There is a thing I love about butterflies; it’s how they become majestically beautiful out of their old and ugly forms. It’s like having something to marvel at, after some ugly and painstaking process. This reminds me of the thing inside the body they call thyroid gland. Its butterfly shape is the form we see just below our voice box. It’s not so interesting at first but once you get to know how it functions, you are going to marvel and be amused at it too.
Viewing the plain and simple gland, you would not imagine how it does many functions from iodide trapping, synthesis of thyroglobulin, oxidation of iodide, iodination of tyrosine, coupling of T1 and T2, pinocytosis and digestion of colloid, secretion of thyroid hormones to the transport in the blood. With all of these processes, it goes down to one important fact that it serves as a bus transporting protein in the blood flow.
You can imagine the bus… but it would not function by itself without the machineries and the gas, which will make it possible for transportation. We have these machineries and fuel in the form of our thyroid hormones, which are synthesized by attaching iodine atoms to the amino acid tyrosine.
The hormones increase the Basal Metabolic Rate, stimulate the synthesis of additional sodium-potassium pumps, regulate the metabolism, enhance some actions of catecholamines and accelerate body growth with the help pf human growth hormone and insulin. See how the entire bus works? It works from the inspiration of its butterfly form, which seemingly was not something big but indeed, plays a vital role in our bodies.
Going further, how were these machineries formed? The T3 or triiodothyronine and T4 or thyroxin come from the follicular cells and their secretion is increased by the TRH (thyrotropin-releasing hormone) which works like any other thing inside the body that can balance what’s lacking and what’s too much. High iodine suppresses T3/T4 secretion and therefore many other things such as low thyroid hormone levels, low metabolic rate, cold, pregnancy and high altitudes affect production. The calcitonin, which is from the parafollicular cells, is stimulated by High blood calcium levels while low calcium level in the blood inhibits the secretion.
Some suggested video clips are listed below so as to have a better view on the topic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l-ky_2DHLA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AFiMipv63k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn9crOgnGgs&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYb-io13fOA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACjAWYxHtHg&feature=fvw
Here are related topics and good sources for a better understasnding:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyroid_hormone
http://www.oxymega.com/thyroid_gland.html
http://www.endocrineweb.com/thyfunction.html
Principles of Anatomy and Physiology by Gerard Tortora
Photo credits:
http://www.steadyhealth.com/articles/user_files/4540/Image/thyroid1.jpg
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/3200/3236/butterfly_3_lg.gif
7 comments:
hi luap nivra!
i can see that your posts are heartfelt and at the same informative. i hope to read more of your posts 'cause i feel you. keep it up!
this post is also very informative and i love the though of that butterfly... when we are very down and out that it seems we feel like we're like an ungly catterpillar or hurrying up to get out the cocoon... it helps to realize that such painstaking processes makes us more beautiful inside and out..so it helps to not really hurry things.. we can always wait and bear the pain for sometime to learn and go out to a new world with more strength and more confidence :) the thyroid gland is very informative...i never knew such a thing inside our body is that functional... to imagine its size and most often it is never appreciated... so take more iron.. :) hahaha thanks Paul for this post :)
a bus with its machineries and fuel.. :) very nice description for us to have a better view.. now medical terms can be a lot easier as i read your posts.. GOD bless to you Paul.. Very nice posts :) two thumbs up :)
Just like the butterfly.. you may not see its beauty at first when it's just on the process of growing but eventually you will find out how indeed, it is a masterpiece.. the same is true for the thyroid gland. oftentimes it is unnoticed and we think it is just there to complete the human anatomy but little did we know that it has a lot of functions! And it is really a masterpiece because it may be simple and plain but it makes beautiful effects on our health.. i love this article especially how it was started.. thanks Paul
hmmm yeah right... Paul is able to make his audience feel him that is why you will be motivated to read more.. so what else can i say? keep it up Paul.. You know you are helping a lot of people not only for the sake of completion of your requirements.. I love it because i know you take time to do these and that is valuable already :)
Yes.. just when it seems medical terms are super hard to understand, this activity and Paul's posts make us understand real better.. keep posting okay? i hope when you end your curriculum you will still keep this blog alive... we will expect more :)
the machineries inside our body... very magical indeed how they are formed from the tiniest one to the big ones.. indeed GOD is Almighty to produce such a masterpiece... thanks for making me realize Paul..
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