/oss/taxonomy/term/283/all en /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition-history/legend-wartime-placebo <p>Facts rarely get in the way of a good story. There is a foundational myth in placebo research that has been repeated over and over again, sometimes with inexplicable flourishes, often with the variations one expects from a telephone game. You have probably read it in a mainstream publication. It’s the story of a doctor, working in dark times, who cannot do his job properly and accidentally discovers the power of the placebo to relieve pain. It is such a good story.</p> <p>And it might not even be true.</p> Sat, 12 Feb 2022 03:06:02 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9023 at /oss /oss/article/history-you-asked/why-are-people-addicted-heroin-called-junkies <p>By the first decade of the twentieth century heroin addiction had become a huge problem in major American cities such as New York. The drug was not cheap and some people experiencing addiction resorted to supporting their habit by rifling through junkyards for scrap metal that they could sell. Interestingly, heroin was introduced by the Bayer Company in 1897 as a non-habit forming version of morphine. It was originally synthesized in 1874 by C.R. Wright, an English chemist who hoped to improve the properties of morphine by altering its molecular structure.</p> Sat, 11 Sep 2021 08:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8838 at /oss /oss/article/general-science/mans-last-days <p>To be fair, he did look very uncomfortable all the time, but we didn’t know how to make him feel better; until one day, we didn’t have to worry any more.</p> <p>Let’s rewind the clock.</p> Wed, 24 Oct 2018 18:07:07 +0000 Melody Ko MD, MSc 7410 at /oss /oss/article/drugs-health-history-quirky-science/what-drug-may-have-been-detected-had-dorothys-and-cowardly-lions-urine-been-tested-they-entered <p>Not if it tested for morphine, as long as we let L. Frank Baum get away with a little poetic license. In the 1939 movie classic The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West conjures up a poppy field in front of the Emerald City to prevent Dorothy, the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow from entering. As the four wander through the field, Dorothy and the Lion mysteriously fall asleep, succumbing to the vapours released by the poppies. The Tin Man and the Scarecrow, not possessed of human or animal biology, are unaffected.</p> Fri, 26 Apr 2013 01:42:56 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1922 at /oss /oss/article/you-asked/what-are-endorphins <p>Endorphins, molecules produced by the pituitary and hypothalamus glands to produce pain relief and a sense of well-being. The name derives from “endogenous morphine,” meaning internally produced morphine. A very appropriate description, because the identification of these compounds stemmed from the discovery that that molecules isolated from opium, such as morphine, provided pain relief by stimulating receptors on nerve cells. Receptors are specific protein molecules that are configured to bind to opiates.</p> Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:34:36 +0000 Joe Schwarcz 1554 at /oss