Hyperpigmentation, Dark Spots – Adrenal Danger

We all know that Hyperpigmentation can be hard to treat. You probably read that you have to avoid sun exposure and use topical creams. Well, That might somehow help you. In fact, They do help sometimes but what if that is not the case and what if all of these recommendations and remedies are not bringing any results. Well, The truth is that some cases of hyperpigmentation are caused by some underlying and potentially even dangerous medical condition. One such condition is addison’s disease. Adison’s disease can be described as adrenal gland deficiency and this over here is the adrenal gland. It sits right on top of kidneys on both sides of the body. In medicine, We would say bilaterally hyperpigmentation in your toes, knuckles, elbows or inside of your cheeks skin folds. Those are all places where addison’s disease can cause hyperpigmentation but before i explain additional signs and symptoms of this condition and how to diagnose it. I have to ask you something. You see youtube and other websites. They suggest our videos to people if we get enough of likes and subscribers and a lot of people suffer from hyperpigmentation and other symptoms that addison’s disease can cause. So, You can help us, Help these people if by just liking this video or subscribing. So, What are these additional signs that might indicate that a patient is indeed suffering from addison’s disease that is the adrenal gland insufficiency. Well, These additional signs might include feeling nauseous, vomiting, stomach pain with weight loss. All of these symptoms are primarily caused by the lack of cortisol that is a hormone produced by the adrenal gland. These symptoms are quite general and can be caused by many other diseases but if you analyze and examine the patient closely. You might notice that symptoms which are correlating with the lack of androgens or aldosterone hormone might be present as well. This gland not only produces cortisol which is called the stress hormone. It also produces aldosterone which is important for blood pressure and electrolyte levels. It is also important for production of androgens, important for libido sexual drive and even mental state and health. So, It’s no surprise that adrenal gland insufficiency can also cause depression but really connecting all of these symptoms and pinpointing the exact cause of these problems hyperpigmentation and depression. They’re somehow related, You know normally you think of depression as something in your head because you’re sad or lack of feelings or drive to do things but hyperpigmentation is somewhere on your feet or on you or on your elbow. So, Having all of these symptoms it’s making it hard to pinpoint the exact cause of these problems because these symptoms are very general additional problems that we’re dealing with when diagnosing. This condition is that not all symptoms have to appear right away. You can have some of these symptoms but you don’t have to have all of them. Sometimes, These symptoms of adrenal insufficiency would only appear in certain situations when there is an active infection going on or some other stress for the body. So, Hyperpigmentation can be accompanied with a lot of general symptoms that are not really specific and also as i just explained must not appear all the time. So, hyperpigmentation is something that we can see. It’s a simple change of color of your skin but so how do we actually diagnose this condition and how do we really know if the patient is suffering from adrenal gland insufficiency. This what you can see here is the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland is stimulating the adrenal gland to produce cortisol and the pituitary gland does that by producing the ACTH. That is the adrenocorticotropic hormone. So, If this pituitary gland is not producing the ACTH then the adrenal gland will not be stimulated to produce the cortisol so if the ACTH is not produced and the problems are here well then that is the secondary form of adrenal gland insufficiency and the primary form of adrenal glands efficiency is when the problem is in the adrenal gland itself. So, That is why it makes sense to measure ACTH hormone levels because ACTH is produced by the pituitary gland. Cortisol levels should also be measured because cortisol is produced by the adrenal gland. Adrenal gland is also producing aldosterone and androgens and because of that it makes sense to look for issues with these hormones as well but even when we’re not looking for these hormonal. Imbalances regular blood tests could reveal issues as well. Low cortisol levels are associated with low blood sugar levels. The adrenal gland also produces aldosterone and what aldosterone does it helps bring back some of the sodium and water from the primary urine back into the bloodstream that way it can elevate the blood pressure. It also helps the body get rid of the potassium and it is obvious here why reduction of aldosterone can cause blood pressure to drop? So, If the patient suffers from hyperpigmentation and some of these other symptoms. It might be smart to measure the patient’s blood pressure but even if we assume that the patient is suffering from some form of adrenal gland insufficiency whether it’s primary or secondary and even if we get the cortisol levels measured. It can happen that the cortisol levels do not reveal a diagnosis right away as if figuring out all of these mechanisms here and symptoms wasn’t enough but yes measuring additionally 11 deoxycortisol might be required. The 11 deoxycort is measured to diagnose impaired cortisol synthesis to find out the enzyme deficiency that cause this impairment and also to differentiate adrenal gland disorders that’s why we need a skilled doctor to do that it’s really hard to assume all of these things based on some subtle symptoms that might appear or they don’t have to appear. A skilled endocrinologist should be able to deal with such large combinations of symptoms as well as to figure out which lab results we need and how to analyze them. This was just one condition that can cause hyperpigmentation and many organs were involved in the pathological development of hyperpigmentation and the underlying condition causes of hyperpigmentation can be many and treatments as well as diagnosis procedures of these conditions can differ significantly. Both of you doctors and patients, We have something for you. If you’re a doctor and you want to make videos like these then go to anatomsky.com but if you need more help with hyperpigmentation then go to symtomsky.com/help/hyperpigmentation