Tintera, MD Glands & Diet first published in Woman’s Day, February 1958

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Article: Glands & Diet (from Archives)

Posted by JoanNAz on October 08, 2001 at 01:07:19:

What You Should Know About Your Glands

This is so interesting and informative I thought it would save time having it

" on board " for quick reference:

By Tintera, MD.

Reprinted with kind permission of the Adrenal Metabolic Research

Society/Hypoglycemia Association Inc., Ashton, MD. This article was first

published in Woman's Day, February 1958. Dr. Tintera was a pioneer in the use of

adrenal cortex extract for the treatment of hypoglycemia, allergies, fatigue and

adrenal exhaustion.

Your adrenal glands are the regulators of your disposition, your efficiency, and

even of your personality. Whether they regulate well, and help you, or regulate

poorly, and harm you, depends, in large measure, upon what you eat. Therefore,

it is quite possible to improve your disposition, increase your efficiency, and

change your personality for the better by selecting the foods you eat with a

knowledge of what happens to those foods once they are inside you. This means

getting to know your adrenal glands and what they do and showing them proper

respect.

The adrenals are part of the endocrine system of glands which are the chemical

" policemen " that regulate the functioning of our bodies and minds. The study of

this system is endocrinology. It is one of the remaining frontiers of medical

science. I work on that frontier; I am an endocrinologist. What isn't yet known

may well be more than is known. But what is known proves that these endocrine

glands play decisive parts in making and keeping all of us the kinds of persons

we are, for good as well as for ill. The most important and decisive part is

played by the adrenals.

Only in this century has science become sharply aware of the importance and

subtle workings of the endocrines. Implausible, this; but understandable. The

connections among the glands and their cooperative endeavors are so very well

hidden, it is no wonder they weren't easily found out.

All other glands have ducts or channels which carry their secretions to the

places where those secretions serve purposes which are self-evident. The

endocrines have no ducts. That they secrete and so are glands is anything but

obvious; the purposes of their secretions are heavily cloaked by chemical

subtleties. Their appearances are different and they're widely separated.

The pituitary gland is a round mass no larger than a large green pea, attached

by a stalk to the brain stem. Yet it has three sections, each a busy factory

turning out a variety of chemicals. The thyroid gland, deep down in the throat,

resembles a small oyster although in color it is beefy red. Adjacent are the

parathyroids and they remind you of BB shots. Most persons have four, but some

have only one and others have as many as eight.

The adrenals rise somewhat like mushrooms, one from the top of each kidney.

They're each two glands actually, a core (the " medulla " ) and casing ( the

" cortex " ) like a nut and its husk. But that's little in the way of concealment

when you consider the pancreas gland which lies against the back wall of the

abdomen. It has a duct leading into the intestine which is plain to see and so

you might think it was no endocrine. But a few tiny segments ( " islets " ) secrete

without there being a duct for the secretions, and so these segments form an

endocrine gland. Recently, a much-neglected endocrine gland, the pineal, located

in the middle of the brain, has been shown to have an influence on some of the

functions of the adrenal, specifically in relation to mental disorders. Little

more than this is known about the pineal. The sex glands ( ovaries and testes)

complete the endocrine system.

The endocrines are connected by the blood stream. They work this way: the

pituitary secretes a particular chemical into the blood which floats it to the

casings of the adrenals. They respond by secreting a particular chemical which

the blood floats back to the pituitary and causes it to slow production of the

adrenals-rousing chemical. As more and more of this adrenals-responding chemical

comes into the blood, the pituitary stops producing its chemical altogether,

until such time as the adrenal chemical is again insufficient.

The pituitary manufactures and secretes particular chemicals to stir up each of

the other endocrines, and each one responds in the same way. All these

command-and-response chemicals also are speeding, slowing, and above all,

coordinating all other bodily systems: the heart-lungs-blood system, the

digestive system, the thinking-feeling-perceiving system.

In the last few years it has been shown that the seeming " master " of all this,

the pituitary, has a master. The pituitary is connected to the floor of one of

the tiny pouches or ventricles in the brain which has nerve connections with the

brain's centers of seeing, tasting, hearing, and feeling. This floor is called

the hypothalamus. That it secretes has been proved. Here, then, is an easily

crossable two-way chemical bridge between " body " and " mind. "

Science had believed for centuries that the nervous system was the supreme

coordinator of bodily functioning, despite the many marvels of coordination and

balance which nervous workings couldn't explain. As the chemical secrets of the

endocrines have been revealed, it has become more and more apparent that the

endocrine system and the involuntary nervous system work together most

intimately.

Take the " alarm reaction. " " Stress " has come to the body. A " message " is

transmitted to the cores of the adrenals by the nerves. The cores secrete a

chemical into the blood stream. This chemical steps up the action of the heart

and narrows the blood vessels so the blood will be pushed through them with more

force. It also relaxes and enlarges airways so the lungs can take in more air,

more quickly. When this chemical reaches the pituitary, it secretes chemicals

which cause the adrenal casings, the thyroid, the parathyroids and even sex

glands (which are not exclusively sexual in function) to secrete theirs. All

these chemicals complete the instantaneous preparation of " body " and " mind " to

deal with stress. The end results are the seemingly superhuman feats of muscular

strength and of quick thinking which we all know the human being can and does

perform when he has to.

The pituitary is known to secrete a dozen or so chemicals, the adrenal casings,

thirty-two. The other endocrines each give off one principal chemical, so far as

is known. But there isn't a doubt of there being endocrine chemicals not yet

identified. These chemicals are called hormones and their hidden powers can

astonish you.

For instance, one pituitary hormone regulates the growth of the infant into the

adult. If there is too little of it, you have a dwarf; if too much, a giant. The

absence of the thyroid hormone used to doom otherwise sound babies to idiocy.

Then endocrinology discovered that when the occasional baby born without a

thyroid is supplied regularly with the thyroid hormone of meat animals, he

develops normally.

These are only a few wonders out of many. To my mind, the most wonderful of all

are the chemicals of the adrenal casings. They maintain life, nothing less. Life

without any one of the other endocrine glands is possible although it is a

fractional, even a monstrous life. Life without the adrenal casings secretions

is impossible.

The principle reason why this is so is that they are the prime regulators of the

chemical processing which converts what we eat and drink from chemical

substances which are useless to us into substances which cause our bodies to

function, to grow and to change, and to provide the materials for necessary

repairing and rebuilding.

Take steak, because it is rich in protein. But it is beef protein and as such

does nothing for people. The body has to break it down chemically into basic

amino acids. Then the body, through enzymatic reactions, has to put those acids

together again, in other ways. The result is human protein which our bodies can

use and have to have. Fats, minerals, and carbohydrates (sugars and starches)

have to be individually constructed, too, from the materials contained in food

and drink.

Now, we reach a most essential point; what goes in as alien proteins and fats

aren't exclusively converted into human proteins and fats. Among the end

products are human carbohydrates which, having been " manufactured " after the

many chemical steps, are changed by two more steps into basic body sugar,

glycogen, for storage, primarily in the liver and secondarily in muscle tissue,

and by one more step into blood sugar, glucose.

Glucose is always present in the blood. This blood sugar, plus oxygen, are the

two ingredients of the " fuel " which " burns " constantly in every bodily tissue.

As glucose is taken from the blood for " burning " glycogen comes into the blood,

changing into glucose. For maximum efficiency of the whole body (and that

includes " mind " ) the amount of glucose in the blood must balance with the amount

of blood oxygen.

When all is working well inside you, this balance is maintained with fine

precision under the supervision of the adrenal casing hormones. In your moments

of relaxation, the chemical circuit is flowing quietly. Then you have to walk a

mile or change a tire or think out a difficult problem or you start worrying

about something. Whatever it is, you need more energy. Heart and lung action

increase. Blood flow steps up, and there is more oxygen in it. And also more

glucose, because the converting is moving faster, too.

This process also works in reverse. Say, you're in a warm bed, fast asleep. The

amount of oxygen in the blood is the minimum needed to maintain the energy to

maintain life, and so is the amount of blood sugar.

Many of us rough up our adrenals because superrefined carbohydrates abound in

our way of life, and we have been trained to regard them as the most delectable

of foods. These carbohydrates are all but glucose before we eat (or drink) them.

For that reason they largely escape our bodily chemical processing. In the

intestines they become glucose whih is absorbed into the blood where glucose is

already in precise balance with oxygen.

This shoots up the blood sugar level. The balance is destroyed and the body is

in crisis. Hormones pour from the adrenal casings and marshal every chemical

resource for dealing with it. Most important is insulin from the endocrine

" islets " of the pancreas. This hormone is concerned specifically with holding

down blood sugar level, in " antagonism " to adrenal hormones concerned with

keeping it up. All these chemical matters proceed at emergency pace, with a

to-be-expected result. Going so fast it goes too far. The bottom drops out of

the blood sugar level, and a second crisis comes out of the first.

Pancreatic " islets " have to be shut down. And so do some of the " departments " of

the adrenal casings. But other adrenal hormones must be produced, to regulate

the reversing of the chemical direction and get the blood sugar level up again.

It is reflected at all points in how you feel. Eating the highly refined

carbohydrate (say, a candy bar) gave you a quick pickup, all right, while the

added glucose was being absorbed into the blood. But this surge of energy was

succeeded by a " letdown " feeling when the bottom dropped out of the blood sugar

level. Until it was brought up again you were listless and tired; it required

effort to move or even to think. Your poorly energized mind was vulnerable to

suspicions, even to hallucinations. You could have been " all nerves " and your

irritability , enormous.

The severity of the crisis-followed-by-crisis depends upon the weight of the

glucose overload. One lump of sugar in one cup of coffee may have no noticeable

unpleasant after effects. But if in the course of one day a new double-crisis is

always beginning before the old one is ended, if there are many lumps of sugar,

a gooey dessert at lunch and dinner and there has been a " soft " drink and

perhaps a couple of cocktails before dinner, the accumulative crisis at day's

end can be a lulu.

After a number of years of such days, the end results are damaged adrenals. They

are whipped not so much because they've been overworked as because they've been

made to jerk about out of balance (chemically speaking) so many, many times. The

overall production of their many hormones is too low, and the amounts produced

don't dovetail as they should. This disturbed function is reflected all around

the endocrine circuit.

Meanwhile, the outside you has been declining. Your personality is unpleasant

because your disposition is crabbed. Since your mind may, by now, have trouble

telling the difference between the unreal and the real, you're likely to go off

half-cocked. When stress comes your way, you're likely to " go all to pieces "

because you no longer have a healthy endocrine system to deal with it. And your

day-to-day efficiency is very poor because you " never seem to get anything

done. "

All this is the extreme, of course. There are all degrees of rough treatment of

the adrenals, and of the consequences of rough treatment. But it illustrates

what I mean when I say it is quite possible to improve disposition, increase

efficiency, and change personality for the better. The way to do it is to leave

the highly refined, rapidly absorbable carbohydrates alone, and I mean cane and

beet sugar in all forms and guises, all cereal flours which means breads, pies,

cakes, spaghetti, macaroni, etc., all refined cereal products such as cold and

hot breakfast cereals (except oatmeal), the quickly absorbable carbohydrate

vegetables, potatoes, corn, and rice, all sweet " soft " drinks, and all alcoholic

beverages.

The carbohydrates which keep the adrenals healthy are those which are slowly

absorbed and are the bodily conversion products of proteins and fats and of

green vegetables and fruits.

Editor's Note: Carbohydrates are absorbed more slowly when consumed with fats.