Gold, in ancient times, was used to treat disease.  There are stories that Pliny, in the first century AD, reported that gold could be used to heal fistulas (an abnormal connection between two body parts) and hemorrhoids. In the 1200s Arnald of Villanova advocated gold […]

When one thinks of silver, it is as a coin, utensil, or jewelry, yet silver has been used in medicine for many millennia and continues to this day. The purpose of this column is to discuss how the use of silver benefits the health of […]

Acute inflammation, though uncomfortable and painful, does have its benefits: Acts as a defense mechanism to protect from infection and injury. Localizes and eliminates the injurious agent. Removes damaged tissue. Fortunately, the discomfort is temporary and leaves when the inflammatory response has done its job. […]

Intravenous (IV) therapy, a common procedure, is the method of introducing fluids and medications into the body quickly, bypassing the digestive system. IV therapy as we know it is only about 100 years old. Reports of attempts to introduce fluids via the IV route of […]

Quinine was first known to be used by the indigenous peoples of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador to halt “shiverings” or fevers. It is not known how long they knew of this remedy, but when the Spanish Jesuit missionaries in the 1570’s became aware of this […]

In 2015 one-half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Satoshi Omura of Kitasato University, Japan, and William Campbell, who worked for the Merck Pharmaceutical Co. in New Jersey. This is the story of their discovery. Omura isolated an unusual […]

There are three basic names for drugs: the chemical name, generic name, and brand name. The chemical name is consistent and the same in all countries; the generic names and brand names can be different for the same drug depending on the country. Chemical names […]

What is a calcium channel? In medicine when we speak of calcium channels, we are referring to small parts of cells that selectively allow calcium to pass through from the outside to the inside of the cell. In muscle cells this causes the muscle to […]

The first drug developed to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD), the modern term for alcoholism, was disulfiram (Antabuse). Today disulfiram is still used, but as a second line drug behind acamprosate (Campral) and naltrexone (Revia, Vivitrol). Disulfiram works by blocking the enzymatic breakdown of alcohol […]

Expiration dates, also called beyond-use dates or do not sell after dates have been used for several decades, but it hasn’t always been this way. Before transportation, refrigeration, manufacturing processes, and even convenient financial transactions, most perishable items bought by the consumer came from local […]