Introduction to Endocrine System

Did you know that your blood glucose concentration should not drop much below 1 mg per ml? Because if it does, your neurons will start misbehaving and this will lead to coma or even death.

Have you ever wondered why humans, even though varying frequencies of meals, maintain pretty constant blood concentrations of glucose? Where in fact it is not that harmful or life threatening if we skip a meal.Well, the answer is simply hormones.

Hormones are responsible in balancing the glucose concentrations and by stimulating metabolic pathways, glucose concentrations are pulled back into the normal range. Aside from that, therse are also important in our growth and aging. Hormones play vital role in our lives, and the study about this is called Endocrinology.

Endocrinology is concerned with the study of the biosynthesis, storage, chemistry, and the hormone's physiological function and with the cells of the endocrine glands and tissues that secrete them.

The endocrine system have several glands found in the different parts of the body which secrets. the hormones they secret have many different function.view my next post if you want to get some ideas on which organ is responsible for secreting a specific hormone.HEHEHE

Pituitary Gland
It is located at the base of the brain beneath the hypothalamus and is way smaller than a pea. It is also called the Master Gland because it produces hormones that are able to control other functions of other endocrine glands.

Thyroid Gland
It is located in the lower front part of the neck. The Important contribution of Thyroid Gland to the body is it is responsible for our metabolism. It also has a share of work on our bone growth, development of the brain and nervous system in children. The Pituitary Gland (Master Gland) controls the release of thyroid hormone.

Parathyroid Glands
Two pairs of small glands embedded on the surface of the thyroid gland each side of it having a pair. Responsible for regulating calcium levels in the blood and bone metabolism by releasing parathyroid hormone.

Adrenal Glands
The two adrenal glands are triangular-shaped glands located on top of each kidney. Made up of two parts, Adrenal cortex (outer part) produces corticosteroids. And Adrenal medulla (inner part) produces catecholamine.

Pineal Body
The pineal body is located in the middle of the brain. It helps regulate our wake-sleep cycle because it secretes a hormone called melatonin.

Reproductive Glands
It is the main source of sex hormones. The males have the testes and it secretes the androgens, but more important of which is testosterone which is responsible for many male characteristics. While on the other hand, females got the ovaries. It produces estrogen and progesterone. These are responsible for many female characteristics.

Pancreas
The Pancreas is an elongated organ located toward the back of the abdomen behind the stomach. It has two functions the digestive and Hormonal. Also the pancreas has two parts. The exocrine pancreas which responsible for secreting digestive enzymes. the other part which is the endocrine pancreas that secretes hormones called insulin and glucagon. These hormones regulate the level of glucose in blood.