the.com/pituitary gland
Pea-sized gland bossing your whole hormone system from a bony cave in your skull.
means A small, pea-sized gland at the base of the brain that produces and releases hormones controlling growth, metabolism, reproduction, and other glands throughout the body.
from From Latin 'pituita,' meaning phlegm or mucus. Early anatomists, including Vesalius in the 1500s, mistakenly believed this gland's job was to drain mucus from the brain down through the nose — part of an old theory that nasal secretions originated in the brain rather than the nasal passages. The name stuck even after the mucus theory was debunked and the gland's real role as hormonal command center was discovered.
- nickname
- master gland, because it bosses other glands
- location
- sits in a skull pocket called sella turcica
- actual boss
- hypothalamus secretly gives it the orders
- size
- roughly the size of a chickpea