Educational Feature

The Endocrine System

Cognitive

Who Am I: I am your Endocrine System. My job is to secrete hormones into your blood to promote homeostasis—balance. My hormones can stimulate growth, allow for water retention, raise and lower your blood glucose levels, promote sodium retention, and induce the development of male and female sex characteristics.

Voice of your Endocrine System: I am the voice of your Endocrine System. I am a specialized system that uses chemical messengers, called hormones. I release these messengers into your blood, and unlike electrical signals in nerves, I take more time to react. I have very important long-lasting effects. My job is immense, as I regulate the speed of thousands of chemical processes.

By design, I am made up of more than a dozen glands, producing several dozen hormones of two general types: protein-derived hormones and steroids-derived hormones, which act as chemical messengers.

My protein-derived messengers trigger activity in a cell by locking onto receptors on the cell’s outer membrane. Steroid-derived hormones can travel through the membrane to link up with receptors inside.

Interaction with the receptor sites in your cells creates change by switching your genes on and off, causing them to start or stop transcription of key proteins. Once my hormones have done their work, any surplus is disposed of by a chemical breakdown in your liver, and excretion by your kidneys.

You will find my hormone producing glands scattered throughout the body. Three of my major glands include the pituitary, the hypothalamus, and pineal, are all located in the head. The rest of my outposts are in the neck and trunk. Hormones keep the body under control and in chemical balance.

In your neck you will find my thyroid gland (pictured above), which is responsible for increasing your body’s overall metabolic rate. My thymus gland (found underneath the sternum) helps maintain and develop the immune system. My adrenal glands (a pair of glands found near your stomach), prepare your body for emergencies.

If you have to jump out of the way of a moving car, or react in another perceived emergency, I kick in with the hormone adrenaline. This hormone has an almost instantaneous effect and is released any time you are under stress.

I am the system responsible for the physical changes you experience during puberty. The paired gonads—ovaries in females and testes in males—release sex hormones: estrogens (mainly estradiol) in women, and androgens (mainly testosterone) in men. These produce physical changes at puberty, preparing the body for reproduction.

My pancreas releases insulin and glucagons and controls your blood sugar levels.

My parathyroid glands are four small, paired glands found in your neck that work to adjust calcium levels in your blood.

My pituitary gland produces a variety hormones and is responsible for directing many of the other endocrine glands, much like a conductor directs an orchestra.

My hypothalamus forms the main link between your nervous and endocrine systems, and my pineal gland controls body rhythms, such as sleeping and waking.

I am responsible for keeping your internal clock running. I function to regulate almost all of your body’s cells – their growth, healing, and energy level. Insulin and glucagon are two of my hormones that control your level of glucose, the body’s energy provider.

My Gift To You: I make it possible for you to maintain homeostatis, keeping your whole body stable.

Symbology

Imagine Me As: Visualize me as an intricate web of systems with chemical messengers, called hormones, which interact with receptor sites that keep your body under control and in chemical balance.

Sensory

In Nia: Become aware of sensation and begin to notice subtle changes that include mood, temperature, and shift in your blood sugar level. Any change you notice is a direct response to your hormones actively participating to keep you in check.

The Craft and Techniques you use to keep your Endocrine System healthy are:

• Awareness – Become aware of the sensation of homeostasis. Integrate the Nine Movement Forms to keep your nervous system (which is linked to your endocrine system) healthy.
• Three Planes and Levels – Integrate moving through three planes and levels to increase your body’s metabolic rate.
• Pleasure – Seek the sensation of pleasure and comfort to keep your immune system healthy.
• Agility – Play with the sensation of “start of stop” so you are prepared for emergencies.
• Yin and Yang – Play with Yin and Yang movement, addressing the voice of feminine and masculine hormones.

When Dancing Through Life: Fully involve yourself with the world around you. Learn to balance your emotions by expressing what you feel from the inside out. Listen to the voices of your body to respect the chemical intelligence that is always transmitting and receiving information to keep you healthy and happy.

Each Voice of The Body is defined within a Structure made up of the Cognitive, Symbology, and Sensory Awareness aspects. Each aspect is defined by particular elements that impart the scientific components and deeper meanings of the Voice of The Body. Review the Structure to better understand this issue's Voices of the Body.

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