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What is Addisons Disease

Addison’s disease is a hormonal disorder that occurs when the adrenal glands in the body (which reside just above your kidneys) don’t produce enough of the hormones cortisol (and or aldosterone). It’s the common name for the medical term hypoadrenocorticism or adrenal insufficiency. It occurs in all age groups and seems to affect both men and women equally. Having said that, it’s not something that occurs commonly – typically only affecting about one in 100,000 people.

Addisons Disease Medical Symptoms

Addisons disease is typically characterized by loss of weight, weakness in the muscles, tiredness/fatigue, low blood pressure(which can cause fainting episodes), and at times a darkening of the skin in areas of the body. People with Addisons disease are commonly irritable and can be depressed. They also tend to crave salty foods. Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, is commonly seen in children with Addisons. And with some women, they may notice that their menstrual cycle becomes irregular or stop altogether. Addisons disease can be life threatening and these episodes are often referred to as an Addisonian crisis. Medical symptoms of an Addisonian crisis include sudden penetrating pain in the lower back, abdomen, or legs, severe vomiting and diarrhea, which is often followed by dehydration; low blood pressure; and loss of consciousness.

These medical symptoms occur as a direct result of the low concentrations of the hormones that the adrenal glands are supposed to produce. Let’s look at the hormones in detail. Starting with the usual one that’s reduced in Addisons disease – cortisol. Cortisol belongs to a class of hormones called glucocorticoids and this hormone pretty much has it’s foot in every the proper functioning of most organs in the body. Principally however, the most important function of cortisol is a stress regulator. When your body undergoes stress, it releases cortisol to cope with it and it does so by slowing the immune system’s inflammatory response, maintaining your blood pressure, regulating the breakdown of sugar for energy and the metabolism of proteins and fats. Control of the amount of cortisol released by the adrenal glands is maintained by the pituitary gland in your brain which releases a stimulatory hormone called ACTH (adrenocorticotropin) which triggers the adrenals to release cortisol into the circulatory system in response to stress. In Addisons disease the ability to release cortisol is markedly reduced and therefore the individual finds it impossible to deal with stressful situations. The other important hormone that is sometimes reduced in Addisons disease is aldosterone (which is in a class of hormones called mineralocorticoids). It’s primary function is to help the kidney regulate the salt and water balance in the body which in turn regulates blood pressure.

Causes of Addisons Disease

There are 2 general reasons for the failure of the adrenals to produce enough cortisol :

• Primary adrenal insufficiency – where the fault lies in the adrenal glands itself ie they cortisol producing cells have been destroyed by either autoimmune disorders (where the body decides for some reason or another to turn on itself and take out certain cell lines) or cancer.
• Secondary adrenal insufficiency – where the failure lies in the inadequate production of the stimulatory hormone ACTH from the pituitary gland. This can sometimes occur because a person’s taking medications like prednisone (a glucocorticoid) which sends signals to the brain that the body already has sufficient cortisol swimming around the system and therefore to halt the orders to make more. Other causes are the side effects of having had surgery for benign tumours of the pituitary gland and if the surgeon has taken too much out, then the result is Addisons disease.

Diagnosis of Addisons Disease

Addisons disease is notoriously hard to diagnose because the medical symptoms are vague and often mimic other illnesses. A series of blood/urine tests (ACTH Stimulation test, Insulin-Induced Hypoglycemia Test) are usually conducted to diagnose Addisons disease. Further tests include xrays and possible CT Scans of the adrenal and pituitary glands.

If the patient presents with an Addisonian crisis, the doctor will usually commence treatment first and then wait for the patient to stabilize before testing for Addisons disease.

Treatment of Addisons Disease

Generally, treatment involves oral replacement of the hormones that are lacking – synthetic glucocorticoids are taken once or twice daily. If aldosterone is also deficient, then another drug called fludrocortisone is taken orally once daily, at the same time, most of these patients are also advised to increase their intake of salt in their diet. In addition to this, most patients are also told to avoid stressful situations if possible and if they anticipate a stressful event in the near future to adapt their dosage regime to cater to the increase requirement for cortisol in their body – these events would include potential surgery, pregnancy. It’s also advised to tell their family members and loved ones about the symptoms of an addisonian crisis and to have an action plan devised if it occurs – this usually involves injecting the patient with cortisol. Medic Alert bracelets are a life saver and a necessity in these situations.

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Now this is a touchy subject. If only because prostate cancer is just one of those things that you don’t talk about…women are pretty open about cancers relating to their reproductive organs eg breast cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, but somehow, perhaps it’s because it’s embarrassing or taboo, men just don’t talk to their friends about such intimate things. Vasectomies, testicular cancer, prostate cancer, these are all just never something spoken of – even if they did have it, they opt to stay mum about the whole thing (no pun intended).

prostate cancer symptoms

Early on, prostate cancer symptoms aren’t all that obvious which is why a lot of men put up with the early signs only to find that when the cancer is diagnosed, the cancer has already spread to the surrounding organs. If you experience any of the symptoms below or are over 50 and haven’t had your regular screening for prostate cancer, then it’s time to visit your doctor – always better safe than sorry.

• increased urge to urinate – especially at night. If you are waking up regularly at night to go to the toilet, it’s time to visit your doctor for a check up
• difficulty urinating – it could be that you find it hard to start urinating or holding it back when you need to
• painful or burning sensation when urinating
• blood in your urine or semen
• frequent pain in your lower back, hips or thighs
• difficulty having an erection or painful ejaculations

prostate cancer facts

If you are still embarrassed about prostate cancer and are hesitant about visiting your doctor for a check up, consider these facts :

• A new case of prostate cancer occurs every 2.5 minutes and every 17 minutes a man dies from prostate cancer
• Prostate cancer is only second to lung cancer as the biggest disease killer of men in the US
• It is estimated that over 2million men in USA are living with prostate cancer
• Prostate cancer is insidious and the early symptoms are often ignored by men and diagnosis usually only comes from a routine PSA blood test or digital rectal examination

See other medical symptoms

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I watched with some incredulity as the news last night portrayed a ‘Ginger drink’ whose manufacturers claimed actually killed prostate cancer cells. And I guess that was what Dr Dong MD, phD at Sydney University Australia thought too when he was sent a ginger punch drink and was asked if he would test it on prostate cancer cells to see if it did what it claimed it would do. So with a healthy dose of skepticism and a sense of humour, Dr Dong obliged (he kept an open mind). Trials started in Christmas 2004 and by May 2005 he had completed the study. The results startled him and his colleagues…the drink had a near perfect 100% kill rate on the cancer cells.

This ginger punch was no snake oil concoction whipped up by some backyard wannabe famous. It was the baby of biochemist Greg Jardine. Reaping the anti-oxidants that grapes offered in wine, Greg optimized the concentration of them in the beverage that he produced (red wine only offers 1/3 of the anti-oxidants available in grapes, Greg Jardine and his team of scientists purified the mixture to ensure that 100% of the anti-oxidants remained in the beverage that he produced). Then ginger and lime which also had well documented anti-oxidative capacities were added to the mix that the perfect killer cancer cell mix was produced. This drink was the non-alcoholic ginger punch that was sent to Dr Dong for testing with prostate cancer cells.

With the outstanding preliminary results under his arm, Dr Dong is now proceeding to animal trials and it is predicted that these studies will be completed by the end of this year. Other cancer cell lines eg breast cancer would also be tested. Great news indeed and if it does eventually become mainstream treatment, it would be a toast of the town!