Metabolic Disorders—Endocrine Diseases

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. These include

• Growth and development
• Metabolism – digestion, elimination, breathing, blood circulation and maintaining body temperature
• Sexual function
• Reproduction
• Mood

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.

In the United States, the most common endocrine disease is diabetes. There are many others. They are usually treated by controlling how much hormone your body makes. Hormone supplements can help if the problem is too little of a hormone.

• Androgen insensitivity syndrome (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Endocrine glands (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Intersex (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) I (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) II (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (Medical Encyclopedia)

Metabolism is the process your body uses to get or make energy from the food you eat. Food is made up of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Chemicals in your digestive system break the food parts down into sugars and acids, your body’s fuel. Your body can use this fuel right away, or it can store the energy in your body tissues, such as your liver, muscles, and body fat.

A metabolic disorder occurs when abnormal chemical reactions in your body disrupt this process. When this happens, you might have too much of some substances or too little of other ones that you need to stay healthy. There are different groups of disorders. Some affect the breakdown of amino acids, carbohydrates, or lipids. Another group, mitochondrial diseases, affects the parts of the cells that produce the energy.

You can develop a metabolic disorder when some organs, such as your liver or pancreas, become diseased or do not function normally. Diabetes is an example.

• Acidosis (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Alkalosis (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Lactic acid test (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Metabolic acidosis (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Metabolic neuropathies (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Pseudohypoparathyroidism (Medical Encyclopedia)