Medicine From Animals

23 May 02 - 11:31 AM (#716129)
Subject: Medicine From Animals
From: GUEST,milkdud22

I'm doing a research project for my zoology class and I can't find anything on my topic! My topic is medicine derived from animals and I can't find any good websites. If you know of any, or know of any medicines that come from animals, I'd love to hear from you! Thanks! -Milkdud

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23 May 02 - 11:44 AM (#716140)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: MMario

check out serum vaccines, also pituitary extracts.

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23 May 02 - 12:07 PM (#716159)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: Jeri

You'd find a lot of information if you looked for uses of various venoms. Here's a link to a Google search on a medicine made from toad venom: bufenolide.

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23 May 02 - 12:10 PM (#716163)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: Sorcha

Insulin
Estrogen (mares)

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23 May 02 - 12:11 PM (#716165)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: Scabby Douglas

Don't we get Oinkment from pigs?

(sorry)

Cheers

Steven

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23 May 02 - 12:24 PM (#716179)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: Wolfgang

But you may also stray from modern medicine and look under headings like 'traditional medicine', e.g. 'traditional chines medicine'. Many of these medicines use animal parts in their practices, e.g. ground rhinozeros horn for erectile dysfunction.

And the times in which European doctors prescribed e.g. fox lung for those who were short of breath when walking quickly are only slightly more than hundred years away.

Wolfgang

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23 May 02 - 12:25 PM (#716180)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: katlaughing

If you go to google and enter in this phrase, "medicines derived from animals" you will get all kinds of links.

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24 May 02 - 09:51 AM (#716705)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: GUEST,.gargoyle

The antiseptic baby and the prophylactic pup
Where playing the garden when the bunny ambled up
They looked upon the creature with a loathing undisguised
He wasn't disinfected and he wasn't sanitized.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

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24 May 02 - 09:56 AM (#716706)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: MMario

cute! Sounds like something from "Space child's Mother Goose

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24 May 02 - 10:25 AM (#716718)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: Dave Bryant

Wasn't INSULIN originally extracted from sheep, before they learnt how to synthesize it ?

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24 May 02 - 12:49 PM (#716835)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: JohnInKansas

re insuline:

The most common sources for insulin, at least by the time it was more than a laboratory curiosity, were pork (swine) and horse (equine) sources. So far as my "fairly modern" references indicate, insulin from sheep has not been commonly used since at least the 1950s(?). At least one company still produces insulin from pork (Betin H by Lilly). Other "large animal" sources have been pretty much eliminated due to the frequency of allergic reaction to the "animal" components.

Depending on your definition of animal, most "modern" insulins still are an animal - bacteria - product. Bacteria that have been genetically modifed to produce "real" human insulin are the source for most insulin used today.

John

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24 May 02 - 12:58 PM (#716837)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: English Jon

And it's far less reliable than the pork derived stuff. Blood sugar goes all over the place.

EJ

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24 May 02 - 01:01 PM (#716838)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: gnu

I thought porcine insulin was the "good" stuff. I have seen TV news programs where the synthetic stuff is not as reliable and (almost) killing people who have been on porcine insulin for years.

Amos... excellent... almost ROTF !

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24 May 02 - 01:28 PM (#716858)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: katlaughing

LOL...good one, garg!

While there are, thankfully, plenty of alternatives to the hormone Premarin, it is interesting to note it was named for its source, pregnant mares' urine.

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24 May 02 - 01:56 PM (#716878)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: JohnInKansas

It is certainly true that different people react differently to a particular medical product. Porcine insulin has continued in production because it does seem to work better for some people. It is much more expensive to produce, and the supply is somewhat limited by the need for someone to eat the rest of the pig.

For the great majority of diabetics, the human-analog insulin produced from bacterial sources provides the necessary control, if used appropriately and with the necessary other "good things" that diabetics need to do.

With the increasing number of people being diagnosed as diabetic and needing insulin, it is something of a medical miracle that a cheaper, and relatively unlimited, supply from bacteria is now available, and for most diabetics, it works. There are not enough pigs to supply all of those who now need insulin. Within my memory, I have known diabetics who suffered consequences considered unnecessary and preventable today because there was not enough insulin available for them to get insulin in the amounts that would be used today.

The pig is considered the "medically most human" animal, and allergic reactions to porcine medical products are not too common, but they do occur. Because allergic reactions can be triggered by repeated exposure to things that were not originally a problem, use of any "animal" derived product requires constant concern about the possiblity of changes in response.

Allergic reactions - or other unfavorable "body responses" - are much less frequent for the analog insulins, although even with these there are times when something else works better. Diabetes is one condition that virtually demands continual consultation with persons trained in its medical management - and serious effort by the patient in maintaining control and in adapting to changes in the condition.

'nuf soapbox.

John

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24 May 02 - 02:05 PM (#716885)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: Mudlark

Armour Thyroid....

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25 May 02 - 02:17 AM (#717166)
Subject: RE: Medicine From Animals
From: GUEST,.gargoyle

Sorry - I did not credit the verse. It was one of my family's favorites and therefore, thought it "common Knowledge. It was meant as a polite reminder.

Strictly Germ-proof

From: Modern American Poetry

Written By: Arthur Guiterman

THE Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gamboled up;
They looked upon the Creature with a loathing undisguised;—
It wasn't Disinfected and it wasn't Sterilized.
They said it was a Microbe and a Hotbed of Disease;
5 They steamed it in a vapor of a thousand-odd degrees;
They froze it in a freezer that was cold as Banished Hope
And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap.
In sulphurated hydrogen they steeped its wiggly ears;
They trimmed its frisky whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears;
They donned their rubber mittens and they took it by the hand

And elected it a member of the Fumigated Band.
There's not a Micrococcus in the garden where they play;
They bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day;
And each imbibes his rations from a Hygienic Cup—
The Bunny and the Baby and the Prophylactic Pup.

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