HISTORY OF HEALTH

Life Expectancy
Is based on statistical averages for your area, time period

etc.
If lots die young, it drives down the average.
Doesnt mean you are OLD at 50 but what is the
likelihood of you living to 50?

Prehistoric Hunting and Gathering

Societies
Major Health Threats
Food shortages susceptible to illness and injury
Infections, broken bones and dental problems all potentially fatal
Joint diseases ie)arthritis
Unexplained illness blamed on spirits or sorcery
Natural Remedies
Some evidence of bone setting and holes in head to relieve
pressure or spirits
Life expectancy 25-40

Agricultural Societies
Evidence of decreasing health malnutrition, higher infant

mortality as humans adjusted to new diet

More stable food source but restricted ie) potatoes
Infectious disease as people move
together
Treatments 4 humours balanced through diet,
medicines, blood letting and leeches

Ancient Civilizations
4 Humors, bloodletting, leeches continue

Greek doctor Hippocrates born 460 bce father

of medicine bases medicine on reason and

observation but believes 4 humors
Infant and mother mortality high
Living past 45 for a relatively healthy man was
rare and women 35
Malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, smallpox
and arthritis were all common

Top 100 Medical Discoveries

Video 44 min.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysC6PV0xaA

Bubonic Plague
Hit Roman Empire 540-592
1347 to 1750 spreads throughout Europe Over 100

million die
Travel spreads

Understanding of the Human Body

William Harvey 1628 figures out how our blood circulates

through our heart by veins.

Blood Transfusion
First performed by James Blundell in 1818

1901 Blood typing begins

Heres a thought, Clean!

1847 Dr. Semmelweis recognizes washing hands before

delivery increases survival rates

1850s Florence Nightingale connects hospital cleanliness
to recovery rates
1867 Joseph Lister develops antiseptic surgical methods

to clean wounds and tools quickly adopted

Louis Pasteur Germ Theory of Disease

Links microorganisms to spread of disease and brings

revolution to preventative medicine.

Filth contains GERMS!
Realize disease germs can be transferred to others
Leads to change of practices in hospitals as well as our
daily lives
Pasteurization of wine
and milk occurs

Industrialization 18th and 19th c.

Life expectancy among poor workers - 27

Led to overcrowded, unsanitary conditions dramatically

increasing spread of disease

Typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis and small pox are killing
thousands in cities per year
Attempts are made to create inoculations and vaccines

X-Rays
German Wilhelm Roentgen discovers X-rays 1895
Anna wifes hand
Opps wrong use

and cancer spikes

Inoculations and Vaccines

Continue testing with varying success

Deaths and controversy throughout

Many Vaccines are discovered

1867 Plague

1923 Diphtheria
1926 whooping cough
1927 tuberculosis
1937 typhus
1945 first for influenza
1955 Polio
1964-74 measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox

Turn of the Century 1900

Life expectancy in North America 28, by 1940 65, by

2000- 77. Biggest increase in history

Why? Availability of food, clean water and sanitation
1928 Sir Stanford Fleming discovers penicillin used to
treat chronic disease in 1943
Many deadly diseases now treatable t.b., diabetes,
smallpox (erased), malaria, diphtheria etc. (300 million
died of smallpox in 20th c alone)

Other Medical Advancements

1899 Asprin invented

1954 first kidney transplant

1967 first heart transplant
1978 first test tube baby
1983 H.I.V. discovered
Efforts and success in

fluorination of water

Poverty largest Risk

The Developing world still faces malnutrition,

contaminated drinking water and treatable illness such as

malaria, cholera, polio, leprosy
Question Should the developed world spend more
money trying to cure diseases like cancer and depression
or cheaply cure diseases in the developing world?
Even in Canada??? YES! The Canadian Medical
Association's town hall reported Canadians believe
poverty is the main issue that must be addressed to
improve the health of Canadians and eliminate health
inequities. CMA June 2013

Concerns in the 21st century

Life expectancy for those born after 2000 90 BUT this is

expected to decline for the first time in modern history!

Over nutrition and poor lifestyle choices are our biggest
risks today