Endocrinology
Schedule an Appointment
Every system in your body depends on all the others. The body is a well-tuned machine, with every organ and cell working in concert. With trillions of cells doing hundreds of different jobs – getting all the work done requires a massive effort of coordination and management. That’s the job of the endocrine system – a sophisticated chemical network for communication and control.
How do your cells know what to do, and when? The endocrine system tells them with hormones – unique chemicals the glands produce and shuttle to all the systems of the body through the bloodstream. Hormones control just about everything: metabolism and digestion, reproduction, movement, growth, sexual development and mood.
When it’s working well, the endocrine system keeps everything in perfect balance. But that balance is upset when endocrine disease takes hold. AtlantiCare’s endocrinology team works to restore the balance, manage deficits, and help people live healthier lives.
The glands that do the regulating include the adrenal glands, pancreas, pituitary, ovaries, testicles, thyroid, and thymus. Problems crop up when the glands produce too many or not enough hormones. Endocrine problems also include some tumor diseases.
Researchers have identified dozens of endocrine disorders. The most common include:
- Diabetes: when problems in the pancreas or in the cells themselves reduce the body’s ability to process glucose in the bloodstream.
- Thyroid issues: including underactive thyroid, hypothyroidism, and overactive thyroid hyperthyroidism. Plus associated problems like Graves’ disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and goiter.
- Reproductive issues and infertility.
- Adrenal disorders: including Addison’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome.
- Pituitary gland problems: including non-cancerous tumors that can cause other glands in the endocrine system to perform poorly.
- Cancer: and other tumor diseases in the endocrine system.
Conditions Treated
See a comprehensive list of endocrine conditions treated at AtlantiCare.
Endocrinology is a subspecialty of internal medicine, focused solely on diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the endocrine system. Developing the right care plan is a team effort, a partnership between you, your loved ones, and your endocrinologist.
- Experience makes all the difference. AtlantiCare’s endocrinologists are board-certified, a distinction reserved for doctors with years of experience who have gone the extra mile in education and training, both during and after medical school.
- They have endocrinology-specific training in diagnosing, treating and managing endocrine disease, including post-graduate fellowships at some of the world’s most respected teaching hospitals.
- They have decades of experience in planning care that’s right for each patient, to cure diseases, and stay ahead of those for which a cure has not yet been discovered.
- They use best practices, backed by research for real-world performance.
- They remain ahead of the curve by staying active and engaged with their professional associations, attending conferences and contributing to ongoing research.
- They have access to the vast resources of AtlantiCare’s entire network to team up with other experts who can play a role in healing, like advanced nursing, oncology, surgery, nutrition, exercise and many others.
Perhaps most importantly, they are focused on results. They use all their skill, training and experience to regulate the system and stabilize the metabolism to improve quality of life.
Their dedication to stay at the leading-edge of their profession is matched by their commitment to see their patients feel better, over the long haul. Since endocrine diseases can present long-term challenges, endocrinologists often coordinate their patients’ care for years, developing lasting, life-long relationships.