Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 188

A little bit of Speed (amphetamines).

Churchill was at a time before the development of effective medication, when the main medical approach to mood disorders was psychoanalytic.

When Churchill was almost 80, Dr Moran prescribed some speed to give Sir Winston enough of a boost to make a final speech in Parliament

Kuru is a dementing illness spread by cannibalism.

• Kuru is derived from the Fore’s word “to shake” due to the body tremors that are a classic symptom of the prion disease. Dead family members in Papua New Guinea were traditionally cooked and eaten, which was thought to help free the spirit of the dead.

Koro is an oriental fear of death caused by the penis disappearing into the body

• However in the West people largely believe their genitalia is just shrinking. Extremely anxious sufferers and their family members may resort to physical methods to prevent the believed retraction of the penis. A man may perform manual or mechanical penile traction, or “anchoring” by a loop of string or some clamping device

A circulatory phenomenon observed in angioma racemosum of the extremities or more commonly in patients with an AV-fistula.

More accurately the Nicoladoni-Israel-Branham sign is compression of the arterial supply to an arteriovenous fistula causes a decrease in pulse and increase in blood pressure if there is a significant circulation through the fistula.

AV fistula is a volume overload state, when the artery supplying the AV fistula is compressed, there is an increase in peripheral vascular resistance and afterload. As a result of increased afterload, there is a reflex bradycardia.

The phenomenon was first described by Nicoladoni in 1875, then by Israel in 1877 and Branham in 1890, and subsequently rediscovered by Wigdorowitsch in 1915. And maybe by you the next time you are in the dialysis unit.

• Cadogan M. Branham sign. LITFL
• Nicoladoni C. Phlebarteriectasie der rechten oberen Extremität. Archiv für klinische chirurgie. 1875; 18: 252-273 [Summary: Zentralblatt für Chirurgie 1875; 2: 534-535]
• Carl Nicoladoni (1847-1902)
• Israel JA. Aus dem jüdischen Krankenhause zu Berlin. Angiectasie im Stromgebiete der A. tibilais antica. Beobachtung einiger bemerkenswerther Phaenomene nach Unterbindung der A. femoralis. Archiv für klinische chirurgie. 1877; 21: 109-131
• James Adolf Israël (1848-1926)
• Branham HH. Aneurismal varix of the femoral artery and vein following a gunshot wound. International Journal of Surgery 1890; 3: 250-251
• Harris Miller Branham (1862-1936)
• Wigdorowitsch H. Ein bemerkenswertes Reflexphänomen bei einem Aneurysma der A. femoralis. Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift 1915; 41(24): 711
• Rudolph Matas (1860-1957)

Clutching the hands together to reinforce the tendon reflexes.

Ernő Jendrassik (1858-1921) was a Hungarian physician

Cortisone

Three scientists won the 1950 Nobel prize in medicine for their work with cortisone, Swiss chemist Tadeus Reichstein and Americans Edward Calvin Kendall, a biochemist, and Philip Showalter Hench, a medical researcher.

In 1936 Reichstein was the first scientist to isolate the hormone that was later named cortisone, making it the first corticosteroid ever described. Hench and Kendall studied compound E, thinking it may be useful in treating arthritis because of its anti-inflammatory effect. In 1950 Hench and another colleague were the first to use it to successfully treat arthritis.