The endocrine system is the one of the glands that secrete chemical substances called hormones. Hormones (from a Greek word, meaning “to stimulate”) are carried to the bloodstream and lymphatics.
   The endocrine glands that are distributed throughout the body interact with and restrict one another to form the endocrine system.
   Endocrine diseases are often caused by either increased or decreased production of hormones. For example, patients with hyperthyroidism have an enlarged thyroid gland in the neck (goitre), resulting in the shortness of breath, swallowing difficulty and heart troubles. And those with hypothyroidism show such clinical symptoms as lethargy, sleepiness, fatigue, failure of memory, dry skin, crumbled finger and toe nails, hoarse voice, sexual dysfunction and growth retardation. And the excess secretion of the growth hormone by the anterior pituitary lobe causes gigantism.
   Typical Koryo medicines good for the endocrine system are fruits of matrimony vine, walnut, aralia shoots, sargassum, yam, fruits of Schizandra chinensis, insam, cinnamon vine, tuckahoe and large centipede, and food materials are cabbage, potato, corn, oyster, laver, kelp, kidney bean, wax gourd, bean curd, seaweed, mussel, beef, gray mullet, carp, hulled millet, soybean, trepang and pumpkin.
   As each endocrine gland secretes its unique hormone for a targeted organ, Koryo medicines and food materials should be selected in consideration of the features of each endocrine gland.