Addison’s Disease
Extra Credit
04-13-2011

Addison’s Disease affects the Endocrine system. With this disease your body can’t produce enough of certain hormones. In Addison’s Disease your adrenal glands produce too little cortisol and sometimes small levels of aldosterone. Some of the symptoms of Addison’s Disease are as follows; one is if a person is feeling a lot of muscle weakness and disease. Another symptom is weight loss and loss of appetite also occurs. Some people also experience darkening of the skin, low blood pressure, and low blood pressure. Nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting could also be a sign of Addison’s Disease. These symptoms usually develop slowly over several months. Addison’s Disease is usually caused by a problem with the adrenal glands themselves. A lot of the time the body’s self-defense mechanism, the immune system, mistakenly attacks the adrenal glands. When these attacks happen it destroys the outer layer of the glands. Long-lasting infections such as HIV or tuberculosis can also harm the glands. Addison’s disease can also be brought on by body spreading cancer cells. All treatment associated for Addison’s Disease is in the form of hormone replacement therapy. One drug you could use would be oral corticosteroids. A doctor would prescribe these pills to you to help replace aldosterone. Other medicines such as hydrocortisone, prednisone, or cortisone acetate may be used to replace cortisol. Another form of treatment would be corticosteroid injections. These injections are normally used if a patient experiences vomiting when taking the oral corticosteroids and can’t keep the pills down.