In your mind’s eye, picture a rock stuck in a funnel.
Now envision trying to pour some water into the top of that funnel. With very little water able to get around the crevices of that rock, the water starts building up to the top of the funnel, eventually overflowing.
If you dump the water out, then try a different liquid, or maybe something else, like a powder, the same thing will happen. Little, if any, will get through the funnel. It’s all being blocked.
That’s what my brain tumor was doing to me ten years ago, only it was acting like this rock in a funnel inside my pituitary gland: the control center for my endocrine system.
The pituitary communicates with, and receives feedback from vital organs like your thyroid gland, adrenals, liver, and reproductive organs.
When it’s not functioning properly, like in my case, everything starts to go horribly wrong. None of these important organs – your thyroid, liver, reproductive organs, or adrenals – can get the signaling and feedback they need in order to keep your body healthy.
When I finally found the tumor on an MRI, I started rifling through my textbooks to find any information I could on how to help myself get out of this mess without using surgery or drugs. Cracking open Williams Textbook of Endocrinology, it became evident that my problem wasn’t only about the hypothalamus not being able to get the right input through my pituitary out to the body, but none of these other glands could send the right feedback back through the pituitary properly either!
I quickly realized that the endocrine system functions entirely on feedback loops; hormone signaling is cyclical, not linear. Nearly every medical illustration in the textbook has cyclical arrows drawn out, demonstrating these feedback loops between every major gland in the body, and the pituitary is right in the middle of it all.
Before that point, I had very little understanding that the body was so systemically integrated. It’s just one big system, and all the glands inside of it communicate with one another. And they do so, with hormones. These hormone loops help the glands regulate one another, to stay in a state of balance.
And when your mind's eye picture a rock Stuck in a funnel now Envision trying to Pour some water into the top of that Funnel with very little water able to Get around the crevices of that rock the Water starts building up to the top of The funnel eventually overflowing if you Dump the water out then try a different Liquid or maybe something else like a Powder the same thing will happen little If any will get through the funnel it's All being blocked that's what my brain Tumor was doing to me 10 years ago only It was acting like this rock in a funnel Inside my pituitary gland the control Center for my endocrine system the Pituitary communicates with and receives Feedback from vital organs like your Thyroid gland adrenals liver and Reproductive organs I quickly realized that everything in Your endocrine system functions on Feedback loops it's actually cyclical Not linear Every medical illustration in the Textbooks actually demonstrates you'll See these cyclical arrows drawn out Between all the major key organs in the Body and the pituitary is right in the Middle of it before that point I have Very little understanding that the body Was so systemically integrated