What is the Endocrine System?

Our bodies have two ways of controlling our body tissues. One way is through the nervous system with its neural pathways, the other way of controlling body tissues is through the endocrine system.

Our endocrine system is an information signal system much like the nervous system. Whilst our nervous system uses nerves to conduct information, our endocrine system uses our vascular system to carry sex hormone and non-sex hormone agents to the 50 trillion cells in our body.

Our endocrine systems comprise a network of glands that produce more than fifty different known hormones to maintain and regulate basic bodily functions. Hormones are chemical messengers - this is the way our bodies communicate at a cellular level.

The major glands that make up the human endocrine system include the: hypothalamus, pituitary gland, thyroid, parathyroids, adrenal glands, pineal and the reproductive glands (the ovaries and testes).

The main function of our endocrine system and its hormone messengers is to maintain homeostasis (a stable internal environment in the body) and to promote permanent structural changes.

The most important part of our endocrine system is the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, or the HPA axis as it is referred to commonly. And the HPA axis is the KEY to optimal health and wellness.

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