Endocrinology

Explanation and definition

The term endocrinology comes from the Greek and means “the study of morphology and function of glands with internal secretion and hormones“. The word endocrine describes endocrine glands in the human body that release their products (hormones) directly into the blood. They therefore have no excretory duct for secretion and can thus be clearly distinguished from the so-called exocrine glands, such as salivary or sebaceous glands, which release their products “outwardly”.

Hormones themselves are already indispensably important during human development. They serve as messenger substances and thus control all important body developments and functions. In doing so, they already unfold their effect at low doses, whose modes of action are very closely controlled.

Thus, each hormone has its own receptor via a kind of “key-lock principle”, so that mistakes are avoided as far as possible. Nevertheless, our hormone system can develop diseases or conditions that can be attributed to deficiencies, surpluses or other interlocking imbalances of the hormone-producing glands. These are not always rare or very specific hormone disorders that affect an organ such as the thyroid gland.

Rather, the subject of endocrinology deals with a kind of network in which the various set screws influence each other. Thus, so-called “widespread diseases” such as diabetes, osteoporosis or hormonal changes in old age also fall within this specialty. Patients affected by these diseases often have a long ordeal behind them, because what at first glance appears to be halfway easy turns out to be extremely difficult in reality. The occurring symptoms of a hormonal disease are very individually pronounced and often cannot be directly associated with a clinical picture at first glance. The endocrinologist must view the human being holistically as a complex, interconnected system and cannot limit himself to a single organ.

The most common diseases in endocrinology

But first we would like to give you an overview of the most common endocrinological diseases in the form of a list.

  • Hypothyroidism
  • Hyperthyroidism
  • Graves’ disease
  • Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
  • Addison’s disease
  • Cushing’s syndrome
  • Diabetes mellitus