases your body's level of glucose, a sugar molecule that provides quick energy for cells.

Although glucose is useful, too much is harmful. Hyperglycemia, or an abnormally high concentration of glucose in the blood, causes symptoms ranging from thirst and vomiting to coma and death if left untreated. To prevent these outcomes, your body needs to store any glucose that isn't used immediately as a longer-term form of energy. That's where the pancreas comes in.

The pancreas senses when there is extra glucose in the blood and releases insulin, a hormone that helps cells either use up or store the energy from the apple. Once the body has extracted all the energy possible, blood glucose levels decrease, signaling the pancreas to stop releasing so much insulin. This cycle plays out every time we eat, keeping our body properly fueled.

For people with diabetes, however, this key regulatory process doesn't work as it should.

Both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are caused by problems with insulin production or response and are, as a result, inextricably linked to the endocrine system. The difference is in the type and cause of the malfunction:

A patient with Type 2 diabetes may be able to help their pancreas regulate their blood sugar through exercise and diet. However, people with Type 1 diabetes are completely unable to produce insulin, so they must essentially act as their own pancreas by monitoring their blood glucose and administering enough insulin to cope with any changes.

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