Word: acth
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...gland that calls forth Magnus Andersen's specialized skill is the pituitary, whose function was unknown in Melville's day. Today medicine knows the pituitary as a master gland in the body's complex and delicately balanced hormonal system; it secretes, among others, the master hormone ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone), which regulates activity of the adrenal glands astride the kidneys...
...alarm reaction-the mobilization for fight or flight marked by drops in body temperature, blood pressure and blood sugar. This first or shock phase may last from a few minutes to 24 hours; before it is over, the body mobilizes for counter-shock with an increased supply of ACTH from the pituitary to the adrenal glands. This stage is marked by increased resistance to the stress. But it cannot last indefinitely: comes the final stage of exhaustion in which resistance is lower; the adrenals remain overactive and the stomach lining may develop bleeding ulcers...
...cases, it can threaten life by depositing uric acid crystals in the kidneys or heart. Sufferers must avoid foods rich in purines-yeast, herring roe, sardines, asparagus, and many organ meats such as sweetbreads, liver, heart and kidneys. Other treatment: colchicine (an ancient remedy extracted from the autumn crocus), ACTH, phenylbutazone (a powerful but potentially dangerous drug). Another drug, probenecid, is no good for acute attacks and may actually aggravate them, but paradoxically is the best long-term treatment to keep the disease quiescent. Not yet curable, but now usually controllable...
Miracles & Disappointments. In 1949 came the dramatized announcement (with before-and-after movies) from the Mayo Clinic of wondrous results with two hormones: ACTH and cortisone. Hopes for miracle cures soared, along with sales of the hormones. Gradually it has become clear that the hormones do not cure rheumatoid arthritis; they suppress its worst symptoms until-as is the way with this baffling disease-it may subside spontaneously after a few months. Victims of other forms of rheumatism, some of whom thought rheumatism was all one disease, were disappointed when the hormones proved of little use to them. In some...
...pharmacologists, pathologists, nutritionists and immunologists swarmed into Atlantic City for meetings of their consortium, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, to tell of advances in their fight to gain life-saving knowledge. Outstanding items: ¶ The pituitary gland, long given homage as producer of the "master" hormone ACTH,* is itself the slave of a truly imperial hormone secreted by a part of the brain, reported Baylor University's Physiologist Roger Guillemin. From the hypothalamus, an ancient part of the brain, Guillemin and Baylor colleagues have isolated a highly potent fraction, "hypothalamic D," which puts the pituitary...