Nature's Irony

One of the incidental effects of pregnancy is that it provides almost certain relief from common ulcers of the stomach and duodenum. In a study of 70,000 pregnant women, Detroit's Dr. David J. Sandweiss found only one case of active ulcers during gestation. Said one of his patients: "My husband tells me I ought to stay in the family way the whole time, and then my ulcer wouldn't bother me."

Though the effect has been known for 20 years or more, the cause is still a mystery. Best guess: a hormone does the trick. Hormone secretions are radically altered during pregnancy, with one ovarian secretion predominating. When the previous hormone balance is restored after childbirth, ulcer symptoms usually recur. Even this temporary relief is not available to most victims, for probably 80% are men.

Stomach Specialist Sandweiss, working with Surgeon Harry C. Saltzstein, decided to call the unknown factor "anthelone" (from the Greek words for anti-ulcer). They could not isolate it, but they got encouraging results from experimental injections of a urine extract in both animal and human ulcer victims.

Last year an improved extract was made from the urine of pregnant mares. In capsule form it can be taken orally. In a recent Harper Hospital Bulletin, Dr. Sandweiss reported that he began testing equine anthelone on 50 patients nine months ago. He will not announce findings until he can be sure whether the ulcers will recur. But his ultimate hope is to correct one of nature's ironies--the irony of making men especially subject to ulcers, then providing the possible cure in the glands of women.

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