About This Location
Norman Regional's Endocrine Para/Thyroid Center is dedicated to the treatment of patients with endocrine-related diseases and disorders. The center has two endocrinologists, Drs. Lubna Mirza and Tan Pham, who specialize in the treatment of disorders involving the body's glands and the hormones they secrete. These conditions include diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, thyroid disease and more.
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Understanding Glands and Hormones
Adrenal
The adrenal glands are small glands located on top of each kidney. They produce hormones that you can't live without, including sex hormones and cortisol. Cortisol helps you respond to stress and has many other important functions.
With adrenal gland disorders, your glands make too much or not enough hormones. In Cushing's syndrome, there's too much cortisol, while with Addison's disease, there is too little. Some people are born unable to make enough cortisol.
Causes of adrenal gland disorders include:
- Genetic mutations
- Tumors including pheochromocytomas
- Infections
- A problem in another gland, such as the pituitary, which helps to regulate the adrenal gland
- Certain medicines
- Treatment depends on which problem you have. Surgery or medicines can treat many adrenal gland disorders.
Pituitary
Your pituitary gland is a pea-sized gland at the base of your brain. The pituitary is the 'master control gland' - it makes hormones that affect growth and the functions of other glands in the body. With pituitary disorders, you often have too much or too little of one of your hormones. Injuries can cause pituitary disorders, but the most common cause is a pituitary tumor.
Thyroid
Your thyroid is a small gland found at the base of your neck, just below your Adam's apple. The thyroid produces two main hormones called T3 and T4. These hormones travel in your blood to all parts of your body. The thyroid hormones control the rate of many activities in your body. These include how fast you burn calories and how fast your heart beats. All of these activities together are known as your body's metabolism. A thyroid that is working right will produce the right amounts of hormones needed to keep your body's metabolism working at a rate that is not too fast or too slow.
Parathyroid
Most people have four pea-sized glands, called parathyroid glands, on the thyroid gland in the neck. Though their names are similar, the thyroid and parathyroid glands are completely different. The parathyroid glands make parathyroid hormone (PTH), which helps your body keep the right balance of calcium and phosphorous.
If your parathyroid glands make too much or too little hormone, it disrupts this balance. If they secrete extra PTH, you have hyperparathyroidism, and your blood calcium rises. In many cases, a benign tumor on a parathyroid gland makes it overactive. Or, the extra hormones can come from enlarged parathyroid glands. Very rarely, the cause is cancer.
If you do not have enough PTH, you have hypoparathyroidism. Your blood will have too little calcium and too much phosphorous. Causes include injury to the glands, endocrine disorders, or genetic conditions. Treatment is aimed at restoring the balance of calcium and phosphorous. (NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease)
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