Interesting Things About Medicine That The Layperson Doesn’t Know About (40 Examples)

An interesting medical professional from Montgomery, Alabama, was Percy Lavon Julian, who graduated from DePauw University with a degree in chemistry. He also earned a master's degree and a doctorate and secured 115 patents during his career. One of his inventions was to synthesize and identify physostigmine, which helps treat glaucoma and improves memory in Alzheimer's patients. 

His chemical could also be used as an antidote to nerve gas. This medical researcher also invented a fire-extinguishing foam used to control petrol fires during World War 2, and he later developed a way to filter chemicals from soya bean oil that could help produce hormones for medical applications.

There’s never an end to interesting medical facts, and one awesome one was when the first anesthesia was given to patients in 1842, which finally protected them from feeling so much pain. According to research, it all began when university students went to parties and breathed in a newly discovered gas called ether. 

One day, a doctor named Crawford Long noticed that students who’d breathed it in and then got injured didn’t feel any pain. So he figured the gas would be useful for people undergoing operations, and his hunch turned out to be right.

The history of medical practices and facts about amazing things doctors have done never fail to be surprising. It’s often mind-boggling that science has progressed so much, but it’s even more fascinating that people in the past figured out so much without all the modern tech and knowledge we have today.

Do you know any interesting medical facts? We’d love to hear them too.