March 26th Scribe Post
Today in science we started another human body system called the Endocrine System. This is the system that has all the glands. (The gland system) The glands that we covered today were the Thyroid, Parathyroids, Adrenal, Pancreas, and the pituitary glands. The Thyroid is a butterfly shaped gland about the size of a bar of soap. It releases a hormone called thyroxine that contrlos your bodys metabolism. The metabolism is all the chemical reactions that happen in the body and cells. The thyroid will not work properly if it doesn’t have enough iodine. Iodine is an element that is usually found in types of seafood. When your thyroid enlarges it makes it difficult to swallow sometimes. This can become painful! Behind the thyroid is the parathyroid, four, small pea sized gland.This gland releases hormones that help to control the amount of phostate and calcium that is in your blood. Calcium is very important because it makes your bones and teeth strong, and clotting blood. You need phostate to because this element helps to keep the right pH level in your blood. But this hormone can cause some problems like if it makes to much of the hormone your bones can become brittle and will break easily because they will not have the right level of calcium. Next there are the adrenal glands and they are the ones that are found on top of your kidneys. They have an inner and outer layer. The outer layer creates 30 hormones that control the amount of salt in your blood and keep the right water balance in the body. They provide relief to swollen joints. The inner layer makes a hormone called adrenaline. When you have sudden fear, pain, or anger your adrenals make adrenaline. The hormone makes the heart beat faster, releases more food stored in the liver, increases your sweating, and makes you breathe harder. The pancreas is found behind the stomach. Part of the pancreas produces enzymes that go to the small intestine to further break down the chyme coming from the stomach. But the pancreas also makes hormones. One hormone is called insulin that controls the amount of glucose in the bloodstream and allows glucose to move from your body to your cells. This is important because the glucose must be used with the oxygen to create energy in the body cells. If a persons body doesn’t make enough insulin which is a problem because then the glucose stays in the blood. When this happens you may be diagnosed with a diesease called diabetes. At the doctors, when you give a urine sample and the urine has sugar in it this could mean you have the disease. Lastly the pituitary gland is a marble sized gland that is found at the bottom of the cerebrum. This is sometimes called the “master gland” because it releases hormones that control the other glands. One of the hormones this gland makes is the human growth hormone or HGH. The hormone controls how fast your bones, muscles, and organs grow. Also it determines how tall a person would be as an adult. It controls the activities of the thyroid, adrenal, and reproductive glands too.
