Under dehydrated conditions, the cells may lose up to 28% or more of their water volume. This certainly undermines all cellular activities, whether they occur in skin cells, stomach cells, liver cells, kidney cells or heart cells.
In Addison's disease, the adrenal glands don't make enough of a hormone called cortisol, or less often, a related hormone called aldosterone. That's why doctors sometimes call the illness ''chronic adrenal insufficiency,'' or hypocortisolism.
This disease can be caused by an autoimmune disorder, infection (for example, tuberculosis), or other rare diseases that cause infiltration and thus destruction of the adrenal glands (for example, sarcoidosis or amyloidosis). The most common cause of Addison's disease in developed countries is autoimmune disorders.