Topic 3 (Attempts to treat and cure illness and disease)

• Herbal medicines (middle ages)

  Doctors and women healers used herbs to treat everyday illnesses

  Herbs were grounded with a pestle and mortar, liquid was added to make a herbal drink or the herbs were mixed with plant oil to make an ointment
• The Leech Book of Bald


  Written by Anglo-Saxon physician in the 10th century

  It provided many remedies that actually worked

  The herb plantain was a common ingredient in the book and was recommended for boils in the ear, dog bites and other cuts or wounds
• Barber surgeons (Middle ages)

  Most common medical practitioners during the middle ages

  Blood letting, minor surgery's and selling medicines

  Learnt their trade by being apprenticed to an experienced colleague

  They advertised their service with a red and white pole (red for blood and white for bandages)

  They had to work fast due to the danger of blood loss

  They would use a hot iron to burn away diseased tissue
• Blood-letting (middle ages)


  Imbalances in the body could only be fixed by blood-letting or purging

  Blood-letting was the most common way of treating illness

  Done either by making an incision in a person's vein and draining the blood or by putting leeches on the body, allowing them to suck out the blood
• Purging


  Involved pumping a liquid made of herbs, honey and water into the bowels through the rectum, using a tube and a pig's bladder to act as a pump
• Common treatments in medieval Wales

  The Mediciner in the laws of Hywel Dda - occupied an important place in household of princes and lords, they used herbal remedies to treat the sick and repair broken bones

  Dynion Hysbys (wise men) - it was believed that these wise men had the power to break spells and undo evils spread by witches in order to heal and safegurard people and amimals
• Physician Myddfai


  Several generations of one family of physicians from Myddfai, they recorded their cures and remedies in a manuscript (Llyfr Coch Hergest) (Red book of Hergest)
• Treatments recorded in the Red Book of Hergest

  1. Instructions on how to treat patients by surgery, herbal medicines and blood-letting

  2. Use of stars to help prevent illness
• Curative wells


  In early Christian times many wells became associated with saints (St Teilo, St Dewi, St Beuno, St Mary) and churches were built near wells
• Curative wells


  • St Winefride's well became famous for its healing properties
• Curative wells


  • The water from wells was used to treat rheumatism and skin disorders
• Development of anaesthetics


  Discovered in 1840's

  James Simpson carried out experiments using different chemicals before discovering that chloroform could help relieve pain for women during childbirth

  He wrote articles about his discovery
• Impacts of anaesthetics


  Used by Queen Victoria in 1853 and 1857 as pain relief, during the births of her 8th and 9th child

  Improved surgical techniques by allowing operations to proceed with care rather than speed

  Provided effective pain relief
• What was the issue with anaesthetics?

  Did not make surgery safer because with a patient asleep doctors could attempt more complex surgeries. carrying infection deeper into the body and more blood loss

  Number of people dying from surgery may even had increased after the discovery of anaesthetics
• Infection rates after surgery before antiseptics were discovered?

  almost half of all patients who had leg amputations died from blood poisoning
• Discovery of antiseptics


  Joseph lister believed in the germ theory and began experiments to prevent patients form dying of blood poisoning after an operation

  Lister used carbolic acid to wash his hands and all his instruments before the operation, to soak bandages before applying them to wounds and to soak silk threads in it before tying up wounds

  He invented a spray machine so that carbolic acid could be sprayed over a patient's wound during an operation
• When did Joseph Lister public his findings?

  1867
• Impacts of antiseptics

  Joseph Lister reduced the infection rate

  Led to discovery that a bacterium caused septicaemia (blood poisoning) in 1878
• Aseptic surgery


  Was introduced in the 1890's and included:

  operating theatres were cleaned

  surgical instruments were steam-sterilized

  Sterilized rubber gloves were used
• When was the fist successful operation to remove an infected appendix?

  1880's
• Marie Curie


  Marie Curie and her husband discovered radium and polonium

  Radium and Polonium played a key role in destroying tissue and treating cancer

  She won the Nobel prize in 1911 for discovering the means to measure radiation

  She developed mobile x-ray units during ww1 which were used to make diagnosis and treat injured soldiers.
• Marie Curies death


  She died in 1934 from diseases brought on by excessive exposure to radiation
• The role of Fleming, Florey and chain in antibiotics

  1928 - Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillium, a mould that killed bacteria

  1929 - Fleming published his findings in a detailed report

  It took 10 years to find a way to mass produce penicillin

  Howard Florey and Ernst Chain were scientists at Oxford university who perfected a method of mass producing penicillin and by 1941 they had enough penicillin to begin human trials
• The role of Fleming, Florey and Chain in antibiotics

  WW2 created high demand for penicillin to treat infected wounds.

  By 1944, there was enough penicillin to treat all allied casualties

  Fleming, Florey and Chain were given the Nobel prize for their research
• When and what was the first organ transplant?

  The kidney in the 1950's
• When was the heart-lung machine developed?

  1953
• First heart transplant?


  In 1958 Christian Barnard created a heart unit in Cape Town

  In December 1967 he performed the first heart transplant on Louis Washkansky

  Louis Washkansky lived for eighteen days after the transplant until he died of Pneumonia
• How many transplants did Barnard perform between 1967-1973?

  10
• What was the issue with transplants and how was it ressolved?

  Rejection of the transplanted organ

  The development of immunosuppressive drugs solved this issue
• Modern advances in cancer treatment and surgery

  radiotherapy - attacked the cancer cells with x -rays

  Chemotherapy - using chemicals to attack the cancer

  Surgery - to remove the cancerous cells by operation
• Heart disease


  Most common cause of death in the UK (accounting for 1 in 3 deaths)

  Common causes include bad diet, smoking, stress, alcohol abuse, obesity and viruses
• Treatments of heart disease


  Advice about diet and exercise

  use of drugs to steady pulse, lower pressure and reduce cholesterol levels

  Surgery to install a peacemaker
• What enabled surgeons to perform keyhole surgery?

  Miniaturization, fibre-optic cables and the use of computers
• Holistic medicine


  Hydrotherapy

  Homoeopathy

  Aromatherapy

  Hypnotherapy

  Based on traditional treatments rather than chemicals against illness