If you suddenly crave salty food, and you often feel helpless throughout the body, check your adrenal function.
The adrenal glands are small, funnel-shaped organs overlying the left and right kidneys of our body. It is composed of a cortex (cortex) and a medulla (cortex). The main function of the adrenal glands is to produce hormones essential for metabolism. Hormones produced by the adrenal glands include cortisol, aldosterone, androgens, and catecholamines.
If you suddenly eat salty food, or you experience severe general weakness and fatigue, and hair loss, you should be suspicious of ‘adrenal insufficiency’.
Adrenal insufficiency is a condition in which the adrenal glands are not properly secreted. As a result, various symptoms appear, and typical symptoms are general weakness, loss of appetite, alopecia, and hypoglycemia. At the same time, you eat more salty food than usual, and your skin color changes noticeably.
In particular, Addison’s disease, one of adrenal insufficiency, shows a characteristic that the skin color turns brown even though the area is not exposed to sunlight. In particular, the skin color changes are evident in areas with scars, elbows, and knees. Addison’s disease is famous for being a disease of the US President John F. Kennedy.
So, what causes adrenal insufficiency? Causes are divided into primary and secondary. Primary is caused by problems with the adrenal gland itself and is caused by tuberculosis, metastatic cancer, fungal infection, and adrenal tumors. Secondaryity is caused by adrenocorticotropin secretion deficiency, and most can occur after long-term steroid use or surgery for a pituitary or hypothalamic tumor or pituitary adenoma.
Diagnosis is made with a blood test. A rapid adrenocorticotropic hormone test or an insulin-induced hypoglycemia test may be performed to evaluate the adrenal gland’s hormone-secreting function. Treatment is to supplement the hormones that are lacking in the body with steroids (such as hydrocortisone or prednisolone). In acute adrenal insufficiency, hydrocortisone is administered intravenously, and fluid and glucose injections correct dehydration, electrolyte abnormalities, and hypotension.