Beware of Cushing's disease if you have excessive weight gain, moon face, and bruises

Many people have a particularly good appetite in the winter, and their bodies accumulate a lot of fat without them noticing, causing their weight to rise rapidly. However, doctors remind that if you also have symptoms such as moon face, buffalo shoulders, and reddish skin color like bruises, you should be careful about "endogenous Cushing's syndrome," which requires surgery to improve.

There are many causes of obesity. If you gain weight rapidly and have symptoms such as moon face and buffalo shoulders, you should be further checked to see if it is a Cushing's syndrome problem.

A few days ago, a 48-year-old Ms. Shen went to the clinic for regular treatment for hypertension and was found to have gained 5 kilograms in a short period of time. Her face became rounder, her back and neck became thicker, and her skin became reddish. After being referred to Tong Hospital for further diagnosis and treatment, it was discovered that she had the rare "endogenous Cushing's syndrome."

Dr. Cai Zhenglin, director of the Department of Metabolism at Tong Hospital, said that "Cushing's syndrome" is caused by excessive secretion of cortisol (a hormone) by the adrenal cortex, and can usually be divided into two types: "iatrogenic" and "endogenous".

Iatrogenic Cushing's syndrome often occurs in the elderly. Patients often need to take steroids for a long time due to skin diseases, joint pain and chronic diseases, which results in endocrine disorders in the body. At this time, symptoms can usually be improved by suspending, halving, or taking alternative treatments for steroid medications as appropriate.

Dr. Tsai Cheng-lin said that Cushing's syndrome is a disease caused by abnormal secretion of adrenal cortisol. Patients tend to gain weight suddenly in a short period of time, and have symptoms such as moon face and reddish skin color. (Photo provided by Tong General Hospital)

Dr. Tsai Cheng-lin further explained that if people do not have the habit of taking steroid drugs for a long time, but find symptoms such as abnormal weight gain, moon face, abdominal obesity but thin limbs, easy bruising under the skin, muscle weakness, high blood pressure, increased blood sugar, dark purple stripes on the abdomen, etc., then they should suspect whether it is endogenous Cushing's syndrome that is to blame!

Clinically, cases of endogenous Cushing's syndrome are rare. They are usually caused by adrenal tumors, which lead to abnormal adrenal cortisol secretion. In this case, surgical removal of the tumor is necessary to improve the condition.

Taking the patient surnamed Shen as an example, Dr. Cai Zhenglin found that the adrenal hormone in his body was abnormally high, and a CT scan also found a tumor in the right adrenal gland. He was diagnosed with endogenous Cushing's syndrome and referred to a urologist for laparoscopic resection. Only then did he lose weight, stabilize his blood pressure, and improve symptoms such as moon face, buffalo shoulders and reddish skin.

Finally, doctors remind people that if they find that their weight is increasing abnormally rapidly and they develop symptoms such as a round face and reddish skin, they should further check whether it is an endocrine disease and find out the real cause of the obesity so that they can improve the symptoms.