Project ID: 798
| Description | The happy accident – the adrenal gland and asthma treatment - this talk traces the history of asthma therapy and discuss how a happy accident paved the way for all our modern medicines for asthma. Scientists isolated a substance from the adrenal gland which they called adrenaline – asthmatics inhaled it and felt better. Adrenaline was transformed into Ventolin (Salbutamol) – the first effective treatment for asthma, but this was 70 years after the discovery of adrenaline – why did it take so long? But it was all a mistake as adrenaline is not absorbed from the stomach and intestines following ingestion so it can’t have been adrenaline in the adrenal gland extract that improved asthma symptoms in the Victorian era. What was improving asthma following eating of adrenal gland extracts? |
| Topics | Medical and Health Talks |
| Type | U3A-led research (not an SLP) |
| U3A | Thanet U3A |
| Year started | 2018 |
| Source of reference | Talk given at the U3A Science Network Meeting, Nottingham, 2018 |
| Notes | This talk is available to other U3As |