Adrenal medulla

skin' (Nieman and Chanco Turner, 2006). Although the adrenal glands are part of the endocrine system, they also works alongside the nervous system to protect the body. A physiological change that Addison's disease can have on the nervous system is orthostatic hypotension…

The Controversy behind Endocrine Disruptors Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can cause an individual’s endocrine, neurological or immune system to not function properly. Many chemicals have been deemed endocrine disruptors but are still used heavily today. They can be seen in things such as, plastics, cosmetics and pesticides among other products. Whether or not the benefits that using certain compounds affords us is worth the damage they can potentially cause is the basis for the…

Glucocorticoids are steroid hormones which are produced predominantly in response to stress in the adrenal gland (Davis & Sandman 2010; Korgun et al. 2012). The physiological effects of glucocorticoids occur when the hormone are bind to, and mediated by the glucocorticoid receptor (Erhuma 2012). It plays a wide range of vital physiological roles that are necessary for healthy implantation and pregnancy processes (Korgun et al. 2012). As glucocorticoids are critical in the regulation of the…

I froze in horror as I read the Facebook message that was sent to me. He’s gone. My heart fell to my gut. I felt a sharp pain down my spine. My head started throbbing- I wanted to throw up. My body trembled, and my hands turned to ice. I started looking around the room to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I was trying to wake myself up from a nightmare that was my reality. According to Sapolsky, a neuroscientist of great renown, a “Stressor” is an event in the outside world that knocks you out of…

Non-classical adrenal hyperplasia or NCAH is a disorder that affects both men and women from late childhood through the rest of their lives. Compared to its sister form, classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia, it is non-life threatening. The Mayo Clinic, a service that gives people medical information and helps set up doctor appointments, defines NCAH as “a collection of genetic conditions that limit your adrenal glands' ability to make certain vital hormones.” These vital hormones include,…

Glucocorticoid are primarily used therapeutically as anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive agent. They are secreted from the adrenal cortex of the adrenal gland in a circadian manner or in response to stress perceived by the brain. They are able to modulate physiological homeostasis and coordinate those adaptive responses to stressors. An imbalance in glucocorticoid levels, specifically chronic glucocorticoid has been associated with a number of neuropsychiatric disorders, specifically…

You’re hiking through the woods when all of a sudden you hear a stick crack. You look cautiously around for the hazard, but you see no one. Your heart starts racing. You begin to sweat. Your mouth dries and you feel butterflies in your stomach. Your hair stands on end. You feel a surge of energy and in a split second you find yourself running away from the noise. Whether you’re aware of it or not, your body just went through a response known as the fight or flight response also known as the…

Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a condition which affects the ability of adrenal glands to produce adrenaline and myelin, which insulates the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. This diminishes the ability of the brain to communicate effectively with the rest of the nerves. This condition was initially identified in the early 1900s and was originally called Schilder-Addison disease (2). The cause of this condition originates in the peroxisomes, which are tiny structures in the cell which assist…

Cushing syndrome refers to the complex clinical manifestations resulting from chronic exposure to excess cortisol. Cushing disease is overproduction of pituitary ACTH by a pituitary adenoma (McCance, Huether, Brashers, & Rote, 2014, p. 754-755). Cushing’s disease is defined by Adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH) hypersecretion, induced by a corticotrophic adenoma, leading to cortisol and androgen hypersecretion. Cushing’s disease may lead to death if untreated; it is responsible for increased…

Ingle and his team set up a series of experiments in order to better understand the working relationship between the pituitary and adrenal glands. They hypothesized that the release of cortin from the adrenal cortex was regulated by the anterior lobe of the pituitary. At the time, it was established that treating animals with high doses of cortin caused the adrenal cortex to regress, and that the same effect was also observed when mice were hypophysectomized. Dr. Ingle organized six…