Hormone pills - Causes, symptoms and treatment. MF.
In the modern world, every person from birth and almost every day faces different medications. This and painkillers, and antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs, as well as medications of other groups, including hormones. Hormonal pills are, perhaps, the means that causes the greatest number of fears in patients, their relatives and even doctors. Let's try to understand the pros and cons of treating hormonal pills.
It should be noted that the term "hormonal drugs" refers to drugs that recreate the function of special biologically active substances in the human body - hormones proper. Hormones are produced by the endocrine organs, such as the adrenal glands, the pituitary gland, the hypothalamus, the thyroid, the pancreas, the genital and some other glands. These substances come from the gland into the blood and spread throughout the body, allowing hormones to exert their effect even on far-away organs and tissues. Hormones are unique signaling substances - they allow the body to regulate the actions of all its cells, reducing or increasing their activity. Thus, thanks to hormones, millions of cells of our body are combined and adjusted for effective work.
Hormones study endocrinology - a separate branch of medicine in which in recent years significant progress has been made. This is due to the fact that the pharmaceutical industry has learned to produce copies of the hormones of the human body. Hormonal drugs have made it possible to achieve success in the treatment of a number of severe diseases of the endocrine glands, such as diabetes, hypothyroidism, adrenal insufficiency, which previously did not respond to treatment and quickly led to the death of the patient. In addition, these drugs are used in the treatment of many non-endocrine diseases, such as bronchial asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus, allergies and others. Still hormones are used and at healthy people - as means of protection from undesirable pregnancy.
Hormonal drugs have a special strength and speed of action. Sometimes it takes only a few minutes or hours after the medication to reduce the manifestations of the disease. Such efficacy can be dangerous in the hands of a person without special knowledge - hormonal drugs interfere with the metabolism of the body and, if misused, can lead to its violation. Another danger stemming from hormonal tablets is that they can reduce the symptoms of the disease, but do not remove the cause, which can lead to a worsening of the patient's condition after a while. Hormones in tablets have a sufficiently high concentration and, if used awkwardly, can lead to a kind of overdose, which is also accompanied by severe consequences for the body( development of obesity, hypertension, thrombosis, osteoporosis).
Some medicines in pharmacies can be bought without a prescription and used without consulting a doctor. This in no way refers to hormone tablets. Hormonal drugs are prescribed in all situations only by the attending physician after a preliminary examination and under constant supervision. In self-treatment, there is a high risk of serious complications. There are many cases in the practice of doctors of almost all specialties, when the use of hormonal tablets during self-treatment threatened the life and health of patients. Therefore, do not use hormones on your own.
Types of hormonal medications
Hormonal pills are an extremely diverse group of drugs. Under one name "hormones" are combined preparations with different structure, different effects. To date, there is no single classification of hormonal drugs. Classification by chemical structure is more often used for scientific purposes. All drugs in this case are divided into three classes: substances of protein and peptide structure, preparations of amino acids, hormones of steroid nature.
For practical activities it is more convenient to use the classification according to the organ principle. In this case, the following types of hormones are distinguished: preparations of pituitary hormones, drugs stimulating and depressing the function of the thyroid glands, preparations of parathyroid hormones, preparations of hormones of the pancreas and synthetic hypoglycemic substances, preparations of hormones of the adrenal cortex and other synthetic analogues, preparations of male and female sex hormones,anabolic steroid. Let's briefly touch the specific most commonly used hormonal drugs.
The breadth of use is undoubtedly the leading steroids - hormones of the adrenal cortex .These drugs are effective in treating any kind of inflammation and swelling. Severe allergic reactions and autoimmune processes( diseases caused by aggression of the immune system against their own tissues) can be completely cured by these drugs. As auxiliaries for the removal of edema, redness, pain, steroids are widely used in treatment. Even if the cause of the disease is unknown, steroids can have at least a temporary effect, removing unpleasant symptoms. Preparations of this group - prednisolone, dexamethasone, metipred and others. If, for some reason, the patient refuses from the steroids prescribed to him, a sharp deterioration in the condition develops, the disease progresses. Thus, asthma attacks may become more frequent in bronchial asthma, and even asthmatic status may develop, when gas exchange in the lungs drops substantially and a patient's life threatens. With adrenal insufficiency, the rejection of steroids leads to a sharp drop in blood pressure, collapse develops and the patient may die. Of course, you can not prescribe these pills yourself. After all, with unreasonable use of steroids cause the development of obesity in the male type( fat accumulates mainly in the abdominal region), hypertension may occur( blood pressure rises above 140/90 mm Hg), blood sugar concentration increases and diabetes develops.
Worldwide, another hormone is used to treat diabetes mellitus - insulin ( for today it is used only as a solution and injected with a needle subcutaneously).This powerful tool helps reduce blood sugar levels to normal and avoid severe complications of the disease( blindness, myocardial infarction, gangrene, etc.).The remaining hypoglycemic drugs other than insulin are not hormones and are not so effective. Sometimes athletes use insulin as a strong anabolic hormone - it helps to gain weight, absorb glucose. Such use is dangerous by the development of hypoglycemic coma - i.e.blood sugar can decrease to 2.2 mM / l and lower. As a result, a person loses consciousness and brain cells, which so need a constant normal level of blood glucose, begin to die. Even if the help comes on time and the patient wakes up, in the future it may be disturbed by a decrease in memory, intelligence, frequent headaches.
In the treatment of diseases of the thyroid gland with a decrease in its function, hormones levothyroxine sodium and triiodothyronine are used. With a lack of these substances in the body, obesity, atherosclerosis, anemia develops, the intellect decreases. In time, the prescribed treatment with hormones helps to avoid such consequences. If you refuse to take the right pills, even a young patient slows down metabolism, puts off excess weight, increases blood cholesterol level, there is constant fatigue, fatigue, apathy. It is not recommended to apply thyroid hormones on your own - in case of an overdose or an unreasonable appointment, the heart may suffer. It is likely the development of heart rhythm disturbances, myocardial infarction.
Hormonal contraception ( protection from unwanted pregnancy) is now recognized as the most reliable. In this case, special combinations of female sex hormones are used to prevent ovulation and, accordingly, conception. Self-appointed tablets with the wrong choice can cause a woman to bleed, thrombosis of the veins of the lower extremities, liver damage. And with the right selection - to get rid of pimples, oily hair, cysts and some gynecological problems.
So, you see that the drugs of hormones are extremely diverse and their actions are different. Nevertheless, for most people all the hormones and treatment seems to them something dangerous and undesirable. This attitude to the drugs has developed historically and today is not always justified in connection with the progress in pharmacology and medicine. But the myths about hormones continue to live in the mass consciousness. Most often you will encounter the following erroneous statements.
Myths and truth about hormonal tablets
First, "hormonal tablets lead to obesity" .This statement may to some extent be true only for steroids, insulin and sex hormones. It is they who, in case of an overdose, can lead to some weight gain. So, at the beginning of hormonal contraception, a woman can add up to 2 kg. In this case, the correct diet is effective enough. As for the other drugs, they are not significantly affected by weight and can even lead to some weight loss( for example, as thyroid hormones).
The second myth sounds even worse: "hormones are addictive" .Indeed, if you enter into the body of a hormone, your gland temporarily stops producing it, but after the drug is discontinued, this function will gradually recover. It is important to slowly cancel any hormone drug, reducing the dose for several weeks under the supervision of medical personnel. Quite a different situation develops if some iron loses the ability to produce a hormone( for example insulin in type 1 diabetes) - in this case, the drug will have to be administered for life.
Another myth - "hormones treat only extremely serious diseases" .It is not always so. Hormones are also used for the treatment of relatively light diseases( some thyroid diseases) and for the treatment of severe conditions( for example, anaphylactic shock).Even healthy women use hormones - to protect themselves from pregnancy. It turns out that the severity of the disease is not related to the use of such drugs. These are the basic myths about hormonal tablets.
How to take hormonal tablets
Hormonal pills require a punctual attitude: take them strictly at designated hours, try not to miss the appointment, do not change the dose and the duration of the course of treatment yourself. If the tablet was missed, the next time you do not take two tablets at once. In this case, your actions should match the instructions to your medication, they are slightly different depending on the hormone drug that you are taking. Some hormone tablets should be taken at strictly certain times of the day - L-thyroxine, for example, is taken only in the morning and only on an empty stomach to ensure its full absorption and distribution throughout the body.
These simple rules will help you and your doctor in the treatment of diseases requiring hormone therapy.
You can get the exact information about your disease and the drugs that will be prescribed( including hormones) only from your doctor. Advice of acquaintances and medical articles should not be taken as a guide to action. This information can only be used after consulting with a specialist. Hormonal pills can do more harm than good for an unreasonable appointment even against a background of good health.
Including women who decided to give preference to hormonal contraception, you must first visit a gynecologist. There are a number of contraindications to this type of protection: thromboembolic diseases, deep vein thrombosis, vascular diseases, arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease, complicated diabetes mellitus, malignant tumors, severe liver dysfunction, acute viral hepatitis. In addition, a specific drug with the right concentration of active substances( female sex hormones) will depend on the patient's age, her bad habits, planned later pregnancy, and much more.
Preparations for the treatment of adrenal, thyroid, and pancreatic diseases are always selected by the endocrinologist, based on your hormone and symptom analysis. It is impossible to treat such diseases independently. In the event that the doctor has already prescribed a drug, you should not refuse to take hormones under the influence, for example, of the myths discussed above. Correctly selected treatment will help to maintain your health and protect yourself from serious complications in the future.
Thus, the correct use of the hormone tablets prescribed by the doctor is quite safe and effective.
Doctor of the endocrinologist Tsvetkova IG