Endocrine System
Your body produces its own chemicals and uses them to control certain body and cell functions. The Endocrine System influences almost every cell, organ, and function of our bodies. It regulates mood, growth and development, tissue function, metabolism, sexual function and reproductive processes. The endocrine system is in charge of body processes such as cell growth.
What Is The Endocrine System?
The foundations of the endocrine system are the hormones and glands. Hormones transfer chemical messages and instructions from one set of cells to another. Many different hormones move through the bloodstream, but each type of hormone is designed to affect only certain cells.
A gland is a group of cells that produces and secretes or gives off chemicals. A gland selects and removes materials from the blood, processes them, and secretes the finished chemical product for use somewhere in the body. Endocrine glands release more than 20 major hormones directly into the bloodstream to cells in other parts of the body.
The major glands that make up the human endocrine system include the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, thyroid, adrenal glands, pineal body and reproductive glands (ovaries/gonads).
Hypothalamus: produces chemicals that either stimulate or suppress hormone secretions from the pituitary.
Pituitary Gland: Makes hormones that regulate the activity of the thyroid, adrenals, and reproductive glands. It produces a growth hormone, which stimulates the growth of bone and other body tissues and plays a role in the body's handling of nutrients and minerals. It also activates milk production in women who are breast feeding, stimulates the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormones, and stimulates the adrenal gland to produce certain hormones.
The pituitary also secretes chemicals that act on the nervous system and reduce feelings of pain. The pituitary secretes hormones that signal the reproductive organ to make sex hormones. It also controls ovulation and the menstrual cycle. It also releases a hormone, which helps control the balance of water in the body. It also triggers the contractions of the uterus in a woman having a baby.
Thyroid: produces the thyroid hormones that control the rate at which cells burn fuels from food to produce energy. The more thyroid hormone there is in a person's bloodstream, the faster chemical reactions occur in the body. There are also four tiny glands that function together to release hormones which regulates the level of calcium in the blood.
Adrenal Glands: produce hormones that influence or regulate salt and water balance in the body, the body's response to stress, metabolism, the immune system, and sexual development and function. It also increases blood pressure and heart rate when the body experiences stress.
Pineal Body: secretes melatonin, a hormone that may help regulate when you sleep at night and when you wake in the morning.
Gonads: the main source of sex hormones. Most people don't realize it, but both guys and girls have gonads. In guys the male gonads or testes are located in the scrotum.
A girl's gonads, the ovaries, are located in her pelvis. They produce eggs and secrete the female hormones estrogen and progesterone. During puberty, a girl will experience breast growth, will begin to accumulate body fat around the hips and thighs, and will have a growth spurt. Estrogen and progesterone are also involved in the regulation of a girl's menstrual cycle. These hormones also play a role in pregnancy.
Although the endocrine glands are the body's main hormone producers, some other organs not in the endocrine system such as the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and skin also produce and release hormones.
The pancreas is also part of the body's hormone-secreting system, even though it is also associated with the digestive system. The pancreas produces two important hormones, insulin and glucagon. They work together to maintain a steady level of glucose, or sugar, in the blood and to keep the body supplied with fuel to produce and maintain energy.
What Does The Endocrine System Do?
Once a hormone is secreted, it travels from the endocrine gland that produced it through the bloodstream to the cells designed to receive its message called target cells. Along the way to the target cells, special proteins bind to some of the hormones. These proteins act as carriers that control the amount of hormone that is available for the cells to use. The target cells have receptors that latch onto only specific hormones, and each hormone has its own receptor, so that each hormone will communicate only with specific target cells that have receptors for that hormone. When the hormone reaches its target cell, it locks onto the cell's specific receptors and these hormone-receptor combinations transmit chemical instructions to the inner workings of the cell.
When hormone levels reach a certain normal amount, the endocrine system helps the body to keep that level of hormone in the blood.
Explore the Emerging Hormone Revolution
What do I do about my hormones? Most women have been exposed to reports about the potential danger of long-term Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). This newsletter will provide common sense that may assist you, or a loved one, in solving what to do about supporting your hormonal balance as you age.
A point of confusion about hormones comes from women who believe that when they enter menopause naturally or surgically that their production of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone will cease completely. This is not so! There are various organs and tissues besides the ovaries involved in the production and processing of hormones.
These include the adrenal glands, the liver, and even the fat tissues. The adrenal glands are a key site for hormonal production in women; and the adrenal glands have the capacity for providing enough hormones to facilitate a smooth transition through menopause.
The challenge to achieving optimal hormonal wellness arises from numerous elements of the modern lifestyle that put excessive stress on the adrenal glands. These glands are sensitive to mental, emotional and physical stress. These stressors trigger the production of adrenaline. The adrenal glands may also be stressed by taking pharmaceutical drugs, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and being on a high-sugar diet. These stressors can tax the adrenal glands to the point of reducing overall adrenal function.
The modern lifestyle also puts excessive stress on the liver. The liver is involved in putting hormones together and taking them apart in the body. In the industrialized world, the liver has the extra burden of detoxifying environmental chemicals (some of which even mimic hormones), and that extra stress on the liver can have an indirect effect on hormonal function by diminishing the liver's resources for the detoxification of hormones after they are utilized.
A multitude of nutrients are necessary for the liver's ability to detoxify hormones. An extra demand for nutrients requires a greater need for vital nutritional supplementation.
Different Approaches to Health
What is the difference between the allopathic/pharmaceutical approach and the nutritional/lifestyle approach for dealing with the change of life?
The Western medical model treats the body with something other than natural elements to which the body is accustomed. The allopathic approach works against the body.
When you take a pharmaceutical drug, you are owned by the medication. Synthetic hormones are drugs, and while you are taking them, they own your body. This ownership is obvious to many women who are in the menopausal transition. They report being very uncomfortable as the hormones relinquish ownership.
I am not opposed to taking pharmaceutical drugs when necessary. When your body seriously malfunctions, it can be lifesaving to have a drug own your body; however, my perspective, as a health consultant, is that a proactive, natural wellness approach can often prevent a crisis and reduce the need for medications. Such an approach works with your body, not against it supporting optimal wellness.
With regard to hormonal wellness, a generalized and specific support for the adrenal glands and the liver are helpful. The support includes making healthy dietary choices, vital nutrient supplementation as well as working to achieve a mental and emotional balance.
The latter is crucial since stress is so taxing to adrenal function.
A Dietary Solution to the Problem
The most effective natural dietary approach is a low-glycemic diet that doesn't raise blood sugar quickly. A quick rise in blood sugar triggers insulin. High insulin levels produced by a high-glycemic diet can adversely affect hormone balance, as well as many other aspects of metabolism. A low-glycemic diet is composed of unprocessed foods, low-glycemic fresh fruits and vegetables, sufficient protein and essential fatty acids.
The Importance of Supplements
Individuals living in the industrialized world need more than diet alone. My experience is that a variety of supplements is essential.
Women will benefit from a carefully formulated multivitamin/mineral formula. This type of supplement is designed to fill the gap for all of us who simply don’t consume enough of the daily required amounts of fruits and vegetables.
A glyconutrient complex is designed to support optimal cellular communication. Glyconutrients are very important, since the hormonal system’s complex signaling mechanisms require accurate cellular communication for proper function.
Relief is available in a natural product called PLUS. PLUS leads the market with one of the highest concentrations of natural plant-based phytosterols and is designed to provide raw materials for the body to balance the hormones.
Plus
The importance of healthy endocrine function as a component of optimal wellness is receiving more and more attention, and the fact that a properly functioning endocrine (glandular) system is essential for optimal wellness has been established.
A well functioning endocrine system works in harmony with your body to support a healthy immune system. Plus provide nutrients that help support the endocrine system.
With a proprietary blend in a formula designed to be beneficial for women, Plus helps support the body’s endocrine system and supports immune, bone, breast, colon and cardiovascular health.
PLUS caplets are designed to provide raw materials for the body to use for endocrine support, the system that maintains hormonal balance in the body. PLUS does not contain hormones rather, it provides nutrients to help support the endocrine system’s natural production and balance of hormones.
I have personally worked with my clients to naturally support and balance the hormonal function. I have used it myself and in my practice for over eight years. The results have been amazing for both me and my clients. I am over 60 and I feel great!
The Physicians’ Desk Reference for Nonprescription Drugs and Dietary Supplements states that, PLUS caplets provide nutrients to help support the endocrine system’s natural production and balance of hormones.
Synthetics have been used to create hormonal drugs, including progestin (synthetic progesterone). Progestin is one of the drugs used in HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy). There is a key difference between nature’s own building blocks PLUS and a synthesized hormonal drug. A drug has side effects, whereas food does not.
There are even big differences between PLUS and natural wild yam formulas. I have had several clients purchase wild yam formulas and they have reported to me that these formulas didn’t work as well as PLUS.
