Anti-Diuretic Hormone

The pituitary gland is separated into two sections – the anterior pituitary and the posterior pituitary. The gland is located at the base of the brain and secretes many different hormones. One – from the posterior gland – is called Vasopressin. It is also called anti-diuretic Hormone (ADH).

When specialized cells in the body sense an increase in the blood ratio of particles such as sodium, urea, and glucose to the water content, the posterior pituitary gland secretes ADH to normalize that ratio.

Too many particles cause water within the cells all over the body to dehydrate. Too few particles, and cells in the body will swell and burst.

Depending on circumstances such as the ambient humidity and temperature, exercise, and diet, when ADH works properly, the kidneys of the healthy adult excrete approximately one to two quarts of water each day through urination.

When ADH does not work properly – things go terribly wrong.

Diabetes Insipidus (not to be confused with Diabetes Mellitus – a blood sugar disease) is a malfunction of ADH secretion. In Diabetes Insipidus, the person does not have enough hormone to retain body fluid. Without enough ADH, the person’s kidneys are unable to retain fluid, and therefore excretes from two to twenty quarts of water each day.

Two to Twenty quarts.

That’s up to five gallons – ten times the normal water loss of the healthy person. Without rapid and adequate treatment, the person will quickly die from dehydration.

Which brings us again to the question of slow evolution or special and sudden creation.

Either we are incredibly lucky that our pituitary gland evolved at the same time as our kidneys, and the anti-diuretic hormone . . . or, the first man and woman were created with them each intact and at the same time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adam and Eve

As I read through Acts 17 this morning, I stopped at verse 26: “[God] made from one every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth . . .” And I got to thinking again about difference between evolution and special creation. The first Man and Woman – as different as the genders are anatomically, physiologically, emotionally, and hormonally – they had to evolve at the same time from whatever it was evolutionists say we evolved. The same time. If not, our species would never have propagated itself. On the other hand, if it happened like God said it happened in those first two chapters of Genesis – a special and sudden creation – then we have the explanation of our species. Seems pretty obvious to me.
Read more

Frank Starling and the Heart

Image
This is a very superficial explanation of the Frank-Starling Law (FSL) as it relates to the heart. You can find more information by doing a simple internet search. Not many people have heard of the Frank-Starling Law. Or if they have, they’ve probably forgotten it. That’s too bad, because the Law speaks a lot for sudden and special creation vs. evolutionary change. The FSL recognizes that when certain muscle fibers are stretched, they recoil in proportion to their stretch. Think of a rubber band. Stretch it in you hands a few inches and let it go. It recoils only a little bit. Stretch it as far as you can without breaking it, and it snaps back hard enough to sting your fingers. The FSL depends on an extraordinarily complex interaction of calcium and other electrolytes with specially designed muscle fibers. Without even one of the dozen or so critical elements responsible for muscle fiber recoil, the entire Law falls apart. That is an important point. Cardiac muscle fibe
Read more

A Lethal Overload Problem

Image
(As always in these posts, my presentation of the facts about our body’s physiology is purposely brief. I do hope, however, that my posts will stir the reader to independent research). Fixing a Lethal Fluid Overload Problem There are several reasons our blood vessels can become overloaded with fluid – blood products and water, primarily. The reasons for the overload are beyond the scope of this post, but the point is, unless the body compensates for the fluid overload, we will die.   Two body mechanisms which help the body compensate are found in the heart muscle itself – specifically the atria (the top left and right chambers of the heart), and the ventricles (the bottom two chambers). In response to atrial or ventricular filling, the heart muscle secretes specific hormones. The atrial hormone is called the ‘atrial natriuretic polypeptide’ (ANP). The ventricular hormone is called the ‘brain natriuretic polypeptide’ (BNP). Why it is called ‘brain natriuretic polypept
Read more