People often go their whole lives without understanding why they never have enough energy while blaming mood swings on unrelated issues. This pillar is focused on the ways your body regulates its energy levels, hormones, and the multiple structures that control these processes.Learn more about the body’s development and how the endocrine system supports or can sabotage these processes. Understand more about how reproductive glands, thyroid, and adrenals and how these organs are interconnected and controlled to maintain a balance.

This pillar will look at the endocrine system, examining its impact on physiological processes, from hormone regulation and balance to fertility.An individual can go their whole life without understanding why they lack energy, blaming mood swings on unrelated issues. Consisting of a network of glands distributed throughout the body, producing hormones, the endocrine system is rarely talked about, despite being responsible for virtually every cell, organ and bodily function.

If an individual’s endocrine system is not healthy, they may experience problems during puberty or have fertility issues. Problems in the endocrine system can also impair an individual’s ability to cope with stress or even cause weight gain and weak bones, leaving them with a lack of energy because too much sugar remains in their blood rather than moving into cells where it is desperately needed for energy.

Glands are organs that make and distribute hormones that fulfill specific roles within the body. Endocrine glands release substances into the bloodstream.

As people grow older, they typically start to notice that processes connected to their endocrine system start to change, such as their metabolism slowing down. In addition, infections, stress, and contact with particular chemicals can also affect the endocrine system, in addition to lifestyle habits and genetics that increase a person’s risk of hypothyroidism, diabetes, osteoporosis, and other endocrine disorders.

You can learn more about conditions that affect the endocrine system by viewing the embedded infographic.