The history of health and medicine

The History of Health and Medicine

Prehistoric times

• People believed that demons and spirits caused diseases.

• Witch doctors used herbs and plants.• People did not live long.

Cure for a headache.

The danger of childbirth and being a baby in ancient times.

• 1 out of 8 women died during childbirth.• 1 out of 4 children died when they were a

baby.

Hippocrates: The Father of Modern MedicineLived 2500 years ago.

He and his students wrote 60 books.

He believed diseases had a natural cause, instead of superstition.

The Hippocratic Oath

Aristotle of Greece

Dissected many animals.

Studied anatomy.

He thought good diet and cleanliness were important.

Doctor Galen: Blood letting

Blood letting seems crazy, but sometimes it worked!

Leeches suck blood.

Mercury

For hundreds of years, mercury was used as a medicine.

We now know it is very poisonous.

The torpedo fish relieves pain

It gives an electric shock like a taser gun.

Romans

Drained swamps to stop malaria.

Made the first sewers.

Tools for surgery.

The Dark Ages- 400 a.d. to 800 a.d.

People were not allowed to study medicine.

Religious people took care of sick people.

People prayed to get better.

The Middle Ages 500-1500 a.d.

• The bubonic plague, tuberculosis, smallpox, typhoid and other diseases killed 75% of the people in Europe and Asia.

The plague was spread by fleas on rats.

A plague doctor.

The Renaissance 1300-1600 a.d.

Microscopes were invented.

The printing press let knowledge spread.

Doctors studied human anatomy.

The “Age of Enlightenment”

The Industrial Revolution- Late 1700’s- 1800’s

The smallpox vaccine was invented in 1796.

People learned that bacteria and viruses cause disease.

Doctors started to keep hospitals sterile and clean.

Millions of lives were saved.

Heroin as medicineIn the 19th century drugs like heroin and morphine were used often and were easy to buy.

Now we know they are dangerous.

Lobotomy

A lobotomy was done for people with mental problems during the 1940’s-1960’s.

It can make them calmer, but often can go very wrong.

Modern Times: 1900-present

• Penicillin was discovered in 1920.

MRI scans and X-rays help save lives.

Laser eye surgery.

World map of average life expectancy

Antibiotic resistant germs

Viruses and bacteria are evolving.

Antibiotics don’t work as well now as they used to.

This is becoming a big problem.

The Future?A high tech prosthetic arm.

A 3d printer making a human heart.

Nanobots in your blood.

Questions

• What is the average life expectancy of a Thai person?• What happened in the renaissance that helped science

and medicine?• What does the torpedo fish make that can help relieve

pain?• What does an antibiotic do?• What is a vaccine?• What percent of babies died during ancient times?• What is one kind of medical technology that we may

expect in the future?