the.com/adrenal
two tiny hats your kidneys wear, secretly running every panic you've ever had
means Relating to the small glands perched atop each kidney that pump out hormones like adrenaline to drive your stress and fight-or-flight responses.
from From Latin 'ad-' meaning 'toward' or 'beside' plus 'renes' meaning 'kidneys' — literally 'next to the kidneys,' which is exactly where these little glands sit. The same 'renes' gives us 'renal,' and the gland's most famous product, adrenaline, was named for the same neighborly arrangement in the early 20th century.
- size
- each weighs about as much as a grape
- adrenaline rush
- floods your blood in under a second
- two layers
- cortex and medulla, totally different jobs
- stress factory
- makes cortisol, the hormone that won't let you sleep
- survival kit
- remove both and life needs daily pills
pheochromocytoma — adrenal tumor in ~0.1-0.6% of hypertensive patients that releases excess catecholamines
addison's disease — autoimmune destruction of adrenal cortex affecting ~40-60 people per million, causes jfk's symptoms
cushing's syndrome — excess cortisol from adrenal adenoma or acth-secreting pituitary, ~10-15 cases per million annually