Ceanna Mariak Friday, Sept. 28

Review:
Today we learned about the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland(anterior and posterior). We started fill-in-the-blank notes that told us about these two organs, the hormones that they secrete, the target of the hormone and the function of the hormone. These are all things that we will need to know for our unit and final exam. After we finished the notes we proceeded to show our understanding by filling in a "Mr. Blanky" about these first two organs, Mr. Blankies will have to be completed for every organ/gland to be handed in at the end of the unit.
Thoughts:
It is amazing that glands so small can regulate our entire endocrine system. I don't understand how the hypothalamus can monitor the conditions inside our body, how does it know when homeostasis is out of balance? Maybe it's because the nervous system is sending messages to the hypothlamus.
Additional:
I wanted to know if human growth hormone could be provided at a young age to prevent midgetism, I found that drug trials are in the process and have had successful results, but only when the growth plates are still open, here is an interesting article about the trial:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E1DF1639F934A25755C0A9629C8B63