Corticotropin and cortisone in otolaryngology.

Abstract

If the human body could not withstand stress, the human race would quickly disappear from the face of the earth. As a matter of fact, without this ability, we could not even survive the normal strains of everyday life. The amount of lowering of our circulating eosinophils produced by any stress is a fair test for the activity of this mechanism. To illustrate what a sensitive and intricate stress mechanism our bodies possess, the small chore of getting up in the morning, dressing, and going to work markedly depresses the blood eosinophils. During health, almost all tissues and physiological processes are involved in meeting stress; however, there is one regulating system that phylogenetically has been developed especially for this purpose. This is the pituitary-adrenal axis with all of its hormonal and enzymatic actions. The anterior pituitary secretes several hormones; these trophic hormones, in turn, stimulate other glands of internal secretion.