Modern Medicine

Question 1

Health

Answer 1

~ being bodily and mentally vigorous and free from disease

Question 2

What does being healthy mean

Answer 2

~ absence of signs that the body is not functioning properly
(eg: high blood pressure; raised blood sugar)
~ no subjective symptoms of disease / injury (nausea / pain)

Question 3

• Many people are less healthy than they should be, why?

Answer 3

~ smokers less healthy then they would be if they didn’t smoke
~ people who are underweight (anorexia) or overweight (obese) are likely to be less healthy than they should be
~ appear to be healthy but have a serious genetic condition (Huntington’s disease / pre-clinical stages of dementia)

Question 4

Models of health

Answer 4

Biomedical Models of Health view diseases as afflictions of the body separate from psychological and social processes:
~ propose that diseases or disorders can be explained by physiological processes which result from:
# injury; biochemical or endocrine imbalances; toxins
# infection with bacterial; viral or other biological agents
• Biomedical models have helped develop many cures:
~ vaccines for polio, smallpox, MMR; antibiotics for bacteria
• Biopsychosocial models of Health have also emerged to consider other factors:
~ how physiological functions, psychological status & social systems interrelate positively / adversely with each other

Question 5

Development of modern medicine

Answer 5

• 200 years ago little was known about the causes of illnesses or how to best to treat them; serious disease included:
~ smallpox; typhus; and tuberculosis
~ average life span in mid-18th century was below 40 years
• William Withering (1741-1799) extracted Digitalis from foxglove plants and used it to treat Dropsy (kidney / oedema disorder):
• James Lind (1716-1794) conducted controlled clinical trials in 1747 to identify a treatment for scurvy, caused by vitamin C deficiency, which and was a major problem on sailing ships
• Edward Jenner (1749-1823) developed a treatment for Small Pox in the 1790’s after noticing that milk-maids were immune.
~ an 8 year old boy that he inoculated with cow-pox developed
immunity to the more serious illness small pox