Around the beginning of the 1900s, a theory emerged that all drugs must have a corresponding receptor. By binding to these specialised sites on cells, and either activating or blocking them, they could directly change the function of the cells, or influence how our body’s natural chemicals affect them. It took until the 1960s, however, when the first drugs were developed to block receptors (beta-blockers, which affect one of the adrenaline receptors), for this theory to be accepted by the mainstream scientific community. Excitement began to grow for the idea that all sorts of drugs might have
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