INTRODUCTION:
Addison’s disease is a rare chronic disease that causes insufficient cortisol and aldosterone production by the adrenal glands. Drugs can be used to treat it. It’s intriguing that this disease is treatable, but if it becomes complicated, it can claim your life. This autoimmune condition targets the adrenal gland. This kidney-top gland, which makes both cortisol and aldosterone, is positioned. Your body responds to stress, including the stress of disease, injury, or surgery, thanks to cortisol. Additionally, it supports the maintenance of your blood pressure, heart health, immune system, and blood sugar (glucose) levels. Life needs cortisol to function. A hormone called aldosterone has an impact on the ratio of potassium and sodium in your blood. Your kidneys’ ability to excrete fluid in the form of urine (pee) is subsequently regulated, which has an impact on blood volume and blood pressure. If this hormone doesn’t work well, it will affect your overall performance. This impacts the performance of the kidney. This will increase the toxins in the blood, which can give birth to other complications. This rare disease affects the production of both cortisol and aldosterone.
Symptoms:
The damage to your adrenal glands in Addison’s disease often takes place gradually over time, so symptoms develop gradually. Everybody has a different set of symptoms, but they will affect the whole body’s function as a whole.
Addison’s disease signs and symptoms include:
- Weariness that keeps getting worse (the most frequent symptom).
- Hyperpigmentation, or patches of dark skin, is most common in and around scars, wrinkles, and on the gums.
- Ache in the abdomen.
- Vomiting and feeling nauseous.
- Diarrhea.
- Unexpected weight loss and loss of appetite.
- Joint discomfort, muscle cramps, and/or muscle soreness.
- Dehydration.
- Low blood pressure, which might make you feel faint or unsteady when you get up.
- Mood and behavior changes, such as irritation, sadness, and lack of focus.
- An appetite for salty foods.
- Hypoglycemia, a state of low blood sugar.
- People with Addison’s disease who were born female may also experience irregular periods, hair loss, and diminished sexual desire.
A medical emergency is an Addison’s crisis. If left untreated, it can cause shock and even death. Addisonian crisis signs and symptoms include:
- extreme Lethargic.
- sudden, excruciating pain in your legs, tummy, or lower back.
- being agitated, perplexed, afraid, or experiencing other mental disturbances.
- severe diarrhea and vomiting that could become dehydrated.
- a low blood pressure.
- awareness loss.
Causes:
Addison’s disease is an autoimmune disorder. This autoimmune disorder attacks the cells of your own body for unknown reasons. In Addison’s disease, your immune system attacks the adrenal gland cells, which are responsible for producing cortisol and aldosterone. The symptoms won’t appear immediately. This will take months or years. An autoimmune reaction causes Addison’s disease in about 75% of patients. Specifically, autoimmune polyendocrine syndromes I (APS type-1) and II (Schmidt syndrome) are rare, hereditary diseases that can cause autoimmunity in Addison’s disease.
These are some other, less typical causes of Addison’s disease:
- Recurring infections, including fungal infections and infections linked to HIV/AIDS.
- When your adrenal glands are invaded by cancer cells from another section of your body.
- Bleeding into your adrenal glands (hemorrhaging).
- Your adrenal glands will be surgically removed.
- The disorder known as amyloidosis, in which amyloid proteins accumulate in important organs and cause damage,
Recommended Test:
The following tests may be prescribed by your doctor to check for Addison’s disease:
- Blood testing: Your doctor may probably request specific tests to check your blood’s salt, potassium, cortisol, and ACTH levels.
- The ACTH stimulation test evaluates how your adrenal glands react to an injection of synthetic ACTH. After the shot, your adrenal glands may not be working properly if they don’t produce much cortisol.
- Test for insulin-induced hypoglycemia: Your doctor may request this test to see if your symptoms are actually caused by pituitary gland issues (secondary adrenal insufficiency) rather than adrenal gland issues. This test compares the levels of blood sugar (glucose)
Treating Addison disease
For replacement therapy in Addison disease and secondary adrenocortical insufficiency, corticosteroid medications are employed. The medicine of preference for daily maintenance in these conditions as well as for treating acute adrenal crises is hydrocortisone sodium succinate or phosphate. Taking advice from a health care professional is important and should be a priority. In order to restore volume deficits and treat hypotension in patients with acute adrenal crises, intravenous (IV) access must be quickly obtained. An infusion of isotonic sodium chloride solution should then start. Supplemental glucose may be necessary for some patients. It is important to identify the triggering reason and, if feasible, correct it.
Conclusion:
It is crucial that medical professionals, including nurses, doctors, and pharmacists, know the clinical symptoms of Addison’s disease. We all emphasize when to evaluate all the electrolytes. Addison’s disease is a potentially fatal ailment that needs to be correctly identified and treated right away. Delay in diagnosis carries a substantial risk of morbidity and fatality. The death rate is high in this disease if it is not treated well.
