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.