Evening star., 1950-09-05
Hormones Help Ease
Distress While Body
Fiqhts Off Disease
BY the Associated Press


CHICAGO, Sept. 5.-A phySi-
clan told today of chemical magic
that aboliShes sickness, while you
still have a disease.
The magic is in the hormones
cortisone and ACTH. They are
famed for bringing relief of pain
in rheumatoid arthritis. But the
wonder hormoneS have far
greater medical significance, DR..
Peter H. Forsham of Harvard Uni
versity Medical School told the
American Chemical Society.
With them. physicians have a
chance to abolish the distress and
symptoms of disease at will, and
give you a better chance to fight
disease, he said.
In pneumonia, invading germs
produce a violent inf1ammatory
reaction in your lungs. Fluid and
pus flood the delicate air spaces
breathing comes hard, and you
run high fever.
Reaction Will Vanish.
son ACTH or cortisone, the en-
tire reaction will vanish. And
while pneumococci (germs) still
crowd the lung, the cells no
longer react to them. 1t is obvious
that sickness has been abolished
while the disease is still present,
Dr. Forsham said.
Conquest of the disease, aside
from help of antibiotics depends
upon the build-up of antibodies
which will arise within 10 days
whether OF not you received the
hormone. The hormone spares
you pain and debilitation.
In fact" said DR.. Forsham,
"any of the acute and some of the
chronic diseases with an inflam-
matory or allergic background are
thus controlled"
Eye Damage Blocked.
The harmones have stopped in
fections or allergic conditions OF
the eye in their tracks before they
could damage the eye or cause
blindness, he added. In one eye
disease, sympatheticophthalmia
injury to one eye leads to an al
lergic fare-up in the other eye
and may blind it, too. But the
hormone protects the good eye
until the injured one is healed.
A strangling form of asthma
can choke you to death, by con-
struction of sensitized hronchioles,
or tiny air passages. ACTH stops
the reaction and lets the passages
expand again.
When body cells are injured by
invasion of germs or other SUBJ
stances, they usually react vio-
lently and in self-deStructive fash
ion, DR.. Forsham explained. But
the hormones slow down or pre-
vent this reaction. They do it by
increasing production of COM
pound F. a hormone from the
covering of the adrenal gland,
lying over the kidney.
Some Diseases Cured.
The hormones can cure dis
eases which are self limited, like
rheumatic fever, or those caused
by outside influences, like pollen in
the air. which later disappear, he
said. But in other diseases. where
the stimulus keeps on. the hor-
mones bring only temporary relief,
while they're being given.
The wonder hormoneS speed
wound healing, slow down the rate
of bodily processes by acting on
the thyroid gland, but at the same
time increase brain activity and
usually give sense of well-being.
DR.. Forsham added. Injuries are
more likely to be localized, because
the hormone works against a
chemical that allows harmful
agents to spread among body cells.
The stomach juice. pepsin, is in
creased, leading to better digestion
of body building food
The opportunity of abolishing
the manifestations of disease at
will has opened new era in medi-
cine, in which the adrenal cortex
(outer covering of the adrenal
gland1 will play a major role" +"
DR.. Forsham said.