An insulinoma is a small tumor in the pancreas that produces an excess amount of insulin. In most cases, the tumor isn?t cancerous. Most insulinomas are less than 2 centimeters in diameter.
The pancreas is an endocrine organ located behind your stomach. One of its functions is to produce hormones that control the level of sugar in your bloodstream, such as insulin. Normally, the pancreas stops creating insulin when your blood sugar drops too low. This allows your blood sugar levels to return to normal. When an insulinoma forms in your pancreas, however, it will continue to produce insulin, even when your blood sugar is too low. This can lead to severe hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. Hypoglycemia is a dangerous condition that can cause blurred vision, lightheadedness, and unconsciousness. It can also be life-threatening.
An insulinoma usually needs to be surgically removed. Once the tumor is removed, complete recovery is very likely. An insulinoma is a rare tumor of the pancreas. It?s made of calls called beta islet cells, the same ones in the pancreas the make insulin and control your blood sugar. Normally, your pancreas makes more insulin when your blood sugar is high and less when your blood sugar is low. But an insulinoma constantly makes insulin, even when your blood sugar gets too low.
You might hear an insulinoma called a "neuroendocrine tumor" because it starts in special cells in your body called neuroendocrine cells. These tumors are usually small (less than an inch), and almost all of them are not cancer. In most cases, surgery can cure them.
Red blood cells carry oxygen to all parts of your body. They also remove carbon dioxide (a waste product) from your body's cells and carry it to the lungs to be exhaled.
Red blood cells are made in your bone marrow?a sponge-like tissue inside the bones. White blood cells and platelets (PLATE-lets) also are made in your bone marrow. White blood cells help fight infection. Platelets stick together to seal small cuts or breaks on blood vessel walls and stop bleeding.
If you have PV, your bone marrow makes too many red blood cells. It also can make too many white blood cells and platelets.
A mutation, or change, in the body's JAK2 gene is the major cause of PV. This gene makes a protein that helps the body produce blood cells. What causes the change in the JAK2 gene isn't known. PV generally isn't inherited?that is, passed from parents to children through genes.
PV develops slowly and may not cause symptoms for years. The disease often is found during routine blood tests done for other reasons.
When signs and symptoms are present, they're the result of the thick blood that occurs with PV. This thickness slows the flow of oxygen-rich blood to all parts of your body. Without enough oxygen, many parts of your body won't work normally.
For example, slower blood flow deprives your arms, legs, lungs, and eyes of the oxygen they need. This can cause headaches, dizziness, itching, and vision problems, such as blurred or double vision.
Macrocytic anemia is a type of anemia that causes unusually large red blood cells. Like other types of anemia, macrocytic anemia means that the red blood cells also have low hemoglobin.
Hemoglobin is an iron-containing protein that transports oxygen around the body. Deficiencies in vitamin B-12 or folate often cause macrocytic anemia, so it is sometimes called vitamin deficiency anemia.
Macrocytic anemia occurs if the red blood cells are unusually large. A unit called femtoliters (fL) is used to measure the size of blood cells. Usually, red blood cells are between 80?100 fL.
Red blood cells larger than 100 fL are considered macrocytic. When the cells grow too large, there are fewer of them than there needs to be and they carry less hemoglobin. This means the blood is not as oxygen-rich as it should be. Low blood oxygen can cause a range of symptoms and health problems.
Macrocytic anemia is not a single disease, but a symptom of several medical conditions and nutritional problems.
One of the most common types of macrocytic anemia is megaloblastic macrocytic anemia. This happens when red blood cells produce DNA too slowly to divide.
Macrocytic anemia can be broken into two main types: megaloblastic and nonmegaloblastic macrocytic anemias.
Most macrocytic anemias are also megaloblastic. Megaloblastic anemia is a result of errors in your red blood cell DNA production. This causes your body to make red blood cells incorrectly.
Possible causes include:
Nonmegaloblastic forms of macrocytic anemia may be caused by a variety of factors. These can include:
Red blood cells develop in the bone marrow, which is the sponge-like tissue inside your bones. Your body normally destroys old or faulty red blood cells in the spleen or other parts of your body through a process called hemolysis. Hemolytic anemia occurs when you have a low number of red blood cells due to too much hemolysis in the body.
There are many types of hemolytic anemia, which doctors diagnose based on the underlying cause of your anemia. Certain conditions can cause hemolysis to happen too fast or too often. Conditions that may lead to hemolytic anemia include inherited blood disorders such as sickle cell disease or thalassemia, autoimmune disorders, bone marrow failure, or infections. Some medicines or side effects to blood transfusions may cause hemolytic anemia.
Hemolytic anemia can develop suddenly or slowly, and it can be mild or severe. Signs and symptoms may include fatigue, dizziness, heart palpitations, pale skin, headache, confusion, jaundice, and a spleen or liver that is larger than normal. Severe hemolytic anemia can cause chills, fever, pain in the back and abdomen, or shock. Severe hemolytic anemia that is not treated or controlled can lead to serious complications, such as irregular heart rhythms called arrhythmias; cardiomyopathy, in which the heart grows larger than normal; or heart failure.
To diagnose hemolytic anemia, your doctor will do a physical exam and order blood tests. Additional tests may include a urine test, a bone marrow test, or genetic tests. People who are diagnosed with mild hemolytic anemia may not need treatment at all. For others, hemolytic anemia can often be treated or controlled. Treatments may include lifestyle changes, medicines, blood transfusions, blood and bone marrow transplants, or surgery to remove the spleen. If your hemolytic anemia is caused by medicines or another health condition, your doctor may change your treatment to control or stop the hemolytic anemia.
Edema is swelling caused by excess fluid trapped in your body's tissues. Although edema can affect any part of your body, you may notice it more in your hands, arms, feet, ankles and legs.
Edema can be the result of medication, pregnancy or an underlying disease ? often congestive heart failure, kidney disease or cirrhosis of the liver.
Taking medication to remove excess fluid and reducing the amount of salt in your food often relieves edema. When edema is a sign of an underlying disease, the disease itself requires separate treatment. "Edema"is the medical term for swelling. Body parts swell from injury or inflammation. It can affect a small area or the entire body. Medications, pregnancy, infections, and many other medical problems can cause edema.
Edema happens when your small blood vessels leak fluid into nearby tissues. That extra fluid builds up, which makes the tissue swell. It can happen almost anywhere in the body. Edema is swelling that occurs when too much fluid becomes trapped in the tissues of the body, particularly the skin.
Peripheral edema. This usually affects the legs, feet, and ankles, but it can also happen in the arms. It could be a sign of problems with your circulatory system, lymph nodes, or kidneys.
Pedal edema. This happens when fluid gathers in your feet and lower legs. It?s more common if you?re older or pregnant. It can make it harder to move around in part because you may not have as much feeling in your feet.
Lymphedema. This swelling in the arms and legs is most often caused by damage to your lymph nodes, tissues that help filter germs and waste from your body. The damage may be the result of cancer treatments like surgery and radiation. The cancer itself can also block lymph nodes and lead to fluid buildup.
Pulmonary edema. When fluid collects in the air sacs in your lungs, you have pulmonary edema. That makes it hard for you to breathe, and it?s worse when you lie down. You may have a fast heartbeat, feel suffocated, and cough up a foamy spittle, sometimes with blood. If it happens suddenly, call 911.
Cerebral edema. This is a very serious condition in which fluid builds up in the brain. It can happen if you hit your head hard, if a blood vessel gets blocked or bursts, or you have a tumor or allergic reaction.
Macular edema. This happens when fluid builds up in a part of your eye called the macula, which is in the center of the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. It happens when damaged blood vessels in the retina leak fluid into the area.
The hypothalamus is a small but important area in the center of the brain. It plays an important role in hormone production and helps to stimulate many important processes in the body and is located in the brain, between the pituitary gland and thalamus.
When the hypothalamus is not working properly, it can cause problems in the body that lead to a wide range of rare disorders. Maintaining hypothalamic health is vital because of this.
Hypothalamic dysfunction is a problem with part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus helps control the pituitary gland and regulates many body functions.
The thyroid gland produces two related hormones, thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3), which play a critical role in thermogenic and metabolic homeostasis. T4 and T3 are normally synthesized and released in response to a combined hypothalamic pituitary signal mediated by thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) from the anterior pituitary and thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) from the hypothalamus. There is a negative feedback from thyroid hormone concentration, primarily T3, to TSH production, causing total T4, total T3, free T4, and free T3 concentrations to move in opposition to TSH concentration.
Hypothyroidism is a condition in which the thyroid gland is functionally inadequate. Causes of hypothyroidism include autoimmune disorders, such as Hashimoto?s thyroiditis, atrophic thyroiditis, and postpartum thyroiditis; iodine deficiency, the most common cause of hypothyroidism in underdeveloped areas; congenital defects; medications or treatments that can result in hypothyroidism; central hypothyroidism in which the thyroid is not stimulated by the pituitary or hypothalamus; and infiltrative processes that may damage thyroid, pituitary, or hypothalamus. These different causes of hypothyroidism are often interrelated. Usually, the exact cause of the hypothyroidism cannot be definitively differentiated.
Blood sugar control is at the center of any diabetes treatment plan. High blood sugar, or hyperglycemia, is a major concern, and can affect people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes . There are two main kinds:
Frequent or ongoing high blood sugar can cause damage to your nerves, blood vessels, and organs. It can also lead to other serious conditions. People with type 1 diabetes are prone to a build-up of acids in the blood called ketoacidosis.
If you have type 2 diabetes or if you?re at risk for it, extremely high blood sugar can lead to a potentially deadly condition in which your body can?t process sugar. It's called hyperglycemic hyperosmolar nonketotic syndrome (HHNS). You?ll pee more often at first, and then less often later on, but your urine may become dark and you could get severely dehydrated.
High blood sugar (hyperglycemia) affects people who have diabetes. Several factors can contribute to hyperglycemia in people with diabetes, including food and physical activity choices, illness, nondiabetes medications, or skipping or not taking enough glucose-lowering medication.
It's important to treat hyperglycemia, because if left untreated, hyperglycemia can become severe and lead to serious complications requiring emergency care, such as a diabetic coma. In the long term, persistent hyperglycemia, even if not severe, can lead to complications affecting your eyes, kidneys, nerves and heart.
As its name suggests, this type of cancer affects the production and function of your blood cells. This type of cancer starts in bone marrow which is the integral source of blood production. Stem cells in your bone marrow mature and develop into three types of blood cells: red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. In case of cancer, the blood production process is interrupted due to the growth of an abnormal type of blood cell. The various types include Leukemia, Lymphoma and Myeloma.
