History of Medicine Essay Example

the most powerful agent of healing. The purpose of the medical art was to assist nature to reestablish the proportional relationship of health among the humors. “ (Reiser) Galen, who was born in 129 A.D. performed successful cataract surgery by inserting a needle behind the lens of the eye to remove the cataract. He also wrote books that would be the basis of European medicine for 1500 years. Leonardo Da Vinci was not just an artist. His study of anatomy by dissecting corpses in the late fifteenth century was invaluable to the progression of internal medicine. In 1796, Edward Jenner used various vaccines to attempt to fight the smallpox virus. Native American healers, also known as medicine men used sweat lodges and local herbs to cure ailments. They also used willow bark that contained salicylates, that was a crude form of aspirin to treat pain and fever. With the beginning of the nineteenth century, anatomic ideology was fairly established, and technology was becoming a driving factor in medicine’s advancements. The symbol and initiator of this change was a simple instrument used to enhance the conduction of sound. In 1815 Rene Laennec invented the stethoscope because he couldn’t hear a fat woman’s heart. The doctors in the past had to listen to the heart by putting their ear against the chest (Nicholas Bakalar) Other simple technologies to extend the doctor's senses into the body, such as the ophthalmoscope (1850), the clinical thermometer (1867), and the sphygmomanometer(1896), were introduced during the nineteenth century. By the century's end physicians had become skillful diagnosticians, seekers of physical clues they used to deduce the source of their patients' troubles.

From all

parts of the world, knowledge and practices spread quicker as travel became easier. Today, with the vast amounts of technology available at out fingertips, almost everyone can search the web for health-related information, whether it be to improve their diet, safe ways to increase activity levels, or research symptoms and treatments for many illnesses and diseases. Today’s technology allows physicians to interact with specialists from not only across the country, but around the world to treat their patients effectively. This is a major reason why people are living longer and healthier lives than ever before. Injuries, diseases, chronic conditions and mental illnesses can be treated today. They were either a certain death sentence, a cause for being shunned by the masses, or a guarantee to being locked away in a mental facility for life. The history of medicine and its implementation in our lives is a long and winding road through many cultures for thousands of years.

Medical research has been, at times, unethical and cruel. There are multiple examples of research making a breakthrough but doing it at the expense of people. The Tuskegee syphilis experiment is probably the most well-known. This study took advantage of poor African Americans who really “did not have access to medical care at the time, and the study provided free health exams, food and transportation, according to Tuskegee University”. (Landau) This study went on for around forty years, until being halted in 1972. Even when penicillin was being used to treat this disease elsewhere in 1943, the subjects of the study never received it. Another study in Guatemala used prostitutes that were infected to give the disease to prisoners.

The Tuskegee experiment and the Guatemala based experiment were both sponsored by U.S. government health agencies.

In 1944, the U.S. Navy subjected a 17-year-old seaman to Sulfur and Lewisite, poisonous gases uses in chemical weapons for an hour a day for five days, studying the effects while wearing protective clothing, and a gas mask. He asked to be let out on the final day, but his request was refused. “He eventually collapsed and went into cardiac arrest. When he awoke, he had painful blisters on most of his body. He received no medical treatment and was told never to speak of it or he would be tried for treason.” The National Academy of Sciences reported in testimony to Congress that sixty thousand American soldiers were used to test chemical weapons between 1944 and 1975.

From 1945 to 1962, 210,000 civilians and soldiers were used for radiation testing. “Testimony delivered to Congress detailed the studies, explaining that these tests and experiments often involved hazardous substances such as radiation, blister and nerve agents, biological agents, and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).... Although some participants suffered immediate acute injuries, and some died, in other cases adverse health problems were not discovered until many years later—often 20 to 30 years or longer.”

There were many more studies completed for other diseases that were just as cruel. Though these examples of unethical study did harm people and caused suffering during their study, they did aid in the development of treatment. Not all studies were done on human test subjects. Researchers have used many different animals for studies as well. Medical advancements still must have test subjects, and now some individuals sign up for studies,

like a new cancer drug trial. Many people feel they have nothing to lose. Not all inventions are drug related, and most major breakthroughs are technological. Not all are greeted with open arms in the medical community.

Many inventions were not taken seriously at first. French obstetrician, Stéphane Étienne Tarnier, pioneered the first infant incubators used and later refined in Europe in the late 19th century. Martin Arthur Couney decided to bring them to the United States, and they were mostly rejected. “Couney established a bank of incubators at Luna Park on Coney Island in New York. From 1903 to the early 1940s, Couney charged visitors 25 cents to view the premature babies on display, money that was used to pay for the babies' medical care so that parents did not have to.” (Miller) We see them save the lives in neonatal unit all over the world today. Antiseptic handwashing is just common sense today, but a Hungarian physician, by the name of Ignaz Semmelweis, was ridiculed for this idea and it was rejected for the most part by the medical community. “At the one clinic in which Semmelweis's hand-washing policy was implemented, the puerperal fever mortality rates dropped 90%, from 18.3% to less than 2%, in fewer than 6 months. Semmelweis had believed that antiseptic hand washings would be widely adopted and save thousands of lives; when they were not, Semmelweis began publishing a series of vitriolic 'open letters' against his critics increasingly isolated and unpredictable, Semmelweis was admitted against his will to a Viennese insane asylum, where he was severely beaten; he died after 2 weeks.”

Medical advancements have also come from NASA by spinning

off technology used in the space program. In 1982, “patients began being treated for ailments like multiple sclerosis, spinal injuries and sports injuries with liquid cooled garments worn under their space suits to protect them from temperatures approaching 250 degrees Fahrenheit.”

In 1994, doctors in New York removed the gallbladder of a woman in France, using robotic technology from NASA utilized to service space craft. MRI machines and CAT scans enable doctors to “look inside” the human body, helping to diagnose and treat illnesses. These too were made possible to the space programs research. “. It was NASA scientists that originally utilized digital signal processing to produce computer-improved images of the Moon during the various Apollo missions, according to the space organization. That breakthrough would eventually have countless other applications, including as the basis for the CAT Scans and MRI machinery so common today.” Many recent medical advancements are in early stages of use. Many of which are targeting a cure for cancer. “Immunotherapy Trains the immune system to use it’s antiviral fighting response to destroy cancer cells without harming healthy cells.” The emerging field of genetic research promises solutions to many disorders, with the prospect of early detection and correction by isolating specific genes that could be the cause.”

I feel that the impact medicine has had on our society is positive beyond measure. Five thousand years ago, when there was absolutely no medical treatment available, the life expectancy was thirty to thirty-five years for men, and only fifteen to twenty-five for women because of the dangers of child birth. Today it is seventy-seven

for men, and eighty-one for women. The ability to give vaccinations to children

at a young age has pretty much wiped out polio, measles and other diseases. We really do not have to worry about smallpox, the black plague, rabies, and other diseases that wreaked havoc on the population in the past. Modern medications allow for the treatment of chronic ailments like diabetes, hypertension, and arthritis. Anxiety and depression can also be treated with drugs, and therapy as well. X-Rays allow for diagnosis of injuries and proper setting of broken bones. The list goes on and on why it is a huge impact on our society, mostly for the better. Surgeries to repair or replace damaged organs also can help the quality and length of life. There are negatives also in my view. First of all, some of the studies that were done to facilitate finding cures for diseases were absolutely unacceptable. Taking advantage of the poor people in undeveloped countries, prisoners, and worst of all our military personnel. Using unsuspecting populations in American cities also is unethical. If the need for human test subjects is required, anyone that is willing to volunteer should be made completely aware of the purpose of the test. They also need to be fully informed of the possible side effects. In a situation where a person has been diagnosed with a terminal disease, they are probably going to be willing to take a larger risk. Most of the preliminary testing I found is currently being done using lab animals, such as mice. Only after being approved for clinical trials, are human subjects used in testing. My wife’s niece was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She received chemo and radiation therapy. She beat the

cancer, but the radiation damaged her lungs. She passed away 10 years later from the damaged lungs but on the other hand she would not have had those 10 years if she didn’t get the treatment that she did.

The biggest negative currently affecting us all is when it comes to medical care, is the cost. Today’s medical care is for the most part exceptional and saves lives every day. It is unacceptable in my opinion that if you, or someone in your family get very sick or is in an accident, that you could lose everything you own, including your home. Medical costs need to be reined in. There are too many companies getting rich at others expense. Another problem with cost is the hospitals and nursing homes try to keep from losing money and they will overwork the people that are taking care of patients. Nurses are having to take care of more patients than is safe in a shift. The work load is leading to burn out in the health care settings. My wife is a nurse and manages a dialysis clinic, and they are always shorthanded. She then has to fill in on the floor and still complete her managerial duties too. I have seen the effects of long days and overwork has on her.

With the fact that medicine has advanced so far with medications and procedures, some people today do not take as good care of themselves as they should. I think most of us are guilty of that. I know personally, being diabetic, that it is very easy to sometimes go ahead and eat foods that aren’t good for me

“because my medication will take care of it.” Things discovered through research and testing about maintaining a healthy lifestyle should be taken seriously to allow us to avoid having to resort to medications.

There were many things that I had not realized that were first invented as far back in history as they were. Even though the early versions of current treatments were fairly crude, they laid the foundation for modern medicine. It really amazes me at how someone wanting to invent something for a totally different purpose winds up advancing medicine’s ability to help people. I really think that the way medicine has taken huge leaps in treatments is fantastic. With the unbelievable advancements in today’s technology, breakthroughs will only accelerate in the coming years.

Who knows, in the next 100 years some of the technology and medicines that we consider today as ground breaking will seem barbaric to someone in the future. The doctors used to prescribe pain medication a lot and now we have a problem with addiction that is out of control. We have super viruses that came about because the doctors over prescribed antibiotics. There will always be a negative side to many things in life that seem all good in the beginning. The body is still a mystery in some ways, but we continue to evolve and learn new ways to treat ailments. My hope is that in my life time, I will see the cures for diseases like cancer, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and diabetes.