ICBS 120

1. ICBS 120 HISTORY OF MEDICINE

2. Cultural Heritage in Medicine • Culture and ethnic heritage play a role in health care. • Patient may refuse medication based on cultural traditions. • Prehistoric skeletal remains show a 20-40 year life span for humans.

3. Cultural Heritage in Medicine Cont’d • Religion, magic and science all played a vital part. • Magic was considered an essential ingredient to chase away evil spirits. • Gods were to be called on for cure through ceremonies, prayers and sacrifices. • Science was demonstrated in the use of plants and animals.

4. Cultural Heritage Cont’d • Chinese used: • Pharmacopoeia– a book describing drugs and their preparation that detail plant, animal, and mineral substances as essential ingredients in effecting cures. • Ancient Chinese cultures examined and carefully monitored the pulse in each wrist. • Believed the pulse had hundreds of characteristics important to medical treatment. • Five methods of treatment: • Cure spirit, nourish body, give medication, treat whole body, use acupuncture and moxibustion.

5. Acupuncture and Moxibustion • Acupuncture: piercing of the skin by very thin, flexible needles into any of 365 points along 12 meridians that transverse the body and transmit “qi” (chee). • Moxibustion: requires the use of a powdered plant substance that is made into a small mound on the person’s skin and then burned, usually making a blister.

6. Allopathic and Homeopathic treatments • Homeopathic physicians treat illness and disease with non-surgical methods using small doses of medicine. • Allopathic physicians treat illness and disease with both medical and surgical interventions intended to alleviate the condition or effect a cure.

7. Medical Specialists • Known by various names: • Witch doctors, medicine men and women, shamans or healing priests, and physicians. • Women were not accepted as medical doctors in Western culture until the nineteenth and twentieth century. • First female physician in US, Elizabeth Blackwell.

8. History of Medical Education • In early times, emphasis placed on the soul rather than the body. • Medical education established in universities began in the ninth century. • Michelangelo spent years on careful human dissection and this is evident in his paintings. • Leonardo da Vinci known for his anatomical drawings.

9. History of Attitudes Toward Illness • Pagan religions tended to abandon individuals thought to be ill because they were in disfavor with the gods. • Native Americans who were ill, were treated with kindness . • Eskimos put their older adults unprotected onto ice floes.

10. History of Attitudes Cont’d • Today we debate right to choose life or death and physician-assisted suicides. • People fear illness they perceive as threatening, such as AIDS. • Public may treat people with certain diseases unfairly.

11. History of Medical Treatments • Ancient Egyptians used urine to test for pregnancy. • Early medical treatments were often crude • Rhubarb, bitter apple, turpentine, and mercury were physician samples • Some physicians did not wash instruments used in treating the ill • Edward Jenner made a great contribution to the prevention of disease by discovering a vaccination against smallpox

12. Medical Treatments Cont’d • 19th century - medicine progressed rapidly. • Anesthesia was discovered to alleviate pain during surgery. • Discovered that some bacteria caused disease. • Asepsis became important to reduce transmission of infection.

13. Medical Treatments Cont’d • Early 20th Century • Many infectious diseases and epidemics became curable. • Life expectancy increased • Antibiotics discovered

14. Significant Contributor to Medicine • Hippocrates - ancient Greek physician whose writings contribute today’s medical culture. • Hippocratic Oath established guidelines for a physician’s practice of medicine • Nickname “father of medicine”