New and old drugs in the news last week :
¶ Dr. Matilda M. Brooks, a University of California physiologist, discovered in 1932 that the drug known as methylene blue counteracts the oxygen starvation caused by certain poisons (cyanide, carbon monoxide). Acting as a catalyst, the drug improves oxygen absorption by the red blood cells, thereby helping the body to make the most of a curtailed oxygen supply. Recently Dr. Brooks journeyed to Peru, where travelers in the high Andes are subject to soroche, a common fainting sickness caused by lack of oxygen (TIME,...
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