Science
in Christian Perspective
ACTH and REINS
Jos. S. Maxwell, M. D.
From: JASA 3 (December
1951):
34-36.
ACTH is about the most up to date medicine we have. The discoverers of it
got the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1950.
ACTH stands for the adreno-cortico-tropic-hormone,. The word "reins" is
old
English for our word kidneys. The adrenal
gland
site-., like a cap,, on top of the
kidney.
In the King James version of our Bibles there is confusion of terms because
where it uses the word "mind" the original Hebrew word is "heart." The old Hebrews
seemed to know about the heart but not the mind. The Bible contains many connections
between heart
And
kidneys ( "reins") and both of these terms Are used mainly as referring to the deeper emotions. Many times the word "trying" or testing is
used.
Pa.
7:9
For the righteous, God testeth the heart and the kidneys.
Pa.
16:7
1 will bless Jehovah, Who hath given me counsel, yea my
kidneys instructeth me in the night seasons.
The Old Testament saints were often instructed in the night seasons in and
through dreams .
Nov much of this sort of
medicine is
still unknown. Medicine still does not
know what part the heart has in the interplay of the emotions. It is just commencing to realise that the adrenal at least and perhaps also some hormone secreted by
the kidney itself has a great part
in
the emotional life of man. It is as if the
Holy Spirit, Who, of course, knew all of medicine before it happened, assumed the
medical side of the filtering part of the kidney and the pumping part of the heart,
as
being
of little interest except to
an
M. D. and therefore stressed the part played
by
the kidney and the heart in the emotional life. Also that is a very important
side of
man.
This is of more interest in these days , when we are just entering the emotional
or psychic side of medicine. In my day In medical school the psychic side was little
known and we studied the somatic (literally, the word means meat, body) side, but we
did not know enough to study the psychic side. Just now they
combine that
part of
man calling it Psycho-somtic Medicine, and it is considered to be very up to date
indeed. Eventually, as it
limpingly
does, Science shall get around to the-heights
and perfection of the Bible which insists that the highest part of man is not Psycho
and not Somatic but is Pneumo--or SPIRIT. Someday then we shall have Pneumo-Psycho
Somatic Medicine such as vise medical missionaries have been practicing for years. -
The Spirit, being the only lasting part of man, would seem to warrant more careful
study than it gets.
This present study
concerning the
part that the brain and kidneys and heart play
in man's life relates to one of our new drugs which affects all parts of man. One
of its
most
dramatic effects is the marked-euphoria which the patient experiences
in treatments.
Even in
1951
Medicine does not know what part the spirit plays on the psyche
and
body. Medicine
now says
that the cortex of the brain receives impulses from the
outside world and transmits them to the
hypothalamus
and this In turn Influences the
pituitary and this in turn., the
hormone secreting
glands of the-body, including the
adrenal. The
pituitary is a
mysterious unknown In the hormone system of glands of internal secretion. It is hidden away in the depths of the brains in just about as
inaccessible a part
or
the body as could well be round. The anterior lobe of the
pituitary secretes ACTH. This hormone acts on the cortex
or
the adrenal gland of
the kidney to produce corticoster6ide, one of which is cortisone. In all there are
about 20-30 known hormones produced by the cortex
or the adrenal gland, The medulla
of the adrenal secretes "adrenalin" or suprarenin.
When a person gets a shock--like the sudden appearance of a lion in the way-adrenalin is poured out into the blood stream and it calls out the reserves of the
body: extra strength of the muscles is called up, extra energy, faster reflexes.,
keener vision, hearings and thinking, all are called into play quickly. Many a person has found a strength he did not know that he had when confronted with a real
emergency in life, and even life itself has been saved because we have this valuable
and.
But for the ordinary stresses of life., the annoyances., the conflicts.. the daily
worries, the thing that "burns you up" (and it comes nearer to doing that than you
think), the Lord gave us ACTH. This whole chain of reactions handles the usual worries of life without difficulty. But if these stresses increase or get stronger
finally the ACTH breaks down and the kidneys break down in their reaction. The
overworked kidneys cannot put out any more cortisone to combat the stresses and we
get sick. In ordinary day by day existence about 40-60 units of cortisone are found
in the blood. Venning, (1) showed that In a women directly after an outburst of hysteria these cortical hormones rose to 300 units in 24 hours. Another patient showed
250 units when she heard that her sister was dangerously ill. "These measurements
suggest that a mental or emotional upset is just as truly an injury to the body as
the fracture of a bone."
If the "Kidney" is totally exhausted of its cortisone by continued unusual
stress
then collagen disease sets in. This is what we have in arthritis, rheumatism, perhaps
in high blood
pressure, coronary heart
disease
and many other ills.- Our emotions
really
make us sick. In Egypt, some of my patients grieved so over the death of an
only son that they became blind.
Pa. 73:21 For my soul was grieved and I was pricked in my kidneys.
This is the picture of stabbing with a knife or the point of a spear, and this
would stop all cortisone response, and all adrenaline secretion. This would mean
death.
Prov. 23:16 Yea, my kidneys will rejoice when my
son's lips
speak right things.
Any fine Christian father knows this precious experience. What a pure joy!
Prov. 17:22 A merry heart doeth good like medicine.
Jer. 11:2n But 0
Jehovah
of Hosts) Who judgest righteously, who testeth the
kidneys and the heart.
This verse is quoted by John in Rev. 2:23 where the Greek word for kidneys Is
REPHRON which is also used as a technical term in
kidney work.
All of the Bible vas written
from two to three thousand years ago. It claims to
be the Word of GOD. The fact that as
far down the years
as
1951
A. D. there is still
much in the Bible ahead of the
best medical knowledge today and the fact that
no discovery in medicine, of any
date,
effectually refutes
the original
Bible, in its literal language, is certainly a strong suggestion for thoughtful
man that it is what it
claim
to be--GOD'S
W0JRD, Only God could know
in advance and know more
than any
scientist,
As a scientist., do you study
it for basic science and
for that
part of man which
lives forever--man's Spirit?
Do you speak right things to rejoice
the heart of your heavenly FATM?
(1) Gray, G. W., Cortisone and ACTE, Scientific American
182:30) for March 1950 quoting Venning. This reference is quoted
in
the
Archives-Of Ophtalmology Vol.
44
No 2 for
August 1950.
Circulation 3:384-389, 1951.,
Skegge, L. T. and associates states, "The
pressor
substance HYERTENSIN has been dialysed from circulating
blood of
dogs, and they
recovered 50-80% of material
from
the dialyzate,"
Renderem,, E.; Seneca H.; Abd el Messih,
G., & Weinberg, M.: J. Clin.
Endocrinology 8:851 1948. These investigators show a dependence of renal
structure and function upon the sex hormones and benefit by the protein
anabolic action of androgen.