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Your adrenal glands are two small organs, one sitting on top of each kidney. They make hormones you need to stay alive and healthy — chemicals that travel in the bloodstream and control how different parts of the body work.
What they make
The adrenal glands make cortisol, aldosterone, adrenaline and noradrenaline, and hormones the body uses to make the sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone). Between them, these hormones:
- turn food into energy and manage blood sugar;
- balance salt and water;
- keep blood pressure normal;
- respond to illness and stress — the "fight or flight" response;
- set when and how fast a child develops sexually;
- support pregnancy.
When something goes wrong
With an adrenal gland disorder, the body makes too much or too little of one or more of these hormones. The symptoms depend on the kind of problem and how much it changes your hormone levels.
| Disorder | What it is |
|---|---|
| Addison's disease | the adrenal glands don't make enough cortisol |
| Cushing's syndrome | too much cortisol in the body, often from taking steroid medicines for a long time |
| Aldosterone-producing adenoma | a benign (non-cancerous) tumor that makes too much aldosterone and may cause serious high blood pressure |
| Hereditary paraganglioma-pheochromocytoma | an inherited condition causing different tumors that make adrenaline and other hormones; some may become cancerous |
| Adrenal gland cancer | cancerous tumors, including adrenocortical carcinoma and neuroblastoma |
| Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) | a group of inherited disorders in which the glands don't make enough cortisol |
The most common kind of CAH is 21-hydroxylase deficiency (also called CAH1). In the United States, newborns get a blood test for CAH. People born with it may have no symptoms until childhood or later.
Causes
The cause depends on the disorder. It can be:
- medicines, such as steroids;
- a problem in another gland, such as the pituitary gland, whose hormones affect how the adrenal glands work;
- changes in genes (mutations) that make the glands produce too much or too little of a hormone;
- infections.
In many cases, the cause isn't clear.
Tests
Which tests your provider uses depends on your symptoms and health history. They may test your blood, urine (pee) or saliva (spit) to check hormone levels, and order x-rays, CT scans or MRI scans to look for tumors.
Treatment
Each disorder has its own treatment, including medicines and surgery; radiation therapy is sometimes used for tumors. Some adrenal gland disorders can be cured; for others, treatment manages the symptoms.
Sources
Based on "Adrenal Gland Disorders," MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, with information from NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Лицензия: CC0 1.0 (общественное достояние) · По материалам medlineplus.gov
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