Kit's Arrival Here Reminds Professor of Role in Apollo Medical Experiments

              The Shreveport Times
Metropolitan
Sunday, Oct. 24, 1971
News
Section C, Page One
Kit's Arrival Here Reminds Professor
Of Role in Apollo Medical Experiments
By Margaret Martin
Times Medical Writer
When the Apollo 11 mission left for
the moon two years ago a Shreveport
professor was watching with special
interest, for tucked away in the white
nylon medical kit aboard the space ship
was a motion sickness drug he helped
develop.
Dr. Charles Wood, p r o f e s s o r of
pharmacology at Louisiana State Univer-sity
at Shreveport, was a member of a
team which designed the new and
stronger drug.
Made up of scopolamine and dexed-rine,
it is considered an improvement on
old line motion sickness drugs, which in
the United States are mostly antihista-mines.
Although Wood and a team which
includes Dr. Ashoon Graybiel received a
grant in 1964 to work on the drug at the
U.S. Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Fla.,
it was first used in the Apollo 11 mission
in 1969.
Received Mock up ol Kits
All the work and research came back
to mind when Wood received a mock up
of the space craft medical kit to show his
students.
Smaller than some women's handbags
and compact with dividers for the
various medicines, the kit sticks together
with self adhesive tape. The varied
medicines are attached to the kit with
elastic.
In the early Apollo missions, other
drugs, including cyclizine (which is still
a part of the kit) were taken along.
But on the Apollo 9 mission "when
S c h w e i k a r t (Astronaut Russell L.
Schweikart) got so sick," the space
officials decided to try a stronger drug,
Wood explained.
The team of scientists at Pensacola
was developing the new medicine which
combined scopolamine and dexedrine,
and found it through a series of tests to
be much s t r o n g e r "and a definite
improvement over other drugs."
The drug was initially used on the
Apollo 11 mission.
Each astronaut took two of the tablets
just before splashdown, and on the
Apollo 13 mission, two astronauts again
took the medicine. But both times the
"seas were light", said Wood," and we
didn't get a good assessment of the value
of the drug."
He emphasized, though, that previous
experiments using a human centrifuge
had been done in connection with the
new drug, and in a report presented to
the 18th International C o n g r e s s of
Aerospace Medicine, Amsterdam, NASA
officials said that "all crew members are
tested for both sensitivity and response
to each of the medications carried in the
medical kit."
Motion sickness comes, Wood ex-plained
when the normal impulses for
balance, which are located in the ear
become overstimulated and activate the
central nervous system, which in turn
leads to vomiting.
Drugs used to combat this motion
sickness prevents the development of
nausea.
The new drug still is "in the realm of
an experimental drug" and "is not yet
on the market," said Wood, who is still a
part of the Pensacola team.
The astronauts, "like athletes don't
like to take drugs. They are mission -
oriented," said Wood as he elaborated on
other medications included in the medi-cal
kit.
Drugs are divided into four categor-ies.
There are drugs for irritation due to
dry oxygen air; drugs to relieve pain;
drugs for gastrointestinal problems and
drugs which affect the central nervous
system.
Aspirin Most Used Drug
Aspirin, Wood said, refering to the
NASA report, "is the most popular drug
used by the astronauts."
For extreme pain there are demerol
injectors which were not used, according
to the report, on any of the Apollo 7-11
missions. These are included, Wood said
"in case of a bad injury."
The other big problem encountered on
the space missions "is the gastrointesti-nal
problem."
Central nervous system drugs such as
dexedrine are included to counteract
fatigue, "especially on re-entry," the
pharmacologist said, and "barbiturates
for sleeping."
He explained that the astronauts work
in shifts and "the barbiturates are to
make sure each one gets enough sleep."
Special automatic hypodermic injec-tors
have been devised for the astro-nauts,
as well as an unusual thermome-ters.
And Wood pointed out that even the
moon-bound astronauts carried along a
supply of the earthling bandaid.