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* regulates basal metabolic rate 
- regulates body temperature - regulates appetite - promotes expulsion of glucose for energy 
- stimulates protein synthesis - increases lipolysis - regulates cholesterol levels - maintains standards for cardiac function - promotes normal neuronal development in 
the fetus and infants - promotes normal neuronal function in 
adults - enhances effects of sympathetic nervous 
system - promotes body and skeletal growth - promotes development of muscles and 
muscle function - regulates standards for female 
reproduction and lactation
Pituitary Tumors: may be hormone-secreting or non-secreting; most are benign; may cause visual disturbances and headaches as they grow and compress surrounding tissues; often results in excessive amounts of one pituitary hormone and decreases in others.
  * Growth Hormone Deficiency: from a variety of causes; in children it causes delayed growth and short stature; in adults it can lead to muscular weakness, fatigue, decreased bone mass, and obesity.
  * Hypopituitarism: from a variety of causes including tumors, trauma, decreased pituitary blood supply, infection,sarcoidosis, an autoimmune process, radiation, surgical removal of the pituitary, or a side effect of pituitary surgery; results in a general decrease in pituitary hormone production.
  * Hyperprolactinemia: a pituitary tumor that secretes prolactin or a tumor that prevents the regulation of prolactin production; can cause galactorrhea and amenorrhea, and in men decreased sex drive and impotence.
  * Empty Sella Syndrome: the sella is the structure that surrounds the pituitary gland; it may increase in size and put pressure on the pituitary; rarely, the pituitary gland shrinks in response and hormone production decreases, leading to hypopituitarism.

Excess growth hormone produced after puberty has little effect on the growth of the skeleton, but it results in a disease affecting terminal skeletal structures known as acromegaly.