The body’s control and supervision mechanisms—the nervous system that stretches along an organic network, and the hormonal system that analyzes chemical signals—possess a technology far higher than any human can imagine.
To a large extent, both systems work according to classical reaction principles. A message sent from the control system causes the target organ to increase or reduce its activity. Analysis is performed at every moment, thanks to a constant flow of information, and new instructions are issued according to that analysis. Millions of pieces of information are processed every second. The nervous system permits information exchange by means of nerves that span the entire body.
The nervous system and hormone system work together at many points. For example, stimuli from the nervous system are needed in order for the hormone adrenalin to be secreted.
The hormonal system’s communications are delivered thanks to the bloodstream. A gland releases message-bearing hormones directly into the blood. These messages travel throughout the whole body, reach the target organ and set it into activity. But of course the hormonal system cannot function in the absence of the circulatory system. If we recall the link between the hormonal and nervous systems, then we face the fact that the hormonal-nervous-circulatory systems must have arisen at the same time.
The endocrine and nervous systems work together to maintain a balanced equilibrium in the body. The hormonal system plays a role in reproduction, the cells’ use of nutritional substances and in the establishment of salt and liquid levels. The harmony between this system of tissues, glands and all the other organs and cells in the body is striking. Most glands that comprise the hormonal system have no ducts, or channels. Glands release hormones into the tissues around them, where they are absorbed by capillary vessels and carried away by means of the blood. But the condition of the target tissues sets the hormones into action—and hormones may be specific to that tissue. For example, when the male hormone testosterone is secreted, it causes hair to grow on the cheeks and jaw but has no effect on the hairs on the scalp. In addition, other hormones affect the entire body. Thyroid hormone, for instance, stimulates all the cells in the body.
Locks and Keys
Locks and Keys
 |
Hormones and the receptors they
affect have a lock-and-key type
of relationship.
|
Hormones can be defined as a group of chemical signals coded to regulate the body’s internal environment to stimulate all the different organs and cells. Many tissues remain unaware of a hormone until it reaches them. So how does the target tissue recognize its specific hormone?
On the surfaces of target cells is a receptor that the hormone joins with. The receptor and the hormone are created so specifically for one another that the hormone dispatched never adheres to the wrong receptor.
Every hormone thus resembles a key, and the receptor affected by it resembles a special lock that only that key can open. Yet this three-dimensional harmony is far more complex than—and far superior to—the match between any lock and key. Only one hormone fits the lock and influences that cell’s general behavior. Thanks to that harmony, no incorrect organ or tissue is ever set in motion. 51
When the hormone attaches itself to the receptor on the cell’s surface, a series of chain reactions take place, at the end of which the cell will have carried out the given instructions.
If, for instance, the instruction dispatched commands the cell to produce a particular protein, various enzymes in the cell go into action. These enzymes locate and copy the data for the protein to be produced by going to the DNA, the cell’s data bank. Protein production thus begins.
The elements in the system work like a chain of dominoes. The failure of any one of these links to work will spell the disruption of the whole system—very damaging to the body, and possibly ending in death.
The Hormonal System’s Control Center
The cells that comprise a tiny piece of tissue, no larger than a pea and weighing only 0.5 grams, manage your whole body on your behalf. This tiny pituitary gland, the center of operations of the hormonal system, acts as the conductor of the world’s most magnificent orchestra. This tiny conductor passes on its instructions to the other cells with the help of the molecules known as hormones.
The pituitary gland runs and regulates the hormonal system and works under the control of the hypothalamus region of the brain. Thanks to the data that reach this tiny organ from the hypothalamus, it knows the conditions you require, which cells of which organs need to work in order to meet that need, those cells’ chemical mechanisms and physical structures, the products they need to produce and when production has to be brought to an end. Nor does it simply know all these things: Thanks to a very special communications system, it sends the necessary instructions for these needs to be met.
For example, the human body develops until the age of puberty. Throughout this period, trillions of cells divide and multiply, allowing cells and tissues to grow—but growth activity in the tissues halts when it reaches a specific level. The pituitary gland knows how much we need to grow and stops the cell division once that level has been reached.
 |
|
The connection between the pituitary gland and the central nervous system can be seen. Far left: the connection between the pituitary, the brain (1) the spinal cord (2), and the cerebellum. Right: the relationship between the pituitary venous network and the hypothalamus: A- capillary vessel network. B- sinus capillary vessels.
Growth hormone secreted by the pituitary gland tells the cells how much to divide. Their growth halts when secretion of this hormone stops.
The growth hormone literally knows which regions in the body need to be extended. Regions of the body immediately recognize the growth hormone and do what is expected of them. Yet the growth hormone affects different parts of the anatomy at different levels of intensity in men and women. In men, for instance, the growth hormone goes to the shoulders to build up this region, but does not do this in women.
Even a tiny baby’s vocal chords develop thanks to the growth hormone, which knows how the voice will be produced. It develops women’s vocal chords in such a way as to produce high-pitched tones and men’s in such a way as to produce deeper sounds.
Cells’ obedience to the growth hormone is particularly striking. Thanks to this, all the organs and tissues grow in a harmonious manner. For example, when the growth of the skin covering the nose stops, the development and growth of the cartilage beneath the nose also comes to an end. It never continues growing so that it eventually distorts the skin. All the organs in the body grow and develop in harmony with one another.
The Conductor’s Other Duties
The pituitary gland also regulates your body’s metabolism of carbohydrates and fats. At the appropriate times, it accelerates the protein synthesis takings place in your cells. When blood pressure falls, molecules emitted by the pituitary gland cause the millions of muscles around the veins to contract; and this shrinking of the veins thus causes blood pressure to rise.
The pituitary gland even regulates the functioning of the kidneys, which are far distant from it. This tiny conductor also knows when our bodies need water, and secretes a special hormone (vasopressin) under those circumstances. 52
Mother’s milk is of vital importance for her newborn baby, and the pituitary gland is aware of this need of the baby’s. Shortly before birth, the mother’s mammary glands go into action due to the hormone prolactin issued by the pituitary and start secreting milk. As birth approaches, the uterine muscle goes into action thanks to oxytocin, another hormone issued by the pituitary, and this helps with the birth process. 53
The positions of the hypothalamus and the pituitary glands in the brain. Like an orchestra conductor, the pituitary gland directs many other organs. Another system, however, ensures the pituitary gland goes into action. The region of the brain known as the hypothalamus analyses hundreds of pieces of information from the body, then decides what needs to be done and where. In order to implement that decision, the hypothalamus sends the necessary instructions to the pituitary gland, which then acts upon the body. (Eldra Pearl Solomon, Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology, p. 135.)
The way that your skin tans after exposure to sunlight is actually a precaution taken by the cells to protect the underlying tissue from the damaging effects of solar rays. Again, the pituitary gland gives the cells this protective command, by emitting the hormone HSH.
In the region of the brain where the pituitary gland is located, more than 20 hormones with entirely different chemical structures have been identified. Most of these hormones possess the ability to stimulate the secretion of other hormones. How did this flawless equilibrium come into being? How was the connection between the hormones established? How does one hormone understand a message from another and react in the correct manner?
The existence of these 20 hormones, all with very different chemical structures but which all work in perfect coordination, can never be explained in terms of so-called, evolutionary mechanisms. Chance can never install hormones within the body and permit them to acquire these properties. No coincidence-based process can ever produce the substances that make up the hormones, determine the signals they transmit, nor install a system by means of which these hormones know where their messages are to go.
The pituitary is just one of the regions where hormones are mass-produced. Hormones of vital importance to our survival are also secreted in such glands as the adrenals, the pancreas, the sex glands and the thyroid. If any one of these were to break down or work deficiently, we would be unable to survive. This whole complex system maintained by the hormonal system constitutes very clear proof of creation.
It is the omniscient Allah Who creates the hormonal system and all its details.
The Manager of the Hormonal System
The pituitary gland does not fulfill its own functions only. With an extraordinary sense of responsibility, it also regulates and monitors the functioning of the other hormone-secreting glands.
This is a most important detail, because it reveals how an organ no larger than a pea acts with an impressive consciousness—which can be better understood when we examine the pituitary’s capabilities in regulating the functions of the thyroid, adrenal and sex glands.
The pituitary gland lies in the middle of the brain, the thyroid gland under the throat, the ovaries in women and the testes in men, and the adrenal glands immediately above the kidneys. The pituitary secretes the hormone TSH to regulate the development and working of the thyroid, the hormones FSH and LH to regulate the working of the sex glands, ACTH to regulate the working of the adrenals, and LTH to regulate the development of the mammary glands. 54
To examine the effect of the pituitary on just one of these organs: When necessary, the pituitary secretes ACTH to regulate the adrenals gland, the hormone leaves the pituitary and reaches the adrenals by way of the bloodstream. The adrenal glands read its “message” and immediately begin a series of chemical processes by producing the requisite hormone.
In order to do this, the pituitary gland has to know the function of the adrenals, how the adrenals discharge that function, and the necessary sign to set the adrenal gland into operation.
Another point that needs to be borne in mind is the distance traveled by these hormone molecules, far too small to be seen with the naked eye. The distance they travel from the brain to the kidney is the equivalent of thousands of kilometers in human terms.
This leaves a great many questions to be answered: How can the pituitary know the responsibilities of another gland so far away and produce just the right chemical and physical formulae to set the adrenals into action? Why did the pituitary assume responsibility for regulating the adrenals’ functioning? How did these chemical substances’ ability to communicate come about? How did mere molecules, unable to see, hear or think, come by such consciousness?
A human being is a conscious entity, able to find methods of using and developing that consciousness. Despite all the superior intelligence, learning ability, and the capacity to research and draw conclusions that human beings possess compared to other living things, they can never—unless they have received special training—know where the hormones in their bodies are secreted, nor ever produce them. It is also impossible for us to intervene in our hormones’ functioning change the places they are secreted from, or add any new ones.
The glands that secrete hormones are collections of cells, themselves consisting of inanimate and unconscious atoms. How can these unthinking organs do what entire human beings cannot? How are organs in the depths of the human body, that can never meet one another, able to exhibit such conscious intelligence?
Evidently, hormones and the glands that secrete them were created, possessing all these features, by a superior power, and were specially located inside the human body. To ensure their continuity, a special system was created, without exception, in all human beings, and this information has been encoded in their DNA.
All these processes require an unsurpassed intelligence. That superior intelligence is that of Almighty Allah, Creator of the entire universe, the Lord of the Worlds, Who has no equals.
Say: “Am I to desire other than Allah as Lord when He is the Lord of all things? What each self earns is for itself alone. No burden-bearer can bear another’s burden. Then you will return to your Lord, and He will inform you regarding the things about which you differed.” (Surat al-An‘am: 164)
No comments:
Post a Comment