Introduction
Medicine has existed for a very long period. Herbs and stones have been used to treat people since before the written word. The oldest documented usage of dentistry dates back to 7000 BC. Tonsil removal, an early kind of brain surgery, has been discovered in human bones dating back to the Ancient era. Those “surgeries” may have been performed to ward off bad spirits, but medical science has advanced much since the days of leeches and bloodletting. Some of the treatments used in the past may have been ahead of their time.
1.Why is bronze so important?
Consider the usage of bronze. Bronze medical tools were discovered in the early Roman Empire and ancient Mediterranean countries during an archaeological investigation.
Bronze is a metal alloy that consists mostly of copper and other metals. Copper has antibacterial characteristics, whether our forefathers realised it or not, and bronze retains some of copper’s antibacterial properties even when mixed with other metals. While these ancient bronze instruments did not sanitize themselves, they were far safer than other metals and helped to prevent diseases following skin contact. Copper is still used in medical equipment today, in part because of its antimicrobial characteristics.
2.Aspirin
Willow plants were abundant in the chemical salicin, which was used to make the first aspirin pills. A precursor of aspirin (acetyl salicylic acid). Willow bark was utilized as a natural treatment and pain reduction in ancient Egypt and Syria as early as 2000 BC. In fact, Hippocrates, the founder of medicine, wrote about the therapeutic advantages of willow in the 5th century BC. Chemists began experimenting with the chemical salicin in the 1800s, mixing it with a seal chloride to produce salicin.
3.Which plant was used to produce the drug?
Wormwood is a herb vegetable that is commonly used in absinthe. Researchers found it after scouring old Chinese dynasties’ literature, particularly those from the 4th century Jin dynasty. Wormwood was utilized to treat many of the symptoms and diseases connected with malaria, according to the ancient literature. It led to the development of a medicine that has saved millions of lives.
Tu Youyou, the Nobel Prize winner who helped discover the therapeutic benefits of wormwood, said:
“Artemisinin is a real gift from traditional Chinese medicine, but it isn’t the first time that Chinese medicine’s wisdom has paid off.”
While many medications are based on old cures, there are also many distinct methods and therapies that date back to ancient times.
4.Sutures
Sutures (surgical stitches) were used by ancient egyptians as early as 3000BC.The drug opium (the active element in morphine) has been used as a medication since circa 1500 BC.
One of the most important takeaways is the practice of determining which infection are treatable and which are incurable with present technology. Ancient Egyptians possessed not only the capacity to diagnose patients, but also precise instructions on how to classify them into three groups, according to the “Edwin Smith papyrus” (called after the merchant who acquired it in 1862). The severity of the disease or damage, as well as the limited medication accessible, define the various classifications.
“An aspect with which I shall deal” is the first category. “Take two and call me in the morning,” to put it another way.
“An illness with which I shall struggle” is the second category. “Get them on the operating table as soon as possible!”
The final group is “an untreatable sickness.”
“We’ve got some bad news for you,” in essence. It’s comparable to the triage method in use in the United States. To classify how to treat patients, green (minimum), yellow (moderate), red (immediate), and black (presumed dead) tags are used. The therapy diagnostic and classification system dates back to at least 1500 BC. Much of today’s medicine is founded on thousands of years of various techniques and treatments, some of which are still in use today.
Trepanation
Trepanation, or drilling a hole in the skull, is possibly the oldest surgical method in the world. Many Neolithic and Mesolithic skulls dating back 10,000 years show evidence of not just trepanation but also new bone development along the borders of the holes, showing that the long-gone patients lived. The ancient Egyptians believed that it might help with migraines, epilepsy, mental disease, and cranial trauma. They also thought that a hole in the skull permitted bad spirits to escape the person they were occupying.
Trepanation was a forerunner of contemporary neurosurgery and is still used today, but the instruments have improved since the primitive trepans of centuries ago. Today, neurosurgeons expose the dura mater by drilling a burr hole in the skull. When there is a subdural hematoma or hydrocephalus, it is occasionally done to alleviate pressure. Craniotomies, in which a portion of the skull is removed and restored, are becoming increasingly prevalent. Some people have even self-trepanned in the hopes of curing physical problems, while others have done so in the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment.
6.Snowdrops
The Soviet Union was the first to research galantamine, which is made from snowdrops and is today used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, but folklore claims that Bulgarians rub the blossoms on their foreheads to relieve headaches.
“They were very probably utilized in traditional medicine before the Soviets started exploring in the 1950s,” Prof Heinrich adds.
“What makes you want to explore your snowdrops in your garden?”
“I’m sure there was a reason they were looking at snowdrops in the first place.”
7.Cataracts surgery
Cataracts are a primary cause of blindness globally, affecting 24 million Americans aged 40 and over.
As early as 800 B.C., ancient Indians invented the earliest documented cure for cataracts, known as “couching.” Physicians pierced the eye and physically loosened and removed the clouded lens during couching. Unsurprisingly, this procedure frequently resulted in difficulties and negative effects, including blindness.
Then, in the mid-1700s, a big breakthrough was made by French ophthalmologist Jacques Daviel. When he conducted an extracapsular cataract extraction method, he is credited with revolutionizing cataract surgery (ECCE). He retrieved the lens by an incision in the cornea with devices such as a knife, blunted needle, and spatula. The patient’s eyes were cleaned with water and wine after surgery and covered with cotton. Patients healed over the next week by lying on their backs in a dark room. Daviel’s approach laid the groundwork for contemporary cataract surgery, and ECCE is still used today, albeit it has been improved through time.
Conclusion
The truth is that ancient medicine and treatment methods are still widely used today.These traditional medicines have been used for centuries, and modern medicine has modified them to make them more effective.Another finding is that there are many parallels between ancient and modern medicine.These treatments and medicines are important to us because they are beneficial to our health.