Medscape: The Anxious History of Understanding Cortisol

[Michelle]

Medscape: The Anxious History of Understanding Cortisol

In 1941, with the Second World War well underway, the Allies captured a German submarine that was returning from Argentina with an unusual cargo — a meaty mass that resembled adrenal glands, the two grape-sized organs that sit on top of kidneys and that produce the hormones adrenaline and cortisol, among others.

Came across this on Medscape today and since we've been having discussions on what "stress" is elsewhere on the forum--to say nothing of the many discussions on cortisol and ME/CFS over many years--it seemed a bit interesting to see how our understanding of cortisol emerged. It's rather depressing that our idea of what "stress" is have not progressed much from the ideas of a guy who kept dropping lab rats over half a century ago.