ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Carl Pfeiffer (pharmacologist)

Okay kiddo, Carl Pfeiffer was a smart man who studied how drugs affect our bodies. He wanted to find ways to help people who had trouble with things like their moods or their memory. He also wanted to find ways to help people who had trouble learning or paying attention in school.

Pfeiffer was especially interested in something called nutrients, which are the good things in food that help keep our bodies healthy. He thought that maybe some people didn't have enough of certain nutrients in their bodies, and that this might be causing their problems.

So, Pfeiffer did lots of experiments and tests to figure out which nutrients were most important. He found that some people were low in things like zinc, vitamin B6, or magnesium. And guess what? When he gave those people more of those nutrients, their problems got better!

This was really exciting, because before Pfeiffer's work, people mostly just took drugs to try to fix their problems. But Pfeiffer showed that sometimes, just getting the right nutrients in your body can be just as helpful! His work is still being used today to help people with things like ADHD, mood disorders, and learning disabilities.