Anatom3DPineal gland
Glandula pinealis · Šišinka (epifýza)
Endocrine glands
Looks like
A pine-cone-shaped gland about 8 mm long, at the centre of the brain behind the third ventricle.
What it does
Releases melatonin at night, signalling darkness to the body clock.
Keeping it well
Bright screens late at night delay its melatonin; it often calcifies harmlessly with age. Tumours here can block fluid flow and cause headache with upward-gaze problems.
Related conditions
- Acute liver failure
- ADHD
- Adrenal insufficiency (Addison's)
- African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)
- Alcohol withdrawal and delirium tremens
- Altitude sickness
- Alzheimer's disease
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Bipolar disorder
- Birth asphyxia (hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy)
- Body dysmorphic disorder
- Brain abscess
- Brain aneurysm
- Brain tumour (glioma & meningioma)
- Cerebral palsy
- Chronic insomnia
- Chronic neuropathic pain
- Chronic pain syndrome
- Cluster headache
- Concussion (mild TBI)
- Congenital hypothyroidism
- Cryptococcal meningitis
- Delirium
- Down syndrome (trisomy 21)
- Drowning
- Eating disorders
- Encephalitis
- Epilepsy
- Essential tremor & dystonia
- Fainting (syncope)
- Febrile seizures
- Fibromyalgia
- Fragile X syndrome
- Frailty & falls in older age
- Functional (somatic) symptom disorder
- Generalised anxiety disorder
- Haemorrhagic stroke
- Heat exhaustion & heatstroke
- Hepatic encephalopathy
- Huntington's disease
- Hydrocephalus
- Hyperthyroidism & Graves' disease
- Hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar)
- Hypothyroidism
- Intellectual disability
- Ischaemic stroke
- Japanese encephalitis
- Jet lag
- Lead poisoning
- Long COVID (post-viral syndrome)
- Major depressive disorder
- ME/chronic fatigue syndrome
- Measles
- Medication-overuse headache
- Meningitis
- Menopause & perimenopause
- Migraine
- Multiple sclerosis
- Narcolepsy
- Neurocysticercosis
- Normal pressure hydrocephalus
- Parkinson's disease
- Phenylketonuria (PKU)
- Poisoning & overdose
- Polycystic ovary syndrome
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Postnatal depression
- Postpartum psychosis
- Rabies
- Roseola (sixth disease)
- Schizophrenia
- Seasonal affective disorder
- Self-harm and suicidal crisis
- Subdural haematoma
- Substance use disorder
- Tension-type headache
- Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)
- Tick-borne encephalitis
- Tics and Tourette syndrome
- Toxoplasmosis & CMV
- Transient ischaemic attack
- Traumatic brain injury (moderate to severe)
- Tuberous sclerosis complex
- Type 1 diabetes
- Vascular dementia