PEORIA MAGAZINE April 2023

St. Louis, or some other place half the distance or less? Come to think of it, what doctor made that referral? Was I being hazed? Were other doctors having a go at me, the doctor nerd equivalent of a whoopie cushion in my chair? “I went there because it’s Mayo’s,” the patient basically told me. Nobody local recommended it. He seemed to be going off a vague feeling based on Mayo’s general reputation. I may have laughed. ANY STORY OF THE

the 20th century, but any list is going to include antibiotics. And any story of the origin of antibiotics will feature Peoria prominently. Penicillin was famously discovered by the Scottish physician and microbiol ogist Alexander Fleming in London in the latter days of the 1920s. A left-out petri dish with an area of fungus not surrounded by bacteria, a sense of humor (his initial response was “that’s funny”), and a brilliant deduction: That’s what it took to change medicine forever. Years of research followed, progress was made, penicillin’s clinical utility was clear, but the problem of mass production remained. It was a challenge in the best of circumstances, and England, now in the midst of World War II, was stressed. A feeler was put out to friends: Can anyone solve this problem? Enter Peoria’s scientific community. At the Ag Lab on University Street, Dr. Andrew Moyer and his team developed a high-pressure, maize liquor combination that allowed for rapid growth of the relevant yeast. Put

plainly, they addressed the problem with corn. Lots and lots of corn. This is the single most central Illinois thing to have happened ever. There can be no disagreement on this point. There is no counting how many lives penicillin has saved over the years. It started with the Allied soldiers who liberated Europe and Asia, and continues to this day. There is a barrage of information detailing one flaw or another of the nation’s health care system, but it also cries out for a gentle reminder of what we have. We live in America, in the service area of a regional medical center, with resources and a rich history. In Peoria, in 2023, we’ve got it pretty good, and have for a long time.

ORIGIN OF ANTIBIOTICS WILL FEATURE PEORIA PROMINENTLY

If this were a one-time thing, I would not be writing this. It’s common enough that my laughter has been replaced by a shrug. Common enough that we all need a reminder of how much we have to offer here. It’s a lot. It has been true for decades. Good minds can disagree on the most important medical advance of

David Tennant, M.D. , is a family medicine physician at UnityPoint Health who specializes in obesity management. He also is the attending physician at the Obesity/Healthy Living Clinic at Proctor Primary Care. He lives in Trivoli

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