What are adrenal tumours?

Sometimes we can develop an adrenal tumours, and one of those forms of adrenal tumour is called a pheochromocytoma, and that describes a condition where there's too much adrenaline and noradrenaline in the body. It's an unusual tumour, but it's one which is really important to diagnose, and that can be achieved by testing levels of adrenaline and related compounds in the blood. Adrenaline is the fight and flight hormone. High levels of adrenaline cause you to...heart to race, blood pressure to go up, for you to become on high alert, and to go sometimes cold, pale, sweaty, all the things that would happen with a sudden acute stress or shock. Now if you've just nearly been run over by a car, that's a normal response. But if that's happening to you without that, that's a highly unpleasant experience. It makes people feel highly anxious. At the same time, anxiety may feel the same. So one of the jobs that I have is to sort out the difference between individuals who've got episodes of severe anxiety, making themselves very uncomfortable from those who've got too much adrenaline circulating in the body, coming from an adrenal gland that's not working properly.