During World War II, rumours spread that Germany had invented a synthetic version of adrenal hormones (hormones produced by a gland on the kidney), which could be used to artificially augment soldiers. The US government in turn started a research program with various organizations, including the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., and the research institution the Mayo Clinic. The goal of the program was to reinvent the synthetic hormone used by Germany, so it could be used in the war efforts. It turned out that the rumour of Germany’s invention was false, and the US lost interest in funding the creation of synthetic cortisol.

However, the government funded research on synthetic hormones had shown promise to scientists, not in creating super soldiers, but in treating disease, and research on it continued. At the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Philip Hench hypothesized a hormonal cause of arthritis, and began to look for hormones that could cure it, specifically in the adrenal gland (kidney gland). Working with his coworker Dr. Edward Kendall, who isolated the various hormones in the adrenal gland, they found the hormone able to relieve symptoms of arthritis, later called cortisol. While commonly known as “the stress hormone”, cortisol also regulates inflammation, which is why it is so effective at treating arthritis. At Merck & Co., Lewis Sarett worked with Hench and Kendall to synthesize cortisol, from a byproduct of animal digestion. This was the first anti-inflammatory steroid, and is still used today to treat various types of inflammation, including allergies, autoimmune disorders, arthritis, and more.