How the Endocrine System Works

by J. Matthew Neal, Lauren M. Sompayrac (Editor)

Not just another overview book on endocrinology, How the Endocrine System Works presents a humorous and highly informative collection of nine easy-to-digest "lectures" discussing the fundamental workings of the endocrine system in health and disease. This absorbing addition to the "How it Works" series provides a concise and scientifically reliable introduction to endocrinology without the use of broad glossary terms and extraneous detail that can make a text hard to follow. This book focuses on function rather than anatomy and definition, so that you can reach an appreciation and a clearer understanding of this intricate system. Students will find this book to be the perfect introduction to their entry-level courses, as well as a quick review for exams. Professionals will enjoy the simple approach to a complex topic, and the general reader will satisfy a basic curiosity about the glands and hormones of the human body.

Genres: Science

Paperback

First published August 16, 2001

Reviews

[Bethskw · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a journalist looking to brush up on endocrinology as background for a piece, this was excellent. Explains functions of the endocrine organs, the ways things can go wrong, and how they are properly diagnosed. It’s written by a doctor for medical students. It’s not super thorough (being so short) but gives plenty of context connecting the important ideas. Great road map to the field.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aimed at medical students, but very readable.

[Usfromdk · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is okay-ish and probably more readable for people without a medical background than many of the alternatives (at least I assess it as more readable than the alternatives I have read so far). Coverage is sort of okay but not great, and a few problems annoyed me. Why would you spend the precious space you choose to devote to a topic like hypoglycemia in a book like this on stuff like stupid ideas such as 'folk hypoglycemia' and exceedingly rare causes of actual hypoglycemia like insulinomas, when diabetes-related hypoglycemia is by far the most important one encountered in clinical practice? Why would you exclude symptoms and signs or treatment of diabetic hypoglycemia, when you do include at least some details on these topics in the context of both DKA and HNKS in the coverage? It looks like a major oversight on part of the author that he seems to have forgot that a reader of this book may not know what diabetic hypoglycemia is and how it manifests, which is all the more surprising considering that he *actually talks in his coverage* about how most people are confused about what hypoglycemia actually is. Hypoglycemia can be fatal, we learn, and IQ might be affected negatively in individuals exposed to repeated episodes during their childhood, we learn, but what a diabetes-related hypoglycemic episode does to you/how it manifests is pretty much blowing in the wind. Curious.

I also disliked the lipid metabolism chapter coverage of HDL-cholesterol in particular. In the coverage it is argued that: "Increased levels of this “good” cholesterol are associated with a decreased incidence of atherosclerosis; decreased levels correlate with increased atherosclerosis." and: "Those with high total cholesterol (with normal LDL and triglycerides) due to high HDL require no treatment; indeed, this abnormality appears to confer protection against atherosclerotic disease."

Here's on the other hand a few observations from Eckel et al.'s textbook Metabolic Risk for Cardiovascular Disease: "Although many individual molecular mechanisms involving HDL cholesterol are known from basic science, it is unknown which are the major ones in humans and how they fit together into a metabolic pathway for reverse cholesterol transport. On the one hand, we can confidently state that the involvement of HDL in mobilizing cellular cholesterol and delivering it to the liver, a process called reverse cholesterol transport, is essential for normal cholesterol homeostasis and necessary to prevent the development of atherosclerosis. But on the other hand, we do not have a way to evaluate how diet and drug interventions affect the critical function of HDL in reverse cholesterol transport. Thus, we are left with the imperfect surrogate marker, HDL concentration. [...] HDL has actions other than reverse cholesterol transport. HDL has anti-inflammatory actions related to its content of antioxidant enzymes such as paroxonase, and carries prooxidant enzymes such as phospholipases [67,68,71]. This raises the concept of “proinflammatory HDL,” supported by experiments in cell culture associating it with coronary atherosclerosis [...] Apolipoprotein C-III exists in HDL and may reduce its protective action to inhibit adhesion of monocytes to endothelial cells [34]. ApoC-III in HDL is not a protective marker for CHD, unlike ApoA-I, its principal protein; in fact, HDL apoC-III is associated with increased CHD [72,73] [...] Some agents affect HDL and TG in the same direction. Drinking alcoholic beverages and postmenopausal estrogen treatment raise HDL and TG. Testosterone lowers HDL and TG. Since we do not have a way as yet to evaluate the function of HDL in reverse cholesterol transport, we cannot be confident that these or any changes in HDL concentration affect atherosclerosis in the direction expected from the relation of HDL concentrations and CHD risk [59,65]. There is also no clear relation between genetic variants in enzymes or transporters in HDL metabolism that cause either very low or high HDL cholesterol concentrations and CHD [74]."

Neal in my opinion at the very least makes it out to be a lot simpler and cleaner than it actually is.