Discovery of new theories for illness and disease

All over the world, in modern times, when people fall ill, their only questions is why am I ill?  How do I get better?  Throughout history the answer has been sought but if you look at any scholarly books or articles, still the answer is being sought but at the same time answer has also been provided through a mixture of natural, spiritual and moral meanings.  People have rarely understood illness or disease even in the modern times.  Most of all they have never understood that they are the cause of their illness and that they need to take step back to understand why they fall ill or have cancer type of disease.

In many ancient societies, it was presumed that the spirits and gods were believed to make their presence known through disease. All most all over the world, the treatment involved attempts to satisfy these spirits and gods with ritual chanting or sacrifice, though this was often combined with direct treatment of the sick person.  Astrological explanations and advice of Egypt sat alongside prescription of herbal medicines along with advice on proper diet and rest for the duration of treatment. In China, for such illness and disease, a combination of drugs known as fang was prescribed to combat disease thought to be caused by angered spirits and also diet and rest was advised.

The Greek physicians such as Hippocrates was famous for rejecting the spiritual explanations of illness, but instead he saw it as a natural imbalance of the four humours.  Yet this was by no means the only explanation for disease or illness in Greek society. For every elite healer who offered a natural explanation of disease, one could find that there were countless diviners and priests who are ever ready to offer a spiritual explanation, but these explanations were not particularly distinct.  Before this explanation, the Indian medicine introduced a new theory that human body consists of three substances, and that in order for the body to be healthy, it requires that there remains a balance between them.  They are usually translated as spirit, phlegm and bile and Greek medicine later advanced a similar theory which complimented the Indian theory, a theory that is based on four substances rather than three.

Evolution of Mankind - Change in food, Illness and Disease - 1

Ancient Chinese believed the need to treat the whole body by curing the spirit and nourishing the body, and from there began to search for medical reasons for illness which could have been the start of mankind coming of age, during that period where mankind all over the world started to think about the cause & reasons for the illness.  Chinese started monitoring the pulse/blood pressure through their ancient methods and thus found a way to determine condition of the body, and they believed in treating the whole body rather than as a part and the use of acupuncture was also discovered.  Chinese also came to believe illness is a result of natural causes.  Stressed diet and exercise as ways to prevent disease.  Chinese have also a recorded pharmacopoeia of medications based mainly on the use of herbs and have been using therapies such as acupuncture.

Medicines of early times are still used today like Digitalis (foxglove plant) used to slow & strengthen heart, Quinine (bark of cinchona tree) are used for fever and muscle spasms.  Morphine (opium poppy) are used in relieve severe pain.

Ancient Greeks was considered the first to observe the human body thoroughly and the effects of disease on the body – this paved the way of health research that led to modern medical sciences.  Ancient Romans were the first to organize medical care by providing care for injured soldiers.  During that era, due to the set up that have been followed in ancient parts of the world, ancient Greeks hospitals were religious and charitable institutions in monasteries and convents.  Made the first public health and sanitation systems by building sewers and aqueducts.  Their doctors also kept the sick in their home and wore death mask.  

The earliest surgical operations in human history is believed to have been carried out in prehistoric times in several parts of the world – In Europe, In Asia and particularly in Peru, where discoveries were made of well-preserved mummies that survived.  Many of these mummies had a hole in the skull which is believed to be the result of trepanning (also known as trephining or trephination.  It was also found that there were healing in the bone around the wound in these mummies, and in skulls found elsewhere, which is suggestive or indication that many of the patients survived the operations in the prehistoric times.  Also it cannot be ruled out that the reason for the decision to cut a hole in a living skull could have been probably religious pressure rather than medical reason as is the cause for modern surgery.  It could have been to let out evil spirits or perhaps to give spiritual authority to the Medicine Man and the ill person submits himself to the knife.  It is not known how such operations were done but surely some sort of anesthesia would have been used without which it would be difficult to bear the pain.  It is not clear what method was used to cut and scrape away the bone of the skull to cut a hole but it is assumed to be a sharp flint.

Evolution of Mankind - Change in food, Illness and Disease

Mankind had started to evolve, from hunter, to gatherer and then to farming, breeding domesticated animals and also started discovering treatment methods for illness and disease.  At the same time, their eating habits also were changing according to the era they were in, new illness and disease were being discovered, could be due to their eating lifestyle.  Primitive mankind believed that illness and disease were caused by supernatural spirits and demons.  They never had the capability to think that what could have caused the illness could be related to what they have been consuming and this thought process have never been researched as far as scientific research has been concerned and hence Tribal witch doctors or medicine man with ceremonies to drive out the spirits was the way of life to get rid of these illness and disease.  As already mentioned, herbs and plants were the main ingredients used as medicine. 

As record keeping tools were not discovered in that primitive era, the only way of passing on the information of treatment of illness and disease was through their offspring or through stone markings.  From the primitive beginnings of treating a person by the tribal, through various herbs and trials and errors of the past, health care has been developing and changed throughout history.  During those times, the word cancer was unknown but if you read books or research on the topic, the medical fraternity would like to make us believe that at that time too cancer existed but proof of the same could not be obtained and various reasons were given to justify.

As mankind started to evolve, the treatment of illness and disease also developed rapidly.  The ancient Egyptians are the earliest people know to maintain accurate health records as per research, although there might have been other communities all over the world who may have been keeping records of their lives but the mankind is so spread over the whole earth that it would be nearly impossible to get the real facts as to who started maintain the records of accurate health.  Their priests used to act as physicians and they used medicine to heal disease and splinted fractures.  They also used bloodletting, draining blood to treat various disorders with the use of leeches.  Whenever disease occurred, they too had the practice of calling upon God to cure the illness or disease