Читать книгу The Slim Book of Health Pearls: Hormones, Nerves, and Stress - Sheldon Cohen M.D. FACP - Страница 5

Endocrine glands produce and secrete hormones into the blood stream. Early 1900 Physicians and scientists believed that the endocrine glands worked autonomously; each doing its own thing independent of the other.

Hormones are chemical substances which act on the body to:

1.Direct the body’s metabolism (all the body’s physical and chemical processes)

2.Regulate body growth, sexual development and functioning

3.Assist in the coordination of the functions of different parts of the body

This last statement is true today, but was not understood in the early 1900s.

The known glands, their hormones, and their “autonomous” function at that time were as follows:

•THYROID GLAND secretes hormones that regulate body metabolism

•PARATHYROID GLAND four embedded in the thyroid gland regulate calcium levels in the blood and bone metabolism

•REPRODUCTIVE GLANDS (OVARIES, TESTES) responsible for the sex hormones that produce male characteristics and sperm production, and female characteristics, egg production, menstruation, and pregnancy

And finally and with most relevance to our study of stress the

•ADRENAL GLANDS These glands (two…each one perched on top of the kidneys) are triangular shaped glands composed of two parts:

1.The outer part known as the adrenal cortex produces hormones called GLUCOCORTICOIDS), which regulates the body’s metabolism, salt and water metabolism, the immune system (not understood in the early 1900’s) and also plays a part in sexual function…and

2.The inner part known as the adrenal medulla produces EPINEPHRINE (adrenalin), which helps the body confront physical and emotional stress by increasing blood pressure and heart rate and force.

The book will concentrate principally on the adrenal glands that play a major role in the stress reaction.

Before continuing on with the exciting and interesting story of the stress response, here is a fascinating sidelight.