Medical Reflections

According to Google AI, hormones are defined as:
-a regulatory substance produced in an organism and transported in tissue fluid such as blood or sap to stimulate specific cells or tissues into action..

The definition I got in medical school:
1. Produced in small amounts in one place.
2. Transported by body fluids.
3. Has effects om most of all body cells.

It can also be added:

• target cells convey the hormone message by specific hormone receptors.
  This is very important as there are obviously hormone receptors on body cells for hormones we know very little about, e.g C-peptide..

• Most hormones are transported inactive in body fluids by carrier proteins. These proteins are mostly produced in the liver, e.g SHBG, CBG, TBG

Insulin is produced in the pancreas as inactive pro-insulin. When it is releases into the blood stream, C-peptide "cuts off", and it becomes active insulin and free C-peptide.

There are very few and small studies of "normal" insulin productions/levels. One from 1960 (1) and a few more (2,3,4)

The reason why it is so few studies is because insulin is very short acting compared to "indirect methods". e.g C-peptide, Pro-insulin and more.

So my opinion is: -the "strong" foundation normal insulin productions/levels rest upon is not so very solid...

Most common are Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibodies-induced autoimmune thyroiditism or surgical removed thyroid gland because av some reasons. E.g cancer and severe Graves disease, especially to limit severe exophthalmos symptoms.

Symptoms e.g freezes, fatigue, muscle aches, constipation, slow heart rate, depression, and weight gain.

Hormones
(TSH) Thyroid-stimulating hormone: is a pituitary hormone that stimulates the thyroid gland produce thyroid hormones.
Thyroid hormones: Thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). T4 is converted to triiodothyronine (T3) which is the mst active hormone that stimulates metabolism.Treatment
Hypothyroidism will be treated with T4 (levo-thyroxine) which converts to triiodothyronine (T3).

Treatment targets: (TSH control every 3th months):
Thyroiditis: A steady state TSH: around 1.0 mIU/L.
Surgical removed thyroid gland: sub-toxic TSH: around lower normal range, approximately 0,3 mIU/L.

It takes at least 3 months until you get a reliable TSH.

The adrenal glands
Are found above the kidneys and produce a variety of hormones. Each gland has an outer Cortex which produces Steroid hormones (Mineralocorticoids, Glucocorticoids and androgens) and an inner part (medulla) which secretes Catecholamines (e.g adrenaline, nor-adrenaline and a small amount of dopamine) in response to stimulation by sympathetic preganglionic neurons.

Adrenal Hormones produced by:
Cortex
Mineralocorticoids (e.g aldosterone) help in the regulation of blood pressure and electrolyte balance.
Glucocorticoids (cortisol and cortisone) functions include regulation of metabolism and immune system suppression.
Androgens are converted into fully functional sex hormones in the gonads and other target organs.

Medulla
Adrenaline
Nor-adrenaline
Dopamine

Szent-Gyorgyi was researching the adrenal glands, he discovered an unknown antioxidant that was released from the adrenal glands and pituitary gland synchronously with ACTH and cortisol.
This antioxidant was later found to be Vitamin C.

Discovery of vitamins
Christiaan Eijkman (1929)
Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1929)
George Hoyt Whipple (1934)
George Richards Minot (1934)
William Parry Murphy (1934)
Henrik Carl Peter Dam (1943)

Isolation of vitamins
Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus (1928)
Albert von Szent-Györgyi Nagyrapolt (1937)
Richard Kuhn (1938)
Edward Adelbert Doisy (1943)

Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Synthesis of vitamins
Walter Norman Haworth (1937)
Paul Karrer (1937)
Robert Burns Woodward (1965)

Structure of vitamins
Paul Karrer (1937)
Richard Kuhn (1938)
Lord (Alexander R.) Todd (1957)
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1964)

Source: nobelprize.org: The Nobel Prize and the discovery of vitamins

Chemists and physiologists studying human diets found that it needed proteins, fats, starches and sugars.

It was also realized that the body needed variety of other necessities.

The word vitamins: Casimir Funk, a biochemist born in Poland moved to London in 1910. He was one of many scientists trying to isolating the factor in rice polishings that protected the development of beriberi.

In the following year, he reported that he had isolated the active factor. This was, in fact, incorrect but he then went on to suggest that this material belonged to the chemical class of “amines. So the name is a combination of Vital and amines, Vitamin.

1. Diabetes 1960 9(4):254–260: Diabetes Plasma Insulin Concentrations in Nondiabetic and Early Diabetic Subjects
2. Am J Phys 1988 May;254(5 Pt 1):E537-42: Effects of lack of exercise on insulin secretion and action in trained subjects
3. J Clin Invest 1988 Feb;81(2):442-8: Twenty-four-hour profiles and pulsatile patterns of insulin secretion in normal and obese subjects
4. N Engl J Med 1988 May 12;318(19):1231-9: Abnormal patterns of insulin secretion in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
5. Oral Dis 2016 Sep;22(6):463-93: Vitamin C: the known and the unknown and Goldilocks