Wonder drug is a relative term. The first time a sick cave man sucked on a leaf and felt relief, I am sure he thought of the leaf as a wonder drug. But how did we get to the point we are at now? We have thousands of drugs for almost every type of malady. One day, while I was watching TV, a very interesting show came on. It was about the role of the American Indian in the discovery of thousands of drugs. They interviewed an indian medicine man and asked him how the indians had discovered so many useful drugs. The medicine man answered with a smile and said it was simple. They just tried every thing until something worked and this went on for thousands of years. In other words they used trial and error. So many of the drugs we use today are based on those indian discoveries.

In the United States we have huge drug industries. I am talking about legal drugs. Unfortunately they are so huge that they generate the biggest profit of any industry. Why do I say this is unfortunate? Simple, they seem to be almost unregulated as far as pricing goes. They charge by what they think a country can afford and not by what it really costs to manufacture a drug. Everyone knows that the same drugs sold in the U.S. are cheaper in Canada and Mexico, but when too many Americans buy Canadian drugs they cut off the distributor. When a drug is sold to the farmer to treat pigs and cost .50 cents a pill and the same pill cost more than $10.00 because it is for a human, something is wrong. Even our government encourages this by buying medicine without having a bidding procedure. In my opinion the best thing one of these companies could develop, from their point of view, is a medicine that wouldn't cure you but keep you stable and be required for the rest of your life.

But lets get back to medicine itself. We are losing our rain forests at an alarming rate. Why you ask, do I mention this in an article about medicine? I mention this because much of our medicine comes from the rain forest and when it is gone what will we do then? Herbal remedies go back many hundreds of years and indeed some of the medicine manufactured by large drug companies can be derived from herbs. One must be very careful with these herbal remedies as they can be very dangerous. It is very ease to take too much or take a herb that might be more harmful than good. Having said this, there are many places, including the internet, where homeopathic medicines are available.

Medicine wasn't always good for you. In the nineteenth century many patent medicines were being hawked by traveling medicine shows. Some of these so called medicines did more harm than good, while others did nothing. These salesmen became know as snake oil salesmen. The first patent medicine was sold in 1796. In 1876 Vermont had a very small population but produced over a hundred patent medicines, a staggering amount for the time. Ketchup was originally a medicine.

In 1897 Felix Hoffmann discovered the greatest wonder drug of them all, it was called aspirin. It was so successful that today over 40,000 tons, which is 100 billion tablets, is produced world wide every year. The amazing thing about aspirin is the fact that new uses for it are always being discovered. The patent for aspirin expired in 1930. The use of salicylic acid, the ingredient in aspirin, however, goes back to at least 400 B.C. and may go back even further. Hippocrates used to prescribe the bark and leaves of the willow tree to reduce pain and fever. This tree contains large quantities of salicylic acid. In the middle ages in Europe, much of this learning was forgotten. In 1900 the Bayer Company of Germany received a patent for Aspirin.

Now that we are into genetics, who knows what we may come up with? We might even be able to cure old age. I am sure if this happens the drug companies will somehow figure out a pill that we will have to take often and that will cost a lot. Electronics industries may also step in here by creating chips that can be inserted into the human body that will serve, with the neurology of the body, to enable paralyzed people to walk again or to release drugs at specific times. We already have built in pace makers and defibrillators. And lastly the food industry could also take a hand by producing genetically altered crops that would immunize us against certain diseases.

We are not far from the point where a computer will be able to examine us and mix a batch of custom medicine for what ails us. When I say not far I am thinking in the area of within 50 - 100 years. But rest assured it will happen and people will benefit from it, technology just marches on and aside form a total melt down of civilization, will continue to do so.