Tadeus Reichstein (1897–1996)
Almost forty years after President John F. Kennedy’s death in 1963, his medical records were publicly disclosed. Although his outward image exuded vigor and athleticism, throughout much of his adult life he was plagued with a variety of medical conditions and experienced constant and unremitting severe back pain. During his presidency, he reportedly took ten to twelve medicines a day. In 1947, at the age of thirty, he was officially diagnosed with Addison’s disease, a life-threatening condition characterized by a deficiency of adrenal gland hormones, the replacement of which he required for the remainder of his life.
The adrenal glands sit atop each kidney and contain two parts. The inner medulla secretes hormones, such as epinephrine/adrenaline, which play an important role in the control of blood pressure and heart rate. The outer cortex secretes several types of essential hormones, including the glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids. A deficiency of glucocorticoidal hormones, including cortisone-related compounds, leads to difficulties in controlling blood glucose (sugar) levels and the body’s response to stress. Inadequate supply of the primary mineralocorticoid, aldosterone, causes salt imbalances and excessive water loss in urine, potentially leading to dehydration and shock.
During the 1920s and 1930s, study of the adrenal cortex became an active area of research interest, and gland extracts were used to treat Addison’s patients. In 1938, Tadeus Reichstein, a Polish-born Swiss chemist at the University of Basel, isolated desoxycorticosterone from an extract of the adrenal cortex, and Ciba marketed it as Percorten the following year. This first corticosteroid to be synthesized and used for Addison’s corrected the salt and water imbalances. Percorten is no longer used to treat Addison’s in humans, but it continues to be prescribed for dogs.
Although Reichstein is best known for his studies on adrenal cortex hormones—including the isolation of cortisone (for which he was a co-recipient of the 1950 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine)—his early research dealt with the chemicals contributing to the aroma of coffee.
SEE ALSO Coffee (c. 800), Epinephrine/Adrenaline (1901), Cortisone (1949).
An August 1963 photograph of brothers Robert, Edward “Ted,” and President John F. Kennedy outside the Oval Office. JFK suffered from Addison’s disease, a debilitating condition formerly treated with the use of the corticosteroid Percorten.