Pituitary Tumor – Growth Hormones

Transcript

So the pituitary is what regulates our growth. So when all of a sudden when puberty hits, it’s got to kick in and produce this hormone called growth hormone. And there are pituitary tumors that produce too much of this. And if somebody has a pituitary tumor and is unfortunate enough to have it produce growth hormone during adolescence, before the growth plates have fused, then all of a sudden you get a condition called gigantism. And that’s where you see in the Guinness Book of World Records these people are, you know, eight feet, nine feet tall. They had a pituitary tumor producing growth hormone. But if that tumor gets, starts producing growth hormone after puberty and the growth plates have fused and you get a condition that, Andre the giant is a perfect example where you get these very coarse facial features and we can even talk later about all the other things that it might do to the body aside from the coarseness of facial features. But that’s probably the most recognizable thing people get are these massive hands and a face that looks block-like and loses its fine, fine features.