Avoid excessive diet and excessive exercise
Hormones are essential for the maintenance of homeostasis and physiological functions of the body. It moves throughout the body through blood and is involved in activating and controlling body functions.
There are about 100 types of hormones secreted by various endocrine glands, such as the pituitary gland, thyroid gland, and parathyroid gland, and the representative ones are growth hormone, lactation hormone, thyroid hormone, insulin, cortisol, testosterone (male hormone), and estrogen (female hormone).
Professor Jin Sang-wook of the Department of Endocrinology at Kyunghee University Hospital said, “It is not an exaggeration to say that hormones are involved in all areas of our breathing, including digestion, metabolism, respiration, sensory perception, sleep, growth and development, reproduction, and emotions.”
Professor Jin said, “It is important to keep the secretion of the pituitary gland, which regulates the production and secretion of various hormones in the human body, thyroid hormone, which is involved in body temperature regulation and energy metabolism, and parathyroid hormone, which regulates calcium concentration, within the normal range. It’s one of the ways to stay healthy.”
The pituitary gland (腦下垂体) is a very small organ located deep inside the head. It should not be reassured that the possibility of direct damage due to its location is slim. This is because the hormone secretion is disturbed if it does not function properly for various reasons.
One of the most common causes of an abnormal increase or decrease in pituitary hormone secretion is a pituitary tumor.
When several hormones secreted by the pituitary gland are excessive or insufficient than normal, rare but serious diseases such as acromegaly, hyperprolactinemia, and Cushing’s disease can be induced.
In addition, headache or visual field disturbance may appear due to optic nerve crossing and meningeal region compression caused by a pituitary tumor. When the normal pituitary tissue is compressed, hypopituitarism, which causes a problem in the secretion of normal pituitary hormones, may occur.
Professor Jin Sang-wook said, “The reason that active treatment of these pituitary diseases is necessary is that it increases the risk of various diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and osteoporosis, and there are studies that show that it can also increase the risk of colorectal cancer or thyroid cancer.”
Therefore, Professor Jin added, “hormonal imbalance can also be caused by binge eating, excessive diet, excessive exercise, and even environmental hormones that disturb normal hormonal function.”
The symptoms of pituitary disease vary depending on the type, degree, and rate of progression of the affected hormone, so it is good to respond sensitively to even small symptoms and constantly monitor your own body condition.
◇Maintaining hormonal balance with thyroidectomy Red light?
Hypothyroidism/hyperthyroidism, infertility, and sexual dysfunction, which are well known, are also diseases caused by hormonal imbalance. Among the endocrine organs, the thyroid gland secretes thyroid hormones that maintain body temperature and regulate energy metabolism, but resection due to cancer often occurs.
Professor Park Won-seo of the Department of Thyroid and Endocrinology at Kyunghee University Hospital said, “Thyroid cancer is the second most common cancer among Korean women after breast cancer. The situation is being determined to be cancer.”
Professor Park emphasized, “The most important core values in selecting the best surgical method according to the degree of cancer progression through surgery, i.e. size and lymph node metastasis, are the completeness of reducing recurrence and safety without complications,” Professor Park emphasized.
Surgery is divided into total resection and lobe resection according to the degree of removal of the thyroid gland. Total resection is the removal of the entire thyroid gland. It also removes microscopic cancers that may be hidden in the contralateral thyroid gland, enables radioiodine treatment after surgery, and has the advantage of improving the sensitivity of blood tests used in follow-up tests. However, there is a higher chance that you will need to take calcium supplements after surgery than lobectomy, and since the thyroid gland disappears, you will have to take thyroid hormones for the rest of your life.
On the other hand, lobectomy is performed for relatively early patients whose cancer size is small and lymph node metastasis is not visible on imaging tests. If only the thyroid lobe on the cancerous side is removed, and the final pathology after surgery is determined to be a low-risk group and the remaining thyroid function is sufficient, thyroid hormone medication may not be taken.
Professor Park Won-seo said, “The thyroid gland surrounds the airway, the breathing passage, and it is adjacent to important organs such as the recurrent laryngeal nerve that controls the movement of the vocal cords and the parathyroid gland that regulates calcium metabolism. “After surgery, thyroid hormone supplements are prescribed to suppress cancer recurrence, and the dosage is determined according to the results of functional tests and the risk of recurrence,” he said.
An increase in thyroid-stimulating hormone due to a lack of thyroid hormone increases the risk of recurrence. In other words, patients undergoing surgery for thyroid cancer must have sufficient thyroid hormone. However, since the appropriate dose may change, it is important to receive the optimal thyroid hormone medication through regular examinations.
Kwon Dae-ik medical journalist dkwon@hankookilbo.com
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