Browsing: Health/Medicine

A Brief History On July 22, 1942, due to wartime demands on gasoline, the US instituted a national rationing program for this fuel.  World War II saw many items rationed, including fuels, tires, and even cars.  But it gets worse! Digging Deeper World War II begat the issuance of ration stamps, resulting in black market and counterfeit stamps. Dog food in cans disappeared, and toothpaste tubes were limited.  A national 35 mph speed limit was instituted, coffee availability was cut in half, shoes, bicycles, rubber products, many foods, coal, firewood, and medicines such as penicillin were rationed.  Silk was rationed,…

A Brief History On July 17, 1984, President Reagan signed The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, requiring all states to raise the legal age for buying alcoholic beverages from 18 to 21.  The penalty for states that did not comply would be a reduction in Federal highway funds. Digging Deeper In the Vietnam War era, a shift in public opinion regarding the age when an American could be considered an adult came about largely based on the argument that if an 18 year old could fight and possibly die for his country, then surely that same 18 year…

A Brief History On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court handed down a blockbuster ruling that would become a major bragging point for then former President Donald Trump, the overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion a right all across the United States. Digging Deeper The case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization found that abortion was not a right guaranteed by the US Constitution, a 6-3 decision in which the three Trump appointees to the Supreme Court made a major difference in making that decision. Reveling in the victory of overturning Roe v.…

A Brief History On April 15, 1923, the hormone insulin became widely available for the treatment of diabetes.  Prior to the discovery of insulin and its adaptation for medical use, diabetes was an often-fatal disease of the inability of the body to process glucose. Digging Deeper Even today, diabetes claims millions of lives per year, as well as causing a variety of related maladies such as kidney failure, blindness, and nerve damage.  Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas, and was discovered in 1921 by Frederick Banting of Canada, a Nobel Prize winning discovery. By 1923, insulin became available…

A Brief History On February 9, 1996, the synthetic element, Copernicium, was discovered by a research team at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Germany, named after the famous Polish astronomer and polymath, Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik in Polish), 10 days after the discovery, on the 537th anniversary of Copernicus’s birth. Digging Deeper Some of the other elements named after people include Curium, Fermium, Mendelevium, Nobelium, Einsteinium, Bohrium, Roentgenium, Lawrencium, and others.  Perhaps you recognize some or most of these names as major historical scientists. You might not appreciate a disease or disorder being named after you,…