Question

What are endocrine disrupters and what are their functions in our body? Provide some examples.

How does concentration of glucose effect insulin secretion?

Answer 1

Endocrine disruptorsor endocrine disrupting compounds are chemicals that can interfere with endocrine (or hormonal) systems.

These disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders.

Endocrine disruptors "interfere with the synthesis, secretion, transport, binding, action, or elimination of natural hormones in the body that are responsible for development, behavior, fertility, and maintenance of homeostasis (normal cell metabolism).

Any system in the body controlled by hormones can be affected by hormone disruptors.

Specifically, endocrine disruptors may be associated with the development of learning disabilities, severe attention deficit disorder, cognitive and brain development problems; deformations of the body (including limbs); breast cancer, prostate cancer, thyroid and other cancers etc.

Examples :

Poly chlorinated biphenyls.

Dixons.

Bisphenol A.

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT).

Diethylstilbestrol.

Insulin production depend mainly on the concentration of glucose in the blood.

Insulin is produced in the pancreas.

Insulin secretion is a process in the human body that primarily occurs in response to glucose levels in the blood becoming elevated.

Together, insulin and glucagon help maintain a state called homeostasis in which conditions inside the body remain steady.

When blood sugar is too high, the pancreas secretes more insulin. When blood sugar levels drop, the pancreas releases glucagon and reduces insulin to raise the blood sugar.