About Adrenal Disorders
What are adrenal disorders?
In order to help you best understand adrenal disorders, let’s first find out what adrenal glands are before learning about their disorders. The adrenal glands are two small structures that sit on top of the kidneys, deep in the back, behind the abdominal cavity and well beneath the back muscles. Although they are small, usually weighing about a tenth of an ounce apiece, they are powerful factories that make many hormones that are critically important to health and well being.
How do you know if you have an adrenal problem? Adrenal diseases, fortunately, are quite rare and many of the symptoms of adrenal disease are also found in other medical diseases and even in healthy people. From the symptoms described above, it is likely that many of us might qualify for testing. Testing for adrenal diseases is quite complicated; and, if there is any doubt, an endocrinologist should be consulted to determine the likelihood of over or underfunction of the adrenal gland or a tumor of the adrenal. hide
The hormones produced by the adrenal gland can all be measured by blood (and sometimes urine or salivary) testing. If certain chemical abnormalities are found, it is sometimes necessary to perform imaging of the adrenal gland with a CAT scan, MRI or specialized nuclear scans. When “secondary” adrenal disease is found, further testing of the pituitary gland in the brain will be necessary (see pituitary section). It is extremely important to consult an expert endocrinologist who can order the appropriate tests and interpret them correctly. hide
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