The Importance Of Our Endocrine System
Endocrine glands produce chemicals known as hormones and use them to communicate within the body to keep it regulated.
The major human endocrine glands include:
Hypothalamus – regulates a stable environment. In order to accomplish this it receives messages about the state of the body and can initiate changes if it feels the body is not functioning properly.
Pituitary Gland – Master gland of the body that produces and secretes hormones that can direct certain processes stimulating other glands to produce different types of hormones. It is connected to the hypothalamus and secretes six hormones that regulate the body.
Thyroid Gland – produces hormones that determine the metabolic rate of your body’s organs
Pancreas – produces the body’s most important enzymes used to break down starch and digest food. It produces insulin and glucagon used to regulate blood sugars.
Adrenal Glands – release three different kinds of hormones that maintain metabolic process, inflammation, response to stress, pregnancy. Also regulates the sexual maturation during puberty.
Pineal Gland – produces melatonin that regulates sleep patterns.
Gonads – secrete sex hormones.
I think the most important thing to understand about our endocrine system is that it regulates messages carried throughout our bodies. Any disruption of these messages can have disastrous consequences. Science is still trying to grasp the full role of the endocrine glands so there is much to learn. I have always been fascinated with the term “auto immune disease.” Even at a younger age I just could not understand why a healthy cell would attack another healthy cell. How does this even begin to make any sense unless there was some sort of communication error or disruption in normal activity. And what could cause that?
I honestly believe that because we are in the infancy of understanding the dangers of endocrine disrupting chemicals such as genetically modified food, pesticides, BPAs, dioxin, aspartame, and so many more, that we feel we can’t make a direct link. But it is staring us right in the face. The endocrine system is vital to our entire body functioning with all of its checks and balances. Any disruption to that cell to cell communication can have many profound effects to our health. Is this proven yet? No, but I think once we become knowledgeable about our endocrine system, and endocrine disruptors it will be pretty easy to put two and two together. The greatest part of this reality is that we can fix it, because we have become aware of the root of the problem.