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These true tales of discovery in The Drug Book by
Michael C. Gerald might change the way you think about your medicine.
Like Novocain, We use it to: Numb a local area, such as while having a
dental procedure. Who knew? The commonly used anesthetic is actually
named for the drug cocaine.
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Novocain
We use it to: Numb a local area, such as while having a dental
procedure. Who knew? The commonly used anesthetic is actually named for
the drug cocaine. Cocaine was first introduced as a local anesthetic in
1884, but it caused a number of addictions and deaths. A few years
later, German chemist Alfred Einhorn began to look for a safer
substitute; in 1905, he discovered the injectable local anesthetic
procaine, which became Novocain. |
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Lithium
We use it to: Manage mood disorders, like bipolar disorder. Who knew?
Well before it received FDA approval in 1970, the metal was first used
in the 1840s to treat bladder stones and gout. A century later,
Australian psychiatrist John Cade observed that guinea pigs injected
with a form of lithium became sedated rather than excited; subsequent
large-scale clinical studies confirmed lithium’s effectiveness for
preventing mania. |
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Lithium
We use it to: Manage mood disorders, like bipolar disorder. Who knew?
Well before it received FDA approval in 1970, the metal was first used
in the 1840s to treat bladder stones and gout. A century later,
Australian psychiatrist John Cade observed that guinea pigs injected
with a form of lithium became sedated rather than excited; subsequent
large-scale clinical studies confirmed lithium’s effectiveness for
preventing mania. |
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Warfarin
We use it to: Stop blood clotting and save lives. Who knew? In 1921,
veterinarians in Canada and North Dakota observed that when certain
cattle had a minor injury or surgery, they bled excessively and
sometimes fatally. The doctors concluded that the cows had been eating
spoiled clover, which contained a substance that caused the bleeding. In
1940, a University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemist isolated a pure form
of the compound, and later it was introduced to the market as Warfarin. |
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Rogaine
We use it to: Treat baldness. Who knew? Minoxidil first appeared on the
market in 1979 as a breakthrough drug for high blood pressure. However,
it increased body hair growth for 80 percent of patients who took the
drug orally; within three to six weeks, patients would grow dark hair on
the face and then on the back, chest, arms, and legs. Upjohn began
marketing the drug as a solution to apply to the scalp in 1988.
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AZT
We use it to: Treat HIV/AIDS. Who knew? Jerome Horwitz, of the Karmanos
Cancer Institute, first synthesized AZT as a potential anti-leukemia
drug in 1964, but it didn’t work. In the 1970s, AZT was found to be
active against a retrovirus, which led government researchers to
consider it as an HIV fighter. The FDA approved the drug in 1987.
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Dextromethorphan
We use it to: Ease coughs (as it blocks a cough center in the brain).
Who knew? The U.S. Navy and CIA helped to discover this drug when they
funded a study to find a non-addictive substitute for codeine. The
powerful pain reliever was also an effective cough reducer; however, as
it is also a sedative it was not best for military employees.
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