Nazi Medical Advancements
Nazis revolutionized medicine during WWII. These include many medical advancements In the Bayer company,that were made possible through torture and unethical medical trials. Some of their most famous advancements include that of Aspirin, narcotics, and "Rapid active rewarming”. It is scary to think that today we benefit of the mistreat those people received in unethical experiments.
I believe one of the things that we take for granted the most today that the Nazis did is Aspirin. It is used to reduce fever and relieve the pain from conditions like muscle aches,toothaches,common cold, headaches and many others. It may also be used to minimize pain and enlargement in conditions like arthritis. Aspirin is known as a salicylate and anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). what it does is block a certain natural substance in your body to reduce pain and swelling. Aspirin was one of the very first drugs to be made available in tablet-form.Bayer had released aspirin a year after the release of heroin, and this new non-addictive painkiller and also an anti-inflammatory was on its way to become the most popular drug ever. It is now a standard worldwide remedy for pain, inflammation and fever. Today Aspirin is now available in over 80 countries, It is regarded as the most successful non-prescription medicine of all time. The German medical expert also welcomed heroin to the world,This narcotic (diacetylmorphine), had been created by a British chemist in 1874, who never used it. Using the trade name “Heroin”, because several early testers said it made them feel heroisch (heroic). Bayer sold this very popular drug by the truckload at the beginning of 1898. Free samples were delivered to thousands and thousands of doctors; But reports of addiction, which had started appearing in 1899, turned into a torrent after several years. In 1913, Bayer got out of the heroin business. Today Heroin is an illegal drug in most of the countries. Bayer also came up with a non-opiate analgesic during WWII, because Germany couldn't get access to any Opium (because the major distributor, Great Britain, was at war against them) to make Morphine, and they needed a ¨Battlefield Analgesic¨. The Drug they came up with was originally marked as "Adolfin" named after Hitler. they diplomatically dropped the name "Adolfin" after the war) so today, we know it as Methadone,and it's main use is as a Heroin substitute, and is widely prescribed for Heroin withdrawals all over the World .It's generic name is Physeptone, Methadone is more addictive than Heroin, and with more severe withdrawal symptoms, it has also been proved that sudden withdrawal is actually life threatening, rather than just painful and unpleasant, like the Heroin. It takes less time for the body to develop tolerance levels, which means that addiction will develop a lot sooner. Also about 20 times more expensive to produce than Heroin, and has many unpleasant side effects, like incontinence, obesity, severe depression, and dangerously low blood pressure and many others . Through the Nazi use of torture They discovered lots of medical information that doctors use today. For example, the Nazis extensively studied and monitored hypothermia, at Dachau concentration camp, by subjecting victims to severe torture. The Nazis immersed victims in vats of freezing water or left them outside during the cold winter, during that time they monitored changes in body temperature, heart rate, muscle responses and urine. These tests were initially performed on volunteer soldiers, but then the Nazis were not satisfied with what they had ,all the information they could get and began to test on concentration camp victims. They attempted to formulate different methods to bring the bodies back again to a safe temperature, they used “Rapid Active Rewarming” which is a technique that seemed to be the most effective method of revival. This special technique is used today in the west. This research could potentially make new advancements in other researches studying hypothermia. Nazis revolutionized medicine during WWII. these were made possible through torture and unethical medical trials. It is shocking to think that today we benefit of these advancements although they were tested in unethical experiments on innocent people. |