Endocrine SBT Manual - in process

Please use for your study - but do not share them on your facebook page- it has taken me 15 years to compile these images - thank you!

1. Intro

Endocrine glands secrete hormones into the blood vessels, and circulate the body. Each hormone has specific receptors in surrounding tissue or areas far away. They can have an immediate effect on the receptor cells, or initiate a response of this gland to send out signals.

The female ovulatory system depends on an intricate balance and sequence of hormonal interactions. Imagine many metabolic processes, digestive, heart pressure, body temperature, growth, sexual function, appetite, sleeping and waking cycles.

Other anatomy books use terms like control and using corrected measures to re-establish balance and equilibrium. Let's look at these interactions as cells and systems making decisions,therefore we will be looking at this system as a stem of many parts independently communicating and in constant flux.

Developmental Movement - Endocrine Gland CHART HERE

2. Hormones

Hormones are substances that have potent effects despite being tiny molecules, signaling cells reach their target cells through the bloodstream. These are crystalline molecules that can start a cascade of signals that travel the body and brain. They regulate through interaction, and communicate with the cells and the nerves.

Qualities of Hormones: internal regulation, balance, essense, concentrated, powerful substances, tiny amounts have huge effect, crystaline states, vibratory energy, compassion, and cosmos.

Nerve Cells have harnessed the power of these substances: we call them neurotransmitters and find them near or in the synapse.

Pheromones are hormones secreted outside of a person's body through the skin. They produce a change in the sexual or social behavior of another human.

Hormone Groups:

Steroids such as aldosterone, cortisol, and androgens are derived from cholesterol
Biogenic amines are relatively simple molecules that are derived from the amino acids tyrosine (thyroid hormones), histidine (histamine), or tryptophan (seratonin and melanin)
Peptides are hormones consisting of chains of amino acids from three to 200 in number, and are widely produced in the body (including hormones from the hypothalamus, pancreas, thyroid, and digestive tract.)

3. How do the glands relate to chakras?
Somatic applications/ touch, sound and movement

4. Embryonic Development

text to come …..

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5. Coccygeal Body

Location: The coccygeal body is an irregular, oval-shaped gland between the rectal wall and the tip of the tailbone or coccyx. This is also known in Tantra as the Kundalini gland. During active kundalini one can often feel a pulsation in the sacrum, I suspect that this rhythmic movement might be the kundalini gland becoming active.

Function: The coccygeal gland is fed by sympathetic and by parasympathetic nerves; and by the median sacral artery and vein, directly influencing the nervous system via chemical messages. It is several millimeters in diameter. One study suggests its possible blood-forming function and an immune-modulatory activity by the regulation of the sympathetic nervous system.

"The coccygeal body consists primarily of glomus cells. Glomus cells are oxygen receptors…oxygen receptors at the tip of the tail. This is interesting in breathing. In embodied explorations we have found that full breathing is initiated by a pulsing of the coccygeal body that can be clearly felt by the practitioner. It can also be felt by a sensitive observer." Patti Townsend

6. Perineal Body

Location: The perineal body is located between the anus and the vagina in women and between the anus and prostate/kidney in men in the center of the pelvic floor. It is the center of the trapeze, the crossing point of the muscles and the point of balance of the pelvis/ hip joints, pubis and sacrum/ tailbone. (sitting on a ball, you can meet the trapeze of your pelvis to the elasticity of the ball surface.)

This precise point is where we can breathe the ancient noto cord all the way to our pituitary gland.

7. Testis

Location: The gonads are paired glands. The embodied place for gonads is the same for both males and females, in the two sides of the pelvic belly region. The actual position of ovaries in women is in the place where the vas deferens loops around for males.

8. Ovaries

9. Pancreas

Location: Located central to the whole body, the pancreas sits below the Liver and duodenum, it is both an organ and an endocrine gland.

Function: Its endocrine function is its production of insulin and other hormones. It monitors our blood sugar and secretes insulin to keep the body sugars in balance thus contributing to the regulation of energy production.

10. Adrenals

Location: The adrenal glands are like little hats floating over and around the tips of both kidneys. THey have their own blood vessels. In Embryonic Development they hover in the abdomen nad the kidneys travel up from the bladder and dock under these hats.

Function: In health our adrenals assist in providing us with a balanced and alert state of body-mind. Healthy adrenals have life force to spare and are useful when we need them, but don’t need to be constantly pumping out hormones creating hyper-vigilance in the body when it isn’t warranted.

Key actions of adrenaline include increasing the heart rate, increasing blood pressure, expanding the air passages of the lungs, enlarging the pupil in the eye , redistributing blood to the muscles and altering the body's metabolism, so as to maximise blood glucose levels (primarily for the brain). source

11. Thoraco body

Location: The thoraco-bodies are located at the diaphragm right behind the xiphoid process. It is a key player in breathing and regulating the freedom and rhythm of the thoracic diaphragm.

Function: It works synergistically with the coccygeal body to initiate breathing.

12. Heart Bodies

The heart bodies are currently being discovered by science.

These hormones are released by the heart from granules located mostly in the muscular walls of the atrial ( upper chambers) and in lesser amount in the ventricles (lower chambers) of the mammalian heart. These granules, small clusters of particles, are similar to granules found in the cells of other endocrine glands. The hormones are A-type natriuretic peptides or atrial natriuretic peptides (ANP). There is also a third hormone in this class called the C-type natriuretic peptides which is found mainly in the walls of the blood vessels.

These hormones trigger the receptors in the wall of arteries and veins causing the muscles to relax with a resultant dilation of the arteries and veins. Consequently, this dilation causes a decrease in blood pressure because these hormones are vasodilators. Also, these hormones are potent inhibitor of another chemical in our bloodstream called renin-angiotensin. This chemical has the opposite effect of these hormones on the muscles in the wall of the arteries. It causes the arteries to constrict thus increasing blood pressure and it causes a decrease in the production of renin, chemicals secreted and released in the kidney, to control blood volume and blood pressure. https://owlcation.com/stem/The-Heart-Does-More-Than-Pump-Blood

These bodies are situated near the valves of the heart. In my somatic understanding, they seem to be a powerful back-up for the rhythmic pumping of the heart and can re-start the heart in moments it loses initiation. I find that the rhythm of the ventricles are so quick that they seem to receive an impulse much quicker that a muscle, to start the muscle - This is an area of research: Have fun!

13. Thymus

The thymus, which is quite large in newborns, is a double mass of glandular tissue above the heart and behind the sternum.

Function: The thymus gland is very active from before birth until puberty, and it functions as both a lymphatic organ and an endocrine gland. In order to understand the role the thymus gland plays in immunity, it's helpful to first distinguish between T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes. the thymus can be thought of as the training ground for T lymphocytes.

During childhood, immature T cells (called progenitor cells) that originate in the bone marrow travel via the bloodstream to the thymus gland where they mature and differentiate into specialized T cells. T cells(also known as T lymphocytes or thymus-derived lymphocytes) mature in the thymus gland and play a central role in cell-mediated immunity, meaning that the cells themselves are active in fighting off foreign invaders such as bacteria, viruses, cancer cells, and more.

In contrast, B lymphocytes are part of the humoral immune system and produce antibodies directed at specific invaders.

14. Parathyroid

Parathyroid glands are four small paired glands behind the thyroid, which regulate calcium in our bodies.

15. Thyroid

The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped organ located in the neck. It hangs from the hyoid. It releases hormones that control metabolism.

16. Carotid

The carotid bodies sit in the forks of the arteries in the neck, close by the hyoid. They express hormones that affect the level of oxygenation in the blood going to the heart.

17. Pituitary

Location: The pituitary gland consists of two lobes, the anterior and the posterior lobes, and a stalk. It sits at the base of the brain in an indentation in the sphenoid bone called the cella turcica.

Embryology:: Embryologically, the pituitary’s two lobes emerge from different tissues. The posterior lobe descends down from the hypothalamus in the brain -- the hypothalamus links the nervous system to the endocrine system through the pituitary -- and the anterior lobe rises upward, forming from tissues in the mouth.

Function: The anterior lobe does most of the secretion of hormones, while the posterior lobe secretes neurohormones, that in turn stimulate the secretion of pituitary hormones. They develop embryologically separately from the endoderm and the ectoderm and finally wrap around each other to create the pituitary.

18. Mammillary

Location: The mammillary bodies are a pair of small round bodies, located on the undersurface of the brain at the ends of the anterior arches of the fornix.

Function: They are part of the limbic system which controls emotions and emotional responses, including mood, pain, pleasure, and other sensations. We know that the mammillary bodies are related to memory. In fact when we activate these glands we arrive in the NOW. We are able to be present in the moment. This is the place of deep meditation and stillness-- of being, not going. We are awake, and therefore able to have a clear experience of the moment to send as 3 dimensional information into memory creation.

Relationship to Other Glands: The mammilary glands balances, bridges and connects pineal and pituitary functions. This unity again opens the gate to experiencing the present moment. In fact, the state of these three being in communication sends a signal that this moment is significant and tags it to be put into stored memory. You might want to consider how rituals uplift everyday experiences, such as celbrations of holidays that are then stored and commemorate time.

19. Pineal

Location and Size: The pineal is one of the unpaired singular glands in the brain. Its position is higher than all the other glands, and it is on an upward diagonal from the pituitary through the mamillary bodies to the pineal gland.. "Pineal" means "pinecone". It is approximately bean-sized.

Function: The pineal is stimulated by the light-dark cycles of day and night, and produces melatonin to make us sleepy at the appropriate time. Regular rhythms of sleeping and waking are critically important for maintaining good health; as well, their balance provides the basis for learning and growing on all levels. Excessive exposure to light at night interrupts pineal function.

We need deep rest in darkness for the pineal to be in balance. The pineal gland brings us to a more inwardly directed awareness.