The Dark Side of hormone prescription

• Main Author: Richard J Auchus
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bioscientifica 2021-09-01
• Series: Endocrine Connections
• Online Access: https://ec.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/ec/10/9/EC-21-0039.xml

Kendel, Reichstein, and Hench shared the Nobel Prize in 1950 for the isolation and therapeutic use of cortisone. Hench, a rheumatologist used the anti-inflammatory properties of cortisone to treat rheumatoid arthritis, with dramatic results. Soon afterward, Thorn and Forsham treated adrenal insufficiency with cortisone (1), a lifesaving intervention that changed a uniformly fatal illness into a chronic disease. Amazing, Lazarean results were also obtained when insulin was used to treat type 1 diabetes a century ago. Impressive clinical responses are routinely obtained with thyroxine therapy for severe hypothyroidism, estrogen for ovarian failure, growth hormone for pituitary dwarfism, and most recently, recombinant parathyroid hormone for hypoparathyroidism (2). These sweeping responses to properly administered hormone replacement in the setting of severe deficiency states are what prompted many of us to pursue the noble field of clinical endocrinology.