What is Endocrine System?
The endocrine system describes a series of glands which secrete hormone types directly into a human being’s bloodstream for regulation of the body.
The human body is one that works in ways that many of us do not fully understand, you would get to be fully amazed if you knew how some of the ‘normal’ functions that you do on a daily basis really get to be carried out in the body. One of such systems that we should get to know of is the endocrine system, and its main duty is to regulate the body functions through the secretion of hormones. The system consists of glands, and being that it does not consist of ducts, the hormones in question are usually secreted into the blood directly for them to reach the target area.
How does endocrine system work:
The working of the endocrine system could be likened to the way the nervous system works, but it does come out to be different in the sense that its responses usually take quite a bit of time, and are not instantaneous like the way it is when you look at the nervous system. The effects of the responses generated by the endocrine system also tend to last much longer than that of the nervous system, with the range being a few hours to even several weeks.
Hormones:
Hormones could be defined as the mediators of a chemical nature that are released by tissue from endocrine glands into the stream of blood in the body, where they are to get to a specific tissue that is targeted so as to get a given response. Some of the functions in the body that are regulated by hormones, referred to as the responses, include growth and development, functions of various tissues in the body, metabolism and also mood. For example, the hormone gastrin is released from the G cells in the stomach is released so as to stimulate gastric acid to be secreted into the stomach for purposes of digestion.
Endocrine glands:
The endocrine glands from which the hormones are secreted have got some unique features, key among them the fact that they do not have ducts. They also have got intracellular granules, and it is here that the hormones get to be stored. There are also some organs which have got some other primary functions in the body that also happen to also have endocrine functions. For example, if you look at the kidney, though its main function is excretion of the toxic wastes in the body, it also secretes certain hormones, such as rennin.
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