Cushing syndrome review

Introduction 

Cortisol is one of the most important hormones in our life as it regulates glucose levels inside the blood. Cortisol is the hormone that controls our mood as cortisol is called “Stress hormone”. Cortisol is secreted through adrenal cortex specially the zona fasciculata part which is stimulated through Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) which is also stimulated by the Corticotropic release hormones (CRH). Cortisol functions are Gluconeogenesis, proteolysis, and lipolysis. Excess release of cortisol leads to a syndrome called “Cushing Syndrome” which is discovered by the American neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing in 1932 which is caused due to presence of a benign tumor in the pituitary gland leading to an increase in secretion of Cortisol therefore leading to a lot of unliked symptoms also it might lead to a need for a Surgical intervention

Mechanism of increasing the secretion of cortisol 

There are a lot of reasons that might increase the presence of cortisol, Exogenous and Endogenous. The Exogenous might be because the medications taken that might be containing cortisol or steroids. The Endogenous is about what happen inside the body as there might be a tumor in the pituitary gland which will be “Cushing syndrome”. Increasing the size of the pituitary gland due to the tumor leads to increasing the secretion of CRH therefore increasing the secretion of ACTH therefore increase in stimulating the zona fasciculata leading to the increase of cortisol in the blood level. Which will lead to increasing the glucose level in blood which will lead to hyperglycemia that will make the patient becomes a diabetes mellites patient.

Symptoms 

The increase in cortisol level leads to weight gain, weight gain and rounding of the face, acne, thinning skin, easy bruising, flushed face, slowed healing, muscle weakness, severe fatigue, irritability, difficulty concentrating, high blood pressure, and headache.

Treatment 

Treatment of this disease depends on the reason of increasing the amount of cortisol in blood but if we are going to think out of the box, we will find out that we can divide the treatment into two parts Natural treatment and Normal treatment.

Natural Treatment

 As we know cortisol is stress hormone therefore, we can say that there is a direct relation between cortisol and stress so to decrease the amount of cortisol we can decrease the stress so one of the natural treatments is sleeping as the most relaxation time that humans spend is during sleeping but that is not the only reason for the importance of sleeping. There is an inverse relation between the growth hormone (GH) and cortisol and normally GH decreases during aging therefore an increase of cortisol occurs so to increase GH sleeping and exercising is recommended as walking 20 minutes per day will decrease the amount of cortisol in the blood. Diet is also needed as vitamin d3, b1, and b5 are important in decreasing the cortisol levels. Talking Omega3-fatty acids are helpful as talking 1000mg/day of EPA and 1500mg/day of DHA you can get them from fish specially Salamone. Taking potassium is also important in decreasing the amount of cortisol as you might need 4700mg/day but don’t take excess potassium as it decreases blood pressure therefore may lead to cardiac problems. Taking magnesium before bedtime is also helpful in decreasing cortisol.

Conclusion 

This syndrome is not 100% dangerous as it can be treated easily through medications. But if the patient was treated through surgery, he will need to check on the hormones with the doctor as some times tumor grows in sensitive parts in the brain therefore doctors might leave some of these tumors and treat it through radioactive therapy or medications.