This Is Your Endocrine System
Gather round as I tell you about something so important that it controls almost everything that goes on inside your body, but so secret that almost nobody knows about it. Oh, a few may know the name of it, but they couldn’t explain it to you–even if you offered them a million dollars.
What is this important, mysterious thing? The endocrine system.
Your endocrine system tells your body how to work–or not. If your brain gets fogged over, think endocrine. If your hair gets thin and falls out, think endocrine. If your weight keeps ballooning no matter what you do, think endocrine. If you get an autoimmune disease, think endocrine. Heck, whatever happens, at least give a thought to the endocrine system.
You want amazing? Check out the endocrine system. Not only does the list of activities go on and on, the level of cooperation between endocrine glands goes to the death. If one gland starts to falter, the others try to help. If one gland dies, the others throw themselves on the funeral pyre in an attempt to make things better.
Don’t ever decide you can have a problem with only one endocrine gland. One gland may outdo the others in creating a mess, but they’re all in there, bailing like crazy.
Plus, all the endocrine glands work in all parts of the body. Receptors for thyroid hormone, for instance, are in the gut, and estrogen receptors are in the brain. Well, who knew?
Endocrine problems are systemwide, and everything affects everything. To use an expression from my old IBM days, a flow chart of what goes on would look like an explosion in a spaghetti factory.
That said, for comprehension’s sake, I’m going to write about the system one piece and one post at time. Just keep a thought in the back of your mind that nothing in the endocrine system acts independently and don’t skip a gland or two because you don’t think they apply.
I’ll write about are hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid, adrenals, parathyroids, pancreas, pineal, thymus, gonads and leptin, which is not actually a gland, but a real player in the endocrine game.
As I discuss each of the endocrine glands, keep in mind all of them converse back and forth 24/7 in a looped feedback kind of system. If one shows sign of trouble, the others jump in to do what they can to help out. Endocrine problems are system-wide, not local.
One final thought: Whenever you hear the word ‘hormone,’ you know the topic is the endocrine system–the source of all our hormones. And hormones are the gas that keeps the engine running.
Here’s a fact: Our endocrine system is a nutrition hog. And our diet can’t give us the nutrition we need, no matter how hard we try. To be healthy–and stay healthy–we need to bump up our nutrition with vitamins and minerals. Which brings up another fact: Most of us have no idea what’s good, what’s hype or how to build a balanced program.
Based on years of research and experience, Bette Dowdell wrote an e-book to get you past the vitamin learning curve and into health. Pep for the Pooped: Vitamins and Minerals Your Body Is Starving For helps you build a solid health foundation even if you can’t tell one vitamin from another or explain why we need minerals.
Besides giving you the information you need, the book has links to take you directly to the right brand, the best type, at the lowest price, which will save more money than the cost of the book. Skip the guesswork and get the help you need at http://TheVitaminMineralExpert.com.
Product recommendation: There’s more to life than working and worrying about vitamins and minerals. If golf’s your thing, get your 2010 Guide to Golf Discount Programs plus a US Public Golf Course Directory for 10,500 courses! Use it to help plan vacations and getaways–or even a local links day. Check it out at http://GoodGolfGuide.info,
Share this:
Post to del.icio.us
Digg this
Post to Slashdot
March 9th, 2010 at 12:09 am
Bette I have a question, I am stumped. I have had Hashi’s for 10 years, and it has destroyed anything called life. I had a wonderful Holistic PCP for a year and a half who got my life back, then she got killed. Back to square one.
I recently got so desperate after a regular Dr cut my dose of synthroid in half because my TSH was.4 instead of .5 even though my frees were low that I paid for a Naturopath who put me on selenium and found milk, egg, and wheat allergies. After eliminating the offenders,just three weeks later I have no antibodies. I get copies of my labs, so it isnt hoo haa or fixed, is this possible and why, or is my poor ole thyroid just dead now? I am still tired but better, I figure on 50 mcg of t4 and 25 t3 if it were dead I would be much worse right?
March 9th, 2010 at 8:57 am
First off, Faith, your up-and-down experience with doctors is kinda par for the thyroid course. A TSH of 4 is hypo. Knowledgeable doctors say anything above 2 is hypo, so cutting your med was a step in the wrong direction. However, I’m no fan of Synthroid, so being able to get rid of it altogether would be really fine. The mineral selenium is HUGE for the thyroid, so your naturopath was right on the money. I would recommend a complete vitamin/mineral program, though. For instance, iodine/iodide is also a big time booster for the thyroid. As are the B vitamins. Vitamin C, too. And D3. And so on. Can your thyroid live again? Our bodies are wonderfully made to restore themselves, and with your quick progress already, it seems possible. Drill down on this blog for the articles about things you need to avoid, such as soy; that will help your efforts, too. And read about my vitamin/mineral book (and get a free, sample chapter) at http://PepForThePooped.com It may be that hashi was a misdiagnosis based on allergies and vitamin/mineral deficiencies. Congratulations on taking responsibility for your own health.