What is the endocrine system?
It is a system that contains the following (Source: www.epa.gov): Glands located throughout the body. Hormones that are made by the glands and released into the bloodstream or the fluid surrounding cells. Receptors in various organs and tissues that recognize and respond to the hormones. What does the Endocrine System do? The endocrine system regulates all biological processes in the body from conception through adulthood and into old age, including the development of the brain and nervous system, the growth and function of the reproductive system, as well as the metabolism and blood sugar levels. The female ovaries, male testes, and pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal glands are major constituents of the endocrine system. (Source: epa.gov) Figure 1 below shows the Endocrine glands of a human. Figure 1. The Human Endocrine Glands. Source: http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/body_basics/endocrine.html (April 5, 2004) What is an Endocrine Disruptor? EPA defines an Endocrine Disruptor as an
The endocrine system is a complex group of glands. Glands are organs that make hormones. These are substances that help to control activities in your body. Different types of hormones control reproduction, metabolism (food burning and waste elimination), and growth and development. Hormones also control the way you respond to your surroundings, and they help to provide the proper amount of energy and nutrition your body needs to function. The glands that make up the endocrine system include the thyroid, parathyroid, pancreas, ovaries, testes, adrenal, pituitary and hypothalamus. What is an endocrinologist? An endocrinologist is a specially trained doctor. Endocrinologists diagnose diseases that affect your glands. They know how to treat conditions that are often complex and involve many systems within your body. Your primary care doctor refers you to an endocrinologist when you have a problem with your endocrine system. What do endocrinologists do? Endocrinologists are trained to diagn
The endocrine system carries out a wide variety of physiological processes through chemical messengers called “hormones.” This system is a collection of glands that produces these hormones, which are necessary for normal bodily functions. The hormones regulate metabolism, growth and sexual development. These glands release the hormones directly into the bloodstream, where they are transported to organs and tissues throughout the entire body. When functioning properly, the endocrine system, is like a fine-tuned orchestra. Because the endocrine system is comprised of several organs, many functions can go awry. In this section we’ll explain the intricacies of the endocrine system and just how you can “make it play” the music you want it to. The endocrine system consists of the pancreas, thyroid, parathyroid, adrenals, pineal, pituitary and testes/ovaries. The following diagram shows the relationships between these various organs. As you can easily see, these relationships are complex and
The endocrine system is a collection of glands and organs that produce and regulate hormones in the bloodstream to control many functions of the body. This system overlaps with the nervous and exocrine system, and its responsibilities include metabolism, growth, and sexual development. Most animals with advanced physiology, such as vertebrates and crustaceans, house an endocrine system. The major glands of the endocrine system are the pituitary, hypothalmus, and pineal located in the brain, the thyroid and parathyroids in the neck, the thymus, adrenals, and pancreas in the abdomen, and the gonads, either ovaries or testes, in the lower abdomen. To a lesser degree, organs such as the heart, lungs, and stomach are involved in hormone management. These glands must control everything from when we fall asleep to when we reach our adult height. Hormones made in our glands work like messages. Just like in life, the proper message must reach its intended destination to be effective. So certain
The foundations of the endocrine system are the hormones and glands. As the body’s chemical messengers, hormones (pronounced: hor-moanz) transfer information and instructions from one set of cells to another. Many different hormones move through the bloodstream, but each type of hormone is designed to affect only certain cells. A gland is a group of cells that produces and secretes, or gives off, chemicals. A gland selects and removes materials from the blood, processes them, and secretes the finished chemical product for use somewhere in the body. Some types of glands release their secretions in specific areas. For instance, exocrine (pronounced: ek-suh-krin) glands, such as the sweat and salivary glands, release secretions in the skin or inside the mouth. Endocrine glands, on the other hand, release more than 20 major hormones directly into the bloodstream where they can be transported to cells in other parts of the body. The major glands that make up the human endocrine system inclu
