Commentary by Roger Martin Martin writes about research at KU for Kansas media and in a Web zine. Contact Martin at rmartin@kucr.ukans.edu or (785) 864-7239. Martin also can be heard on KANU 91.5 FM public radio Archives More articles by Roger Martin Subscribe now to receive KU News by email

Facts from the 'Medicine Chest'

by Roger Martin

Here at the University of Kansas, summer school is over, autumn school hasn't started, and a bunch of professors have blown out of Dodge. Phone's dead.

The other day, I went out looking for an expert on the air-breathing snakehead fish, the one that can wriggle from pond to pond. All I found was a "gone swimming" sign on the fish expert's door.

So today I'm going to pass along some things I've learned while doing another job for KU: writing about pharmaceutical and over-the-counter drugs for a radio show called "Medicine Chest."

"Medicine Chest" is sponsored by the Higuchi Biosciences Center and Drug Information Center at KU. You can find it online at www.ur.ku.edu/News/medicinechest/index.html.

Filling up the old "Medicine Chest," I've accumulated a stockpile of factoids that would dazzle people one might meet at a party. Did you know, for example, that most animals can make their own vitamin C -- but not humans, guinea pigs or the Indian fruit bat? They have to get their C by eating right or taking supplements.

Did you know that more than half of all women 65 and older take more than five medicines a week? That 12 percent take 10 or more drugs a week? And did you know that the world's first blood transfusion, back in 1665, took place between two dogs? What, you're not dazzled? Oh ... you'd rather have a serious conversation at a party. Fine. I've got a story for you. In the 1850s, Dr. Ignaz Phillip Semmelweis discovered that his medical students were spending time in anatomy labs dissecting corpses and then attending to pregnant women on maternity wards. They did not wash their hands in between.

The doctor insisted his students scrub, and the number of deaths on the maternity ward fell fivefold. Even so, the hospital didn't accept his discovery, and the medical establishment didn't make handwashing standard practice for another 50 years.

Uh, yeah, you're right. Kill that one. You never know when a hospital administrator might be lurking.

So how about this? How about challenging a very common-sense assumption most people make? The one about how it's better to be safe than sorry.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association a couple years ago concluded that rabies shots were being given too often. Sometimes, the animals in question aren't captured and tested before people get rabies shots, even when that would be easy. One or two people a year die of rabies, but we spend more than $300 million on rabies treatment. Sure, sure, OK, I agree: There is a small risk that someone at the party could have been bitten recently. He might say, "I don't care if it had rabies. I wanted the shots."

So here's a backup, a failsafe -- a tale of two antiseptics, mercurochrome and iodine.

The word "mercurochrome" will bring mist to the eyes of anyone who still remembers Butch hair wax, Nash Ambassadors or the Playtex Living Bra. Mercurochrome was banned in the United States because if you drank a bottle, it would hurt you. But let me tell you something: When it came to a cut, you wanted your mom to dab it with mercurochrome, not iodine -- because iodine stung.

Writing a "Medicine Chest" spot, I found out why. Mercurochrome was water-based; iodine contained alcohol, and it was the alcohol that stung.

Ta-da!

What, you expected more? OK, I'll make it up to you. Next time. In fact, I've got an expert on snakehead fish waiting to talk to me on line 3.

Gotta run.