Hormone, Diabetes and Metabolism Terms

A substance produced in the brain, especially in the pituitary gland, that blocks the sensation of pain.

Blood sugar level shifts throughout the day depending on food intake, physical activity, and hormones that raise or lower it.

A test used to help diagnose a type of pancreatic tumor called an insulinoma.

A hormone formed by the C cells of the thyroid gland.

A rare cancer that forms in the outer layer of tissue of the adrenal gland (a small organ on top of each kidney that makes steroid hormones, adrenaline, and noradrenaline to control heart rate…

A rare, inherited disorder marked by dark spots on the skin and tumors in the heart, endocrine glands, skin, and nerves.

A rare, inherited disorder marked by dark spots on the skin and tumors in the heart, endocrine glands, skin, and nerves.

Two opposite streams of chemistry running at once inside every cell, one tearing molecules down and one building them up.

When radioactive material is used to examine the thyroid with a scanner, nodules that collect less radioactive material than the surrounding thyroid tissue are considered "cold." A nodule that is…

Two jobs sit under one name, calming inflammation and holding on to salt, and each drug leans toward one or the other.

Corticotropin release follows a daily pattern and rises further during physical or emotional stress, driving a corresponding rise in cortisol.

An estrogen-like substance (phytoestrogen) made by some plants.

A small growth in the head drives glands above the kidneys, and the visible damage appears everywhere except where the fault lies.

By a wide margin the most common cause is steroid medication taken for another illness rather than a tumor.

Its pain effect runs through descending spinal pathways, which is why it eases nerve pain in people who are not depressed.

A group of enzymes involved in drug metabolism and found in high levels in the liver.

A synthetic luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH) antagonist that suppresses LH and sex steroid levels.

A drug whose harms surfaced a generation later, in the children exposed before birth rather than in the women who were treated.

DHT is a potent hormone derived from testosterone that drives male sexual development and contributes to prostate enlargement and pattern hair loss.

One word covering two unrelated illnesses, though on its own it is almost always taken to mean the sugar one.