Lesson 6

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 382.

· What diseases of the endocrine system do you know? Try to name the most common symptoms of these disorders. Choose the correct and the odd variants from the list below and discuss your point of view with your groupmates:

fatigue, nausea, high temperature, cough, headache, intolerance to cold, runny nose, earache, enlargement of thyroid gland, toothache, intolerance to heat, skin rash, gum bleeding, boldness, fragile bones, excessive thirst, excessive hunger, loss of weight, disturbance in vision, tremors of fingers, craving for salt, deep voice.

· Try to find 12 hidden words. If you find it difficult, use the hint under the table:

THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM DISEASES

Endocrine system diseases are diseases related to the endocrine glands. Malfunction of these glands results into various endocrine system disorders. Your endocrine system includes eight major glands throughout your body. These glands make hormones. Hormones are chemical messengers. They travel through your bloodstream to tissues or organs. Hormones work slowly and affect body processes from head to toe.

If your hormone levels are too high or too low, you may have a hormone disorder. Hormone diseases also occur if your body does not respond to hormones the way it is supposed to. Stress, infection and changes in your blood's fluid and electrolyte balance can also influence hormone levels.

The broad classification of diseases is based on the hormonal secretions. They are as follows:

Ø Hypersecretion (excessive secretion of hormones)

Ø Hyposecretion (insufficient secretion of hormones)

Ø Cancer or tumors in the endocrine gland.

The severity of endocrine system disease can be mild, moderate or severe. Treatment depends on individual disease, but often synthetic replacement of hormones is mainly used to balance the level in body.

Acromegaly

Acromegaly is a growth disorder caused by too much growth hormone (GH) being released by the pituitary gland, leading to excessive growth. Of course, GH is very important in children because it helps their bones and muscles develop. When GH is released at normal levels, it promotes healthy growth. Too much of it, though, is a serious—but rare—endocrine disorder. The incidence of acromegaly is very low: About 3 to 4 people in every 1 million people will be diagnosed with acromegaly every year.

Addison's disease

Addison's disease is a rare disorder that affects men and women of all ages. It is also referred to as primary adrenal insufficiency. It develops when your adrenal glands do not produce enough of the hormone cortisol. This can be due to a problem within the adrenals or due to a problem with the signal the brain sends to the adrenals instructing them to make cortisol. Symptoms of Addison's disease and secondary adrenal insufficiency may slowly develop and progress. Common symptoms include: weakness, fatigue, abdominal pain, nausea, weight loss, low blood pressure, darkened skin, salt craving, dizziness upon standing, depression.

Cushing's disease

In 1932, a physician named Harvey Cushing described 8 patients with central body obesity, glucose intolerance, hypertension, excess hair growth, osteoporosis, kidney stones, menstrual irregularity, and emotional liability. It is now known that these symptoms characterize Cushing's syndrome, which is the result of excess production of cortisol by the adrenal glands. It is a disorder of the adrenal cortex caused by a malignant or benign adrenal cortex tumor. When the adrenal glands develop a tumor, like any other endocrine gland, they usually produce excess amounts of the hormone normally produced by these cells.

Diabetes

The two types of diabetes the most frequently spoken about are type 1 diabetes insipidus and type 2 diabetes mellitus.

If you have type 1 diabetes, then your body doesn't produce enough insulin to handle the glucose in your body. Glucose is a sugar that your body uses for instant energy, but in order for your body to use it properly, you have to have insulin.

Having too much glucose in your body can cause serious complications. In order to avoid those, people with type 1 diabetes must take insulin to help their bodies use glucose effectively.

Type 2 diabetes is more common than type 1 diabetes. Around 90% to 95% of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. There are several key differences between type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

The most important difference is in the hormone insulin. People with type 2 diabetes produce insulin, but their bodies don't use it correctly; people with type 1 diabetes don't produce insulin at all. People with type 2 can be insulin resistant, when their cells don't respond to insulin as they should. They can also be unable to produce enough insulin to handle the glucose in their body. Insulin is needed to allow the glucose to travel from the blood stream into our cells, where it's used to create energy.

Type 2 used to be called adult onset diabetes or non-insulin dependent diabetes because it was diagnosed mainly in older people. However, more children are starting to be diagnosed with type 2 and insulin is used more frequently, so the names are no longer correct.

Dwarfism

This is a genetic or pathological condition that is characterized by short stature and undersize when the growth has stopped before full size has been reached. Abnormal skeletal growth usually results in an adult who is significantly below the average height. The reason may be hidden in the excessive secretion of somatotropin by adenohypophysis of the pituitary gland.

Hyperthyroidism

Hyperthyroidism is a condition caused by the effects of too much thyroid hormone on tissues of the body. Although there are several causes of hyperthyroidism, most of the symptoms patients experience are the same regardless of the cause. Patients with hyperthyroidism usually experience fatigue at the end of the day, but have trouble sleeping. Trembling of the hands and a hard or irregular heartbeat (called palpitations) may develop.

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis means "porous bone," and it's a disorder characterized by "holey" bones. A healthy bone under a microscope has gaps similar to those in a honeycomb. But an osteoporotic bone contains much bigger spaces than healthy bones. This is bone disease caused due to lack of minerals, especially calcium, when parathyroid gland does not function well. For many women, bone loss becomes a major problem because of the significant drop in estrogen levels. Estrogen supports osteoblasts, which produce bone. When estrogen level drops, your body's ability to make new bone drops as well. This process may eventually cause a significant loss of bone mass or density, resulting in osteoporosis.