In 1935, the Mayo Clinic reported a research breakthrough that would affect millions of lives. Doctors had isolated the hormone cortisone from the adrenal glands, the walnut sized glands sitting on top of the kidneys.
Cortisone produced by the adrenal glands reduces inflammation in the body.
The Mayo Clinic physicians first used cortisone to treat people with severe rheumatoid arthritis. Improvements were so dramatic in soothing swollen joints that patients crippled from the disease were actually able to walk again. Pharmaceutical companies have since produced corticosteroids medications that mimic the hormone cortisone. For people with asthma, corticosteroids literally can be lifesavers by preventing or reversing inflammation in the airways, making them less sensitive to triggers. They are not the same as anabolic steroids, which some athletes take illegally to build muscle mass.