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4000 BCE
Primitive Times
- Illness and diseases caused by evil spirtis, god, or demons -Witch doctors treated illness with ceremonies
- Herbs and plants used as medicine
- Trepanation (surgically removing a piece of bone from skull)
- Average life span was 20 years
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3000 BCE
Ancient Egyptians
- Physicians were priest
- Health records were first recorded by the ancient egyptians
- Bloodletting or leeches used as medical treatment
- Average life span was 20-30 years
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1700 BCE
Ancient chinese
- Believed in the need to treat the whole body by curing the spirit and nourishing the body -Began to search for medical reasons for illness -Average life span was 20-30 years
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1200 BCE
Ancient Greeks
- Hippocrates (Father of Medicine) and other physicians First to observe the human body and the effects of disease – led to modern medical sciences. Believed illness is a result of natural causes Used therapies such as massage, art therapy, and herbal treatment Stressed diet, hygiene and exercise as ways to prevent disease
- Average life span 25-35 years
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753 BCE
Ancient Romans
- First to organize medical care by providing care for injured soldiers
- Later hospitals were religious and charitable institutions in - monasteries and convents
- First public health and sanitation systems by building sewers and aqueducts -Galen established belief that the body was regulated by four body humors; blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile Life span was 25-35 years
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400
Dark Ages
- Emphasis on saving the soul and study of medicine was prohibited
- Prayers were used to treat illness and disease
- Monk are priests provided custodial care for sick people
-Medication herbal mixtures
- Life span 20-30 years
-
800
Middle Ages
-Renewed interest in medical practices of Greek and Romans
- 1346-1353: Bubonic Plague killed 75% of population in Europe and Asia
Major diseases included
- 1220-1255: Medical Universities were established
Average life span was 20-35 years -
1350
Renaissance
-Rebirth of Science of Medicine
-Body Dissections led to increased understanding of anatomy and physiology
-1543: First anatomy book was published by Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)
-Average life span was 30-40 years
-Disease cause STILL a mystery -
1500
16th and 17th Centuries
- Knowledge regarding the human body GREATLY increased
- 1500’s: Ambroise Pare, a French surgeon, known as the Father of Modern Surgery established use of ligatures to stop bleeding
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16th and 17th Centuries
- 1600’s: Apothecaries (early pharmacists) made, prescribed, and sold medications
- 1670: Invention of the microscope
- Allowed physicians to see disease-causing organisms.
- HUGE advancement
- Average life span 35-45 years
- Cause of disease still not known – many people died from infections
- Some enlightenment though due to microscope
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18th Century
1714: Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736) created the first mercury thermometer
1760: Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals
1778: John Hunter established scientific surgical procedures and introduced tube feeding
1798: Smallpox vaccine discovered
Average life span 40-50 yea -
19th Century
1895: X-Ray Machine Developed
1893: First Open Heart Surgery
Infection control developed once microorganisms were associated with disease
1816: Invention of the stethoscope
1860: Formal training for nurses began
Women became active participants in health care
Average life span 40-60 year -
20th Century
1901: ABO blood groups discovered
Found out how white blood cells protect against disease -
20th centuries
New medications were developed
1922: Insulin discovered and used to treat diabetes
1928: Antibiotics developed to fight infections (penicillin) -
20th Century
New machines developed
1943: Kidney Dialysis Machine
1953: Heart Lung Machine
Surgical and diagnostic techniques developed to cure once fatal conditions -
20th Century (continued)
1956: First Bone Marrow Transplant
Initiated Embryonic Stem Cell Research
1978: Test tube babies
Organ Transplants
1960: Kidney
1963: Liver
1967: Heart
1982: Artificial Heart