The medicine we have now that change the world than in the old days?

[nec209]

I'm doing a project in school on the medicine we have now and medicine in the past or years ago in the past.The only things I can think of ar.

 

1.liver, heart, kidney ,face transplant we have now not possible 50 yaers ago.

2.Working on a person brain or heart .No doctor would do that 50 years ago .

3.Microscope invented in 1800's allow us today to understand the microorganism and what causes diseases and illnesses.

4.The Microscope and computers / math allowed inventions in drugs.

5.People with HIV are living longer than 20 years ago.

6.People who have cancer is no longer a death sentence.( only some cancers are easier to treat and well others are harder to treat .

7.New advances MRI ,CT scan, x-rays not possible 50 years ago.

8.Understanding of cell and DNA not possible 100 years ago.

9.Understanding of the brain not possible 50 years ago.

 

A1. There are cures for some cancers, fungi and parasites

A2 There are cures for Ebola, and Bubonic Plague

A3. There is cure for SARS

A4 There is cure for some bird flue strains

A5 Has for influenza some strains there is a cure.

 

All of this stuff is treatable, and most curable, depending upon what parasite, fungi, cancer, and strain of TB.

 

 

 

Anyways I cannot think of more or cannot elaborate.But I'm doing this project . If anyone will like to add than please do.Also any more information about microscope will help or advance math and computer models to find new drugs

Edited March 31, 2009 by nec209

[GDG]

AFAIK, there is no cure for ebola yet.

 

Probably the biggest advance was the development of antibiotics. Before penicillin, many infections could be lethal or disabling. A cut on your arm might lead to an infection that required amputation.

 

What else? How about

• anesthesia, without which surgery was a very grim affair.
  
• Insulin, so that diabetics no longer die before the age of 25.
  
• Analgesics (painkillers) like aspirin, which let people function without constant pain.
  

[jake.com]

1900’s First electrocardiograph machine

 

1920’s First modern respirator

 

1930’s Artificial pacemaker invented

Kouwenhoven cardiovascular research

 

1940’s First kidney dialysis machine

Plastic contact lens created

 

1950’s First artificial hip replacement

Artificial heart valve developed

First cardiac pacemaker

First successful open-heart bypass surgery

First human kidney transplant

 

1960’s First totally internal pacemaker

Laser treatments made available for optic purposes

ICU was administered

Nuclear machine

1970’s Soft contact lens

Physical therapy

CT scan introduced

First cochlear implant surgery

 

1980’s MRI scanners

First permanent artificial heart implant

Deep-brain electrical stimulation system

First laser surgery on human cornea

 

1990’s Human Genome Project

Radiosurgery created

Brachytherapy Remote Afterloader used to dissolve tumors inside-out

Stereotactic Needle Biopsy System to diagnose breast cancer

 

Citation- http://piusgirl54.tripod.com/id2.html

[Kaeroll]

AFAIK, there is no cure for ebola yet.

 

Probably the biggest advance was the development of antibiotics. Before penicillin, many infections could be lethal or disabling. A cut on your arm might lead to an infection that required amputation.

 

What else? How about

• anesthesia, without which surgery was a very grim affair.
  
• Insulin, so that diabetics no longer die before the age of 25.
  
• Analgesics (painkillers) like aspirin, which let people function without constant pain.
  

Seconded. On a related note - the development of vaccination (look into smallpox and the name Jenner).

 

On the topic of anaesthesia, 'back in the old days' some really nasty compounds were used to clean wounds and incisions - phenol in particular. The approach then was termed antiseptic - kill pathogens in the wound, rather than stop them getting there in the first place (the aseptic approach used now). Phenol is somewhat acidic. Putting on an open wound is not recommended. The development of less irritating antiseptic agents probably made surgery somewhat more tolerable...

[nec209]

Keep in mind 98% of stuff above would not be possible with out electricity or the micrscope.

 

There was not alot of progress in science or medicine in the middle age do to the chuch and alot of science or medicine was lost .

 

The Greek and Roman medicine was very good :-)doing surgery and using herbs ,drinks,flowers even though 60% of the herbs ,drinks,flowers did nothing the other percent did work.

 

(( Hippocrates of Cos maintains that diseases have natural causes and puts forth the Hippocratic Oath, marking the birth of medicine in the west. ))

 

This guy was good to bad he was not in the middle age that thought sin was why there is diseases .

 

The forbidding the dissection of humans in the middle age did not help.Like in the old days and today the church tries to stop progress in science or medicine .

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_medicine_and_medical_technology

[Moontanman]

Yeah, things were pretty bad back in the stone age, I'm 54 and I can still remember dinosaurs...... While medicine has progressed much in the last 50 years many of the things mentioned happened well before the 1950's. BTAIM medicine has progressed much in just the last 50 years but if you want to find a really bad time go back about 1000 years.

[jake.com]

At least we don't bleed people to cure them anymore. Or drill holes in the head to let the evil spirits escape.

[Phi for All]

The history of ether as an anesthetic is pretty interesting. It started out as a party drug in Victorian England, IIRC.

 

At least we don't bleed people to cure them anymore. Or drill holes in the head to let the evil spirits escape.

We don't? Oooops.

[Kaeroll]

I believe trepanning is still used, more to release pressure in the skull than evil spirits, but who knows.

 

Ether, ew. I got stoned off that once (quite by accident, honest) and had a nasty headache when I woke up three hours later.

[tulip]

How about penicillin? (Discovered by Alexander Fleming) The first person to be treated with penicillin was a policeman who was in hospital dying from an infection caused by being pricked by a rose thorn.

Also antiseptic surgery developed by Joseph Lister was a huge medical advance. Previously people would have a successful operation and then die from an infection. Incidentally both of those discoveries are British.

[Theophrastus]

I think the first step to building the functional system of medicine, was its deviation from religion, in the time of the greeks, by hippocrates. As long as medicine and religion remained synonymous, the so- called "cures" were simply blessings administered by a priest or various other things based on the doctrine of the religion in question. (That's where we start getting into these pseudomedicines: "Hello, sir, do you want one hole, or two?") In studying the human body, (albeit cadavers, for ethical reasons) and trying to find the underlying cause of disease, hippocrates really began the study of medicine. Mind you it took years and years, to get to the point it is today. I'ld also include x- rays, NMR (or MRI, whichever you prefer), PET, and methods of viewing living tissue, to directly help patients. I agree with many of the things previously mentioned, such as vaccines, antibiotic, painkillers and anesthetics. Genetics is also a revolutionary concept, in that it explains the nature of numerous inherited diseases, and finds an underlying cause for various diseases, resulting of genetic mutations: ie cystic fibrosis Cheers!

Edited April 18, 2009 by Theophrastus
addition of content

[nec209]

also include x- rays, NMR (or MRI, whichever you prefer), PET, and methods of viewing living tissue, to directly help patients.

 

Many of the things you say above was not there 50 or 100 years ago like Ct scan ,pet scan ,ultrusound ,MRI so on.

 

I agree with many of the things previously mentioned, such as vaccines, antibiotic, painkillers and anesthetics.

 

Those things have been around for 200 years.

 

 

But here is thing , cancer was a death sentence before.Now alot of people who get cancer live thanks to Chemotherapy ,radiation ,drugs ,surgery and lasers that was not possible 50 yaers ago or even 30 yaers ago.

 

 

People who had diabetes or allergic to some thing died 50 years ago and now they can live thanks to drugs.

 

Well Asthma you died 50 years ago now you got puffers ,drugs and IV's .

 

If you had a parasite , fungus or virus you died But 200 years ago they discovered parasite , fungus and virus.

 

 

Genetics is also a revolutionary concept, in that it explains the nature of numerous inherited diseases, and finds an underlying cause for various diseases, resulting of genetic mutations: ie cystic fibrosis Cheers!

 

Good to understand but this is playing god when you mess with people DNA.

Edited April 25, 2009 by nec209

[nec209]

I have been reading this week on the medical advancement.First I will like to point out cancer was not problem before becuse most people did not live past 45 150 years ago

 

Look at the population stats 150 years ago to now we are almost almost to point that some thing has to be down to lower the population or pack up and move to other planet .

 

People are almost living to 100 now so cancer is big problem now .The invention of automobile ,machines and robots in factories along with the invention of TV ,computer and supermarket has exploded a epidemic of obesity and diabetes. We no longer need to cut down trees and burn the wood for heat and light or cook are food.

 

And all this cuts down on are work. We no longer need a garden !!! We get in are car and drive to the supermarket and buy are food of week!! This has exploded a epidemic of obesity & diabetes :eek:

 

And the jobs are becoming less labour now and more office work and IT work .No longer we need turn burn wood for heat or light .

 

Has there ar more machines and robots in factories and more service sector work more obesity & diabetes .We no longer have walk school or work:eek:'

 

 

But major food and water shortage in Africa and the Middle East and some areas in South America and China has made big drain on resources.The US ,UK and Canada cannot help the poor in their country than help those other countries..

 

With human population out of control there is more need for trees and this is doing away of the rainforest !!! We need trees for wood to build homes and we need trees for paper and this a major problem.

 

In areas in the Middle East and some areas in South America and very much so Southeast Asia people are living on top of people ? The country is to small and too many people and city like Shanghai ,Beijing ,Hong Kong ,Chongqing , Mumbai so on is so dense it is a big problem.

 

 

Now I have been reading about medical advancement and green movment .

 

Here is some medical advancement in past 40 years.

 

heart transplant, by Christian Barnard

MRI and fMRI, by Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield (among others?)

CAT scan, by Godfrey Hounsfield and Allan Cormack

ultrasound scan, by Ian Donald

1982, artificial heart, by Robert Jarvik

Pain patches

anti-siezure medication

decongestants insulin drugs

anti-depressants

accine that lowers your risk against cervical cancer

3-D ultrasounds, MRIs, body scans

liver, heart, kidney ,face transplant

There are cures for some cancers, fungi and parasites

antibiotics

penicillin

anesthesia

painkillers

First permanent artificial heart implant

Deep-brain electrical stimulation system

First laser surgery on human cornea

 

1990’s Human Genome Project

 

 

Last fatal case of smallpox

 

1980 - Raymond Damadian builds first commercial MRI scanner

1981 - First vaccine for Hepatitis B

1987 - Ben Carson, leading a 70-member medical team in Germany, was the first to separate occipital craniopagus twins.

1992 - First vaccine for Hepatitis A available

 

 

2003 - Carlo Urbani, of Doctors without Borders alerted the World Health Organization to the threat of the SARS virus, triggering the most effective response to an epidemic in history. Urbani succumbs to the disease himself in less than a month.

2005 - Jean-Michel Dubernard performs the first partial face transplant

2006 - First HPV vaccine approved

2006 - Second rotavirus vaccine approved (first was withdrawn)

2008 - Laurent Lantieri performs the first full face transplant

 

 

 

()() Now on some of them I could not find the date. :eek:

[Genecks]

Perhaps the biggest retraction in progress was antibiotics.

[nec209]

Perhaps the biggest retraction in progress was antibiotics.

 

 

I have it on the list above .Also anesthesia and other pain meds.

[jake.com]

i have a feeling penicillin is going to go the way of DDT...

[nec209]

I'm still working on the dates of some of those things above and Wikipedia should have alot of info on this.

 

I don't read medical journals ,scientific American ,popular science so on do to a lack of putting it together.When I understand anatomy , Physiology , biochemistry better I will read it.

 

I have seen programs on TV on what they are working on in the future but I have not and I say again have not read or seen anything on what they are working on in the next 5 or 10 years.

 

 

Well cyborgs ,nano bots and 3D printing they are talking about are stil 50 to 100 years out if they do not run into problems.

 

But I'm talking about the next 5 to 10 years from now what is coming out or 15 years !! Well the media doing what it is doing does not what to talk about what they are working on and what cutting age technology is coming out.

 

Way to much media censorship on heathcare.And they using people to disform people about heathcare.

 

Look at hati what they are doing or cancer.

[Rickdog]

I don`t want it to sound as a spam, but unfortunately the one disease that medicine`s advancements hasn´t been able to cure but make worst instead, is the uprising of costs for medical treatment. It is reaching levels by which, it doesn`t "bleed you", but it bleeds the pockets of those who need it urgently in order to continue having a decent level of life. In some cases, its beyond of the reach of the poor, so medicine in some cases is getting to the point by which of only those who can pay can afford it.:-(

 

So excuse me, NEC209 my friend, with this post. Maybe it`s the answer to your question about what they are doing about Cancer, for instance in Haiti .

Edited January 21, 2010 by Rickdog

[insane_alien]

i don't think cancer is the biggest worry in haiti at the moment rickdog...

 

as for medicines being expensive, well of course the new ones are going to be expensive, they typically have long complex syntheses with low yeilds and there is typically only one or two manufacturing plants in the world.

 

when things are in short supply, they are expensive. there isn't really anyway round it.

 

yes, it's unfortunate that we have no way to cheaply synthesize any compound we want, but at the moment there isn't much we can do about it. once we have replicator technology ala star trek then whatever gets discovered will be pretty cheap. but for the moment thats sci-fi and will remain so for the forseeable future.

[nec209]

I don`t want it to sound as a spam, but unfortunately the one disease that medicine`s advancements hasn´t been able to cure but make worst instead, is the uprising of costs for medical treatment. It is reaching levels by which, it doesn`t "bleed you", but it bleeds the pockets of those who need it urgently in order to continue having a decent level of life. In some cases, its beyond of the reach of the poor, so medicine in some cases is getting to the point by which of only those who can pay can afford it.

 

That is the problem in the US ,Canada and UK.The problem is CEO's and management making over $1,000,000 a year running the hospital and most doctors $150,000 to $300,000 depends on type of doctor.

 

And people working in factories making stuff like MRI or X-ray or drug companies making billions not to say insurance companies that are more rich than all the people in goverment .Or chemist and surgeons that live in a $1,000,000 home and $1,000,000 or more saved in the bank .

 

Not say NASA and engineers how much money they make or a judge.In America everyone wants a house ,car and go on vacation 1 or 2 times a a year and everyone wants to be rich.Do to shortage of food ,water ,fossil fuel around the world and lack of jobs in the US ,inflation and healthcare cost so on.People are going to have to downsize in America get less money ,take train or carpool like in Europe. Live in small house or above store ,condo and apartments. And box stores and power centers will be gone and go back to store-fronts where people live above a store .More foot traffic than car centric city.

 

And that is the way it is going to have to be for now.In the future when we have robot slaves to take over the labor work ,nanotechnology ,replicators and mass 3D printing than things may change but even than earth is way over populated for it size that the ecosystem and planet is being destroyed do to way over populated .Have go to other planet in space or have policy of only 1 kid around the world than moms having 4 or 5 kids like now.

 

Anyways the moderator should move part of this thread to the political section has we are getting off topic here.

[Rickdog]

i don't think cancer is the biggest worry in haiti at the moment rickdog....

 

Insane_alien, my friend, I don`t think Cancer will ever be a matter of great worry in Haiti, cause they can`t afford the cost that it involves. Haiti is just an example of a very poor country, whose main concern is starvation and if they could have the benefits of currency of only one day of the medical industry of the world, they could probably solve this problem for ever, but the medical industry is greedy and isn`t willing to share it with no one. Sad, very sad issue.:-(

[insane_alien]

rickdog, did you read my explanation of WHY new drugs are expensive?

 

its not a matter of its cheaply produced but drug cartels are jacking the price up artificially, its that the medicines are expensive to produce due to the vast amounts of raw material and processing required. some of them really do cost $1000 a pill to produce. thats just in cost of the materials required to get enough of the product to make a dose. this is because they're HARD to make.

 

if a medicine requires a thousand steps in its synthesis, then its going to be expensive. why, because at each stage in the synthesis, there are going to be yeild losses. there's going to be wastage. there's going to be spoiling. etc. this will all drive the price up.

 

there's no way to get around this. there are steps you can take to minimize it but these are already taken.

 

its not just greed here.

 

i just don't get why you seem to think, a high value product is only high value because some people say it is. its high value for a reason.

[Rickdog]

Insane _alien, my friend, I read your post thoroughly, and I understand that many articles of modern medicine are expensive, but you are not going to tell me, that every article is expensive, there is great amounts of discoveries made by the medicine industry that aren`t expensive to produce, but the jeloussy of the labs for instance, make them not wanting to share their own acquired scientific knowledge in order to keep prices of their products high, so it is greed (a monopolic business, of the needed knowledge and an exclussion to open market policy).

 

Secondly, did you read my post ?. It is refered basicly to poverty (mayor proportion of the world suffers it) and the main issues that concerns it (hunger), so with actual medicines costs it`s prohibited for them.

[insane_alien]

yes, so? civilization is built on trade. if you have somthing of equal value to what you want then you can trade. its not necessarily greed but just balancing.

 

if the people who produced the medication sold it at a loss, they'd quickly go out of business and therefore be unable to discover and make new medications. this would be worse than just those without resources being unable to afford medication.

 

and can you show me what simple to produce medication is being sold at artificially inflated prices?

 

because it is highly unlikely that simple to produce medications are still being discovered. simply because not many are being researched. provide some evidence.

 

there is no conspiracy.

[Rickdog]

Yes my friend, that`s exactly the point I wanted to state here, it is business above human health. It`s not about selling a product at loss, but being more efficient in its production, minimizing the losses in its production and therefore reducing the costs of it, so the prices of the final products can be more affordable. But they keep the secret for themselves in most cases not allowing the competition, to be more efficient than them, being able to sell the new drug, for instance at lower prices, even though it can still be a good business doing so.

 

About your second question, if I knew the answer, tell me, would it still be an industrial secret anymore ?.

 

To find the best evidence in these cases, you just got to go to your local drug store and ask for a generic drug and ask for the prices of it. You`ll discover that the drugs made by more laboratories, are cheaper and that there is a great variation in price among them (open market policy), and that the most expensive ones, usually are made by less laboratories or only one of them, and their variation in price when its more than one, is lower.

How is this possible ? - Make your own conclussions about it.

 

 

It isn`t conspiracy, its business above common health, after all.