With the growth in knowledge about hormones comes greater complexity of issues, increased specialization and more variety of individual care.

Yet, between Columbia and Charleston, there are very few endocrinologists, specialists in hormonal abnormalities; in fact, Jocelyn A. Myers is the only one within a 40 -mile radius of Orangeburg.

In an interview last week, Myers said that individual patients need to educate themselves about hormone troubles and discipline themselves to take the necessary steps to keep their health conditions from worsening. Among the abnormalities that result from hormone irregularities are diabetes, thyroid disease and pituitary tumors.

Education has often been touted as key in maintaining good health care, and Myers couldn’t agree more.

The endocrine gland is any gland that secretes hormones into the bloodstream, such as the thyroid, anterior and posterior pituitary, pancreas and gonads. Myers treats patients with hormonal abnormalities, including diabetes, thyroid disease and pituitary tumors, and says anyone with hormone problems simply needs to more disciplined in taking the necessary steps to keep their health conditions from worsening.

“I think the biggest thing is being proactive about your own health care. I find in this area that a lot of people don’t question their doctors because it’s an older doctor, but yet they know they’re not getting the right care,” Myers said. “If you’re not getting the answer or the education that you think you need, then you may as well go elsewhere.”

Myers says a lack of education is the biggest cause among the patients she sees with thyroid cancer, osteosporosis, growth deficiencies, hormone access and adrenal tumors.

Recognizing how lifestyle — diet, exercise, stress — affects disease is the most important step.

“People shouldn’t rely on genetics as a catch-all for why they’re sick. You need to do whatever it is you can do to make your situation better, whether it’s watching what your eat, exercising more, eating less salt or drinking more water,” she said.

“Orangeburg County is one of the highest per capita diabetes areas in the country,” she said. “The area of diabetes is growing so quickly in terms of our knowledge and the medications that are coming out.”

“There used to be one type of pill and insulin, and now there are five different classes of drugs, including injectable medications that aren’t even insulin. There are even 11 different types of insulin out right now, so it’s hard for primary care doctors to really keep up with all the changes,“ she said, noting that many patients are referred to her from their primary doctors, or they will call her office themselves.

Avoiding white foods, including rice, mashed potatoes, pasta, breads; staying away from products that aren’t specifically 100 percent whole grain, and abstaining from cooking vegetables with pork and other salty additives are among the dietery tips she advises diabetes patients to follow.

Myers has a diabetes education class at her office twice a month, and is planning field trips to the supermarket to educate her patients on picking and preparing their foods.

“People don’t really understand what a protein or carbohydrate is,” she said. “You really need to explain and then give them some real-world ideas as to what they can or cannot eat.”

After diabetes, underactive and overactive thyroid disease and thyroid cancer are the second and third most prevalent ailments she sees among her patients.

While smoking is an unhealthy habit for anyone, she said, people with an overactive thyroid especially need to avoid smoking because it can make eye disease worse.

Myers moved to Orangeburg from New York in February 2004. She received a bachelor of arts in behavioral biology from John Hopkins University in Maryland in 1991 before receiving her doctoral degree in medicine from the State University of New York School of Medicine in 1996.

Myers completed her residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and performed her residency at Montefoire Medical Center in the Bronx.

After sharing space with another doctor for a year and a half, in October she opened her own practice, Palmetto Endocrine Associates at 1709 Village Park Drive.

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