Medicine: Arthritis Cause?

A clue to a possible cause of arthritis was given last week in the Journal of the A.M.A. Dr. Hans Selye and coworkers of Montreal have found that rats get the disease if they get an overdose of desoxy-corticosterone acetate, a synthetic adrenal hormone. Dr. Selye concludes that possibly an oversupply of cortin (hormone secreted by the adrenal gland's outer husk) may be to blame for human arthritis. The adrenal glands, he says, may be stimulated by glandular imbalance (e.g., women at the menopause are very likely to get arthritis), exposure to cold, emotional shock, infections.

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