How to become a neuroendocrinologist, possibly with immunology training?

[noroxytocin]

I was wondering a few things about how to become a neuroendocrinologist. I am really interested in neurology, endocrinology, and immunology, since they are the three chemical messaging systems, and I think they interact a lot together. In fact, someone argued that endocrinology is really just a branch of neuroendocrinology. Anyway, I was wondering how all the residencies and fellowships would work, and whatever else you have to do to become one. Is there a specific job title for someone who specializes in the three systems at the same time, and what would they do? For instance, I've never been able to find information on what neuroendocrinologists do, or how it's different from what neurologists or endocrinologists alone do. Or is that just limited to one part of the body, like the pituitary gland? Thank you very much for any information or advice. I also don't care how long the schooling takes as long as I can afford it, since to me knowledge is more valuable than anything else. Also, do the residencies and fellowships give people a lot of information about these fields, or just the specific values of hormones and things like that to test people for? Would a PhD or something give you more information as to how these systems work? I would rather do medicine and research, but I was just wondering.

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[deleted407021]

Neuroimmunoendorcrinology? If that specialty even exists it's probably a super sub specialized branch of internal medicine and pediatrics.

Worry about getting into medical school, right now instead of obscure specialties. It's OK to have interests but don't waste too much time fixating on specific specialties.

 

[WillburCobb]

Agree with what others have said. Also, neuroendocrinology is pretty much limited to research. The only "specialized" training I'm aware of is via PhD.

 

[Boolean]

MD/PhD.

 

[noroxytocin]

Thanks for all your replies. I would want to get an MD/PhD, so that's good. If it's possible, I'd like to spend half my time on research, and the other half on medicine.
Why is it bad to focus on the subspecialty?One reason I do is that it's more motivating to think about what I'll do specifically once I'm done going to school. Also, I like to read different books about my interests, so it kind of leads me to wanting to know what I'll do. Lastly, I was wondering if the fact that someone said it was super subspecialized means it would be really narrowly focussed. One of the main reasons I wanted to learn about and master these three systems is so I can research how they interact. If it's really limited, like only to studying the pituitary gland or something like that, I don't know if I would want to do it.

 

[candbgirl]

What year are you in? What are your GPAs? What are your MCAT scores? Tell us about your ECs etc. when are you going to apply?

 

[noolsy]

Get yourself into a lab that deals with at least two of those things. Neuroinflammation is pretty common, actually. Neuroendocrinology, too, for that matter.

 

[tmn]

Sounds more like a PhD than an MD.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

Thanks for all your replies. I would want to get an MD/PhD, so that's good. If it's possible, I'd like to spend half my time on research, and the other half on medicine.
Why is it bad to focus on the subspecialty?One reason I do is that it's more motivating to think about what I'll do specifically once I'm done going to school. Also, I like to read different books about my interests, so it kind of leads me to wanting to know what I'll do. Lastly, I was wondering if the fact that someone said it was super subspecialized means it would be really narrowly focussed. One of the main reasons I wanted to learn about and master these three systems is so I can research how they interact. If it's really limited, like only to studying the pituitary gland or something like that, I don't know if I would want to do it.

I don't see anything wrong with being drawn toward a specialty, but realize that most medical students change their minds about their preferred specialty at least a couple of times throughout medical school.

 

[noroxytocin]

That makes sense. I was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor which has had a strong effect on my life, so I don't think that would happen to me. Anything is possible though, of course.

 

[noroxytocin]

Sorry--I only saw the last reply, so I was responding to that. To the earlier ones, This is just my second year of community college, so I haven't taken the MCAT yet. I did get the highest grade in my medical terminology class though. I would like to get MD and PhD degrees, and spend half my time on medicine, and the other half on research. I also love the advice about going into a lab that does focus on at least two of those.

 

[Instatewaiter]

I was wondering a few things about how to become a neuroendocrinologist. I am really interested in neurology, endocrinology, and immunology, since they are the three chemical messaging systems, and I think they interact a lot together. In fact, someone argued that endocrinology is really just a branch of neuroendocrinology. Anyway, I was wondering how all the residencies and fellowships would work, and whatever else you have to do to become one. Is there a specific job title for someone who specializes in the three systems at the same time, and what would they do? For instance, I've never been able to find information on what neuroendocrinologists do, or how it's different from what neurologists or endocrinologists alone do. Or is that just limited to one part of the body, like the pituitary gland? Thank you very much for any information or advice. I also don't care how long the schooling takes as long as I can afford it, since to me knowledge is more valuable than anything else. Also, do the residencies and fellowships give people a lot of information about these fields, or just the specific values of hormones and things like that to test people for? Would a PhD or something give you more information as to how these systems work? I would rather do medicine and research, but I was just wondering.

Sigh...

 

[Hermione L Knope MD. Ph.D]

Sorry--I only saw the last reply, so I was responding to that. To the earlier ones, This is just my second year of community college, so I haven't taken the MCAT yet. I did get the highest grade in my medical terminology class though. I would like to get MD and PhD degrees, and spend half my time on medicine, and the other half on research. I also love the advice about going into a lab that does focus on at least two of those.

If you want to do an MD PhD, adcoms are not going to want to hear 50/50 medicine and research. More like 20/80.

 

[noroxytocin]

20/80 is fine, and that's useful information. Why do they want that ratio though? I am just wondering.
I'm surprised at peoples' attitudes, like saying sigh and just being so negative in general. I guess when I first got on here, I thought it would be mostly positive and constructive. If it is me that is doing something wrong, please tell me.

 

[Hospitalized]

I'm surprised at peoples' attitudes, like saying sigh and just being so negative in general. I guess when I first got on here, I thought it would be mostly positive and constructive. If it is me that is doing something wrong, please tell me.

The main goal of this forum is for pre-meds to get together and talk about the journey towards medical school. Neuroendocrinology does not fit into this category. We all know how hard it is to even get into medical school, so to even consider residency type questions is out of the norm for this forum.

It's good to be curious, but you should have a very open mind throughout the processes of being a pre-med.

Curiously, how do you post on the internet while being blind? More specifically, how can you read anything off a screen?

 

[noroxytocin]

Okay, that makes sense. Actually I don't read it off of the screen exactly, I use something called a screenreader, which reads what is on the screen out loud. I use headphones so as not to annoy people, because it talks so quickly that most people can't understand it. So for example, my iPhone which I'm using for this app uses VoiceOver to read things. The only annoying thing is that it sometimes won't let me click on certain threads, but I'm sure they'll fix that bug in the future, whether it's with VoiceOver or the iPhone itself.
I also have one more question. I don't want to post this on the wrong thread, so if you could give me an idea as to where I should post my question that would be great. What I'm wondering is: if I wanted to learn more about epigenetics specifically, would a model like this one be useful? I also use a website that has books for blind people, but sometimes it's hard to know what they're talking about without an actual image.
http://www.shopanatomical.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=DG-0611-00

 

[xffan624]

Okay, that makes sense. Actually I don't read it off of the screen exactly, I use something called a screenreader, which reads what is on the screen out loud. I use headphones so as not to annoy people, because it talks so quickly that most people can't understand it. So for example, my iPhone which I'm using for this app uses VoiceOver to read things. The only annoying thing is that it sometimes won't let me click on certain threads, but I'm sure they'll fix that bug in the future, whether it's with VoiceOver or the iPhone itself.
I also have one more question. I don't want to post this on the wrong thread, so if you could give me an idea as to where I should post my question that would be great. What I'm wondering is: if I wanted to learn more about epigenetics specifically, would a model like this one be useful? I also use a website that has books for blind people, but sometimes it's hard to know what they're talking about without an actual image.
http://www.shopanatomical.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=DG-0611-00

Epigenetics is more complex than a basic model of DNA structure. That model (which is just a basic model of DNA that doesn't even include histones or methylated groups) would pretty much be useless for it.

OP, before you write shakespeare, you must learn the basics of grammar and vocabulary.

Focus on the basics before you jump to specializing. Even if it's your goal to ultimately study that particular area (i.e. neuroendocrinology).

 

[VisionaryTics]

Okay, that makes sense. Actually I don't read it off of the screen exactly, I use something called a screenreader, which reads what is on the screen out loud. I use headphones so as not to annoy people, because it talks so quickly that most people can't understand it. So for example, my iPhone which I'm using for this app uses VoiceOver to read things. The only annoying thing is that it sometimes won't let me click on certain threads, but I'm sure they'll fix that bug in the future, whether it's with VoiceOver or the iPhone itself.
I also have one more question. I don't want to post this on the wrong thread, so if you could give me an idea as to where I should post my question that would be great. What I'm wondering is: if I wanted to learn more about epigenetics specifically, would a model like this one be useful? I also use a website that has books for blind people, but sometimes it's hard to know what they're talking about without an actual image.
http://www.shopanatomical.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=DG-0611-00

I think a more pressing question would be: what steps do I need to get into medical school as a blind/vision-impaired individual.

 

[noroxytocin]

Thanks. Now I know not to waste $800 on a model. What exactly did I write that was ShakeSpear-like in any way? Remember that because I am blind, I don't read in the literal sense nearly as much as you do. Every time you walk or drive somewhere, you read signs. Even reading this forum could improve your grammar. Hopefully you can see that since you read all the time compared to me, it is a little bit harder for me to have perfect grammar. So if I made some grammatical mistakes, I'm not going to beat myself up about it. When people tell me what to correct specifically about my grammar, I correct it. If you say something extremely vague, it doesn't help much.
I'm starting to see that rather than focusing on what neuroendocrinologists do specifically, although the particular field is likely much different than others, I should focus on figuring out whether I should get an MD, PhD, or both, and what I would have to do to get them. But it is useful to an extent to think far into the future. For example, let's say I wanted to get into medical school so I could do surgery. If I learned later that it wasn't an option, I could potentially have wasted years of my life going to med school. So only thinking about the immediate future doesn't apply to me, at least not as much as it does to other people.

 

[twdurdentwd]

Keep up the persistence. Albeit, having an idea of your interests is good, if I were in your position with your disability, I would go only PHD and solely research.

FYI I'm neurologically deaf in the left ear.

 

[mvenus929]

Thanks. Now I know not to waste $800 on a model. What exactly did I write that was ShakeSpear-like in any way? Remember that because I am blind, I don't read in the literal sense nearly as much as you do. Every time you walk or drive somewhere, you read signs. Even reading this forum could improve your grammar. Hopefully you can see that since you read all the time compared to me, it is a little bit harder for me to have perfect grammar. So if I made some grammatical mistakes, I'm not going to beat myself up about it. When people tell me what to correct specifically about my grammar, I correct it. If you say something extremely vague, it doesn't help much.
I'm starting to see that rather than focusing on what neuroendocrinologists do specifically, although the particular field is likely much different than others, I should focus on figuring out whether I should get an MD, PhD, or both, and what I would have to do to get them. But it is useful to an extent to think far into the future. For example, let's say I wanted to get into medical school so I could do surgery. If I learned later that it wasn't an option, I could potentially have wasted years of my life going to med school. So only thinking about the immediate future doesn't apply to me, at least not as much as it does to other people.

It's a metaphor, dear. You are looking to become something specialized (Shakespeare), before you understand the basics of the field (grammar and vocabulary). He wasn't speaking specifically to your writing style.

As far as your forward thinking, there's nothing wrong with figuring out the different career paths to get to what you think you want to do, but you should also explore what it means to head down that career path (MD vs MD/PhD), and understand that there are many branches along the way. The person who goes to medical school to do surgery and then doesn't usually becomes interested in something else, rather than learns he can't actually do surgery. For you, specifically, it would be prudent to learn what challenges you might face in medical school, since it's rather difficult to study anatomy and histology (and hence pathology) when you can't see the structures. I'm sure someone would make accommodations if you searched long and hard enough, but learning more about what accommodations would have to be made would be useful.

 

[noroxytocin]

Oh. I seem to be misinterpreting some important things, like when I thought OP meant oh please, and now ShakeSpeare. But that is a good metaphor. You're right though of course--I should figure out whether it is possible for me to get each degree, and whether I can be a doctor or researcher. And the steps in between, like residencies and fellowships. PhD doesn't sound as glamorous or quite as interesting as MD/PhD, but I guess I should be grateful for that. Do you think I should ask programs in advance what they think and would suggest? Sorry for my questions being all over the place instead of on one topic, but how much does learning and mastering biochemistry overlap with neurology, endocrinology, and immunology? Like if you learned the three chemical messaging systems, would you gain a mastery of biochemistry on the way? And how much about those do biochemists learn about? I'm thinking that if I could only get degrees in one, would it be better to do biochemistry instead?
Also if you don't mind me asking, what was the neurological cause of your deafness in one ear, and do you do anything to make up for it?

 

[LizzyM]

Some of the dismay you are hearing here is due to the belief that prematurely focusing on a specific sub-specialty due to one's own medical condition is short -sighted. You are not going to medical school to give care to yourself and while you may wish to help others with the same condition, you will also be expected to care for people who are different: those who have medical conditions different from yours and those who have the same condition but who respond differently to treatments or who have different priorities or treatment goals. So, you need to be open to treating the sick and injured or providing longitudinal primary care to a variety of patients, not just focusing on a single rare condition.

Some admissions committee members become worried that someone very focused on a single organ system will not be motivated to study what seems unrelated to their chosen sub-specialty. Given the stiff competition for admissions, some will choose one of the 1,500 other applicants rather than the one who seems too narrow in his interests at this stage of his career.

 

[noroxytocin]

I am interested in nearly all medical conditions, not just my own. But I guess I would have to show that in applications. But also, I think the endocrine system could be used to modulate the nervous and immune systems. So if someone had autoimmunity, instead of necessarily suppressing the immune system completely, I might be able to use the endocrine system to help it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would also like to use knowledge of these systems to help other conditions that people might not realize have an endocrine component for example. I am also not just interested in my condition, but probably all endocrine conditions. I love how all the hormones interact.