Endocrinology

This week i was lucky enough to be able to attend a lecture on endocrinology at my college. As i will be applying for medicine later this year and inevitably the question of my speciality will come up i have been trying to increase my awareness in all the different fields in medicine so as to be able to make a better and more refined choice when it comes to choosing my speciality!

So what is endocrinology? It is a branch of medicine that deals with the hormones produced by the body and its effects on our metabolic processes and on endocrine glands and organs (such as the pancreas). The endocrine system is a collection of different organs that secrete hormones (including the thyroid, adrenals, skin and kidneys) through the blood to target an organ in order to make it function in a certain way (target organs are primarily all organs in the body including the brain, heart, lungs, etc.). Endocrinologists often deal with patients with over processing or under processing glands and hormones such as those with diabetes, whereby the pancreas is not able to produce enough insulin to keep blood glucose levels steady or with thyroid diseases such as imbalances between thyroxine, produced by the thyroid to help regulate body metabolism.

So what type of work does an endocrinologist face? It mainly includes diagnostic evaluation of a range of symptoms and the long term management of deficiency or excess of hormones. Mostly diagnosis and treatment is done though lab tests by testing functions of different organs, therefore biological and clinical chemistry knowledge is key. However it also involves care for patients as some of them may face chronic diseases requiring lifelong care. Apart from treating patients most endocrinologists are also involved in clinical science, medical research, teaching and hospital management.

And finally, where does endocrinology stand today? Its major aspects include the scientific and clinic caring of the human body by discovering functions of different hormones and their complex managment and pathophysiology. It is also widely involved in food production in increasing animal produce such as meat and eggs.