The Pituitary Powerhouse

It is never a good idea to underestimate small things. While viruses are a prime example, a very small gland keeps many important things running in your body. It is the supervisor of endocrine glands, and without it, serious conditions can develop.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons, public domain image edited by Jim Thomas (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The pituitary is beneath the hypothalamus in both authority and its literal position. This regulates the pituitary's functions and supplies it with hormones (chemical messengers). If you study on it, the entire system is yet another example of specified complexity that time, chance, random processes, mutations, natural selection, and other Darwinian concepts can produce. We are talking about the work of the Master Engineer.

Tucked away at the base of your brain, behind your sinuses, is a pea-size gland called the pituitary. People once mistakenly thought this little organ simply made mucus when your nose runs. Now it is called “the master gland” because it controls most of your other endocrine glands—the organs that secrete chemical messengers to keep your body working properly. The pituitary controls many things, such as your skin cells’ production of pigment and the growth of your bones. It secretes ten different hormones (chemical messengers) into your blood to direct these and many other vital body functions.

To read the full article, see "Pituitary—A Miniscule Master".