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4000 BCE
Primitive times
- Illness and diseases were a punishment from the gods
- Witch doctors treated illness with ceremonies
- Herbs and plants used as medicines
- Trepanation or trephining was surgically removing a piece of their skull
- Average life span: 20 years
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3000 BCE
Ancient Egyptians
- Physicians were priests
- Bloodletting or leeches used as medical treatment
- Average life span 20-30 years
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1700 BCE
Ancient Chinese
- Believed in the need to treat the whole body by curing the spirit
- Acupuncture was used
- Began to search for medical reasons for illness
- Average life span was 20-30 years
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1200 BCE
Ancient Greeks
- Hippocrates was the father of medicine
- Believed illness was caused by natural causes
- Used massage therapy, art therapy and herbal treatment
- Stressed diet, hygiene and exercise as ways to prevent diseases
- Average life span was 25-35 years
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753 BCE
Ancient Romans
- The first to provide medical care for injured soldiers
- Later hospitals were religious institutions in monasteries
- First public health 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
- Average life span was about 25-35 years
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400
Dark Ages
- Monks and priests provided custodial care for sick people
- Medications were mostly herbal mixes
- Disease cause still blamed on circumstance, but no understanding
- Average life span still about 20-30 years
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800
Middle Ages
- 1100: Arabs began requiring physicians to pass examinations and obtain licenses
- 1346- 1353: Black Death killed 75% of the population in Europe and Asia
- 1220 - 1255: Reusing medical practices of Greek and Romans
- 1100: Arabs began requiring physicians to pass examinations to obtain licenses
- 1346-1353: Black death killed 75% of the population of Eurasia
- 1220-1255: Medical Universities were established
- Average life span was 20-35 years
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1350
Renaissance Times
- Rebirth of Science of Medicine
- They dissected bodies and learned way more about the anatomy and physiology
- 1440: Invention of printing press allowed medical knowledge to be shared
- 1543: The first anatomy book was published by Andreas Vesalius
- They still didn't know what the cause of diseases were
- Average life span was 30-40 years
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1500
16th and 17th Centuries
- Knowledge of the human body/ anatomy greatly increased
- 1500: Ambroise Pare, a French surgeon, known as the Father of Modern Surgery established use of ligatures (bandages) to stop bleeding
- 1600's: Apothecaries (early pharmacists) made, prescribed and sold medications
- 1670: Invention of the microscope The microscope helped physicians to see bacteria and disease causing organisms
- Average life span about 35-45 years
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18th Century
- 1714: Gabriel Fahrenheit created the first mercury thermometer
- 1760: Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals
- 1778: John Hunter introduced scientific surgical procedures and tube feeding
- 1798: The vaccine for smallpox was discovered
- Average life span 40-50 years
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19th Century
- Huge advancements due to discoveries of microorganisms, anesthesia, and vaccinations
- 1816: Invention of the stethoscope
- 1860: Nurses first started getting formal training
- 1893: The first open heart surgery took place
- 1895: First x-ray machine was developed
- Average life span 40-60 years
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20th Century
- 1901: ABO blood types discovered
- New medications found: 1922: Insulin discovered and used to treat diabetes 1928: Antibiotics developed to fight infections
- New machines developed: 1943: Kidney Dialysis Machine 1953: Iron Lung Machine
- 1953: Structure of DNA discovered, research of gene therapy begins
- 1956: First bone marrow transplant
- 1978: First test tube babies
- Organ transplants: 1960: Kidney 1963: Liver 1967: Heart 1982: Artificial Heart
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20th- 21st Century
- 1910: Laparoscopic surgery
- 1970's: Targeted cancer therapies
- 1990: Smoke free laws took place
- 1996: Advances in HIV medication
- 1999: Rapid advances in Stem Cell Research