Word: kidneys
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...teeth. Already widely tested, the treatment has been found to reduce caries (tooth decay) up to 40%. PHS officers issued a warning, however, against some other fluorine fads. Not recommended: fluorinated dentifrices (they do no good) and fluorine tablets (unwisely used, they may mottle teeth and bones, cause kidney trouble...
Starved Cortex. In the course of solving this puzzle, Dr. Trueta's research group happened on something with far more exciting possibilities. Physiologists have generally supposed that kidney blood circulation follows a fixed route, with most of the blood circulating through the tiny vessels in the kidneys' cortex (outer layer). The Trueta research showed that the kidneys have an emergency detour for the blood...
When circulation to the cortex is impeded, the blood bypasses the cortex and flows through bigger blood vessels in the kidney's medulla or interior (see cut). The cortex, starved for blood and oxygen, deteriorates. Results: 1) the production of urine slows or stops altogether; 2) the anemic cortex apparently secretes a substance (perhaps a hormone) that raises blood pressure throughout the body...
Following up this discovery, Trueta's investigators found that short-circuiting of the kidney cortex may be produced by many different stimuli. Direct electrical stimulation of certain nerves produced the same result; so did severe hemorrhages, heavy doses of certain hormones (e.g., adrenalin, pituitrin), and injections of the poison secreted by staphylococcus germs. All of these stimuli, the investigators decided, activate nerves which constrict the kidneys' blood vessels and divert the blood flow from the small vessels in the cortex to the larger ones in the medulla. Lack of blood in the cortex, in turn, raises blood pressure...
Emotional Storms. Doctors have long been aware that certain types of hypertension (high blood pressure) are connected with kidney disturbances. They have also observed that anger or other emotional storms may raise blood pressure. What the Trueta group demonstrated was the physiological chain of events that leads to hypertension. And they showed that the hitherto unexplained form of high blood pressure known as "essential hypertension," which accounts for 95% of all cases, stems from the kidneys...