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Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines

BBC Four

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Pain, Pus & Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines

Michael Mosley

Alex Freeman

Steve Crabtree

Tina Fletcher-Hill

Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines: Episode 1: Pain

Documentaries

Pain

Episode 1

Episode 1: Pain

BBC Four - Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines, Pain

Dr Michael Mosley discovers why we want to control pain and how we are now able to do it.

Medical history series. Michael Mosley discovers what pain is and how we were able to control it with the discovery of morphine at the beginning of the 19th century.

Pain has a profound effect on our bodies - when we are experiencing it, millions of nerve cells deep within our brains are firing, telling us 'it hurts' - and for centuries the challenge has been to find something that will lessen or even switch off these sensations to bring us relief. Dr Michael Mosley discovers just what pain is, why we want to control it and how we ultimately did it when the discovery of morphine, the world's first pharmaceutical, at the beginning of the 19th century led to a 200-year journey of scientific breakthrough, discovery and self-experimentation.

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Michael Mosley tells the story of the creation of our most useful and valuable drugs.

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Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines

Episode 1: Pain

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