Did you know that Band-Aids have been around for just 100 years? This deceptively simple household staple has made it possible to care for small cuts at home and has worked wonders in preventing infections. It’s hard to imagine that dressing wounds was once a task that required her two sets of hands, since bandages had no adhesive properties.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. From the discovery of vitamins to the development of essential diabetes treatments, the 1920s saw many advances in human health. This week, we look back at these milestone moments and think about his next 100 years in medicine.
epidemiology
People in the 1920s lived far more closely with illness and death than we do today. One person contracts the virus, which spreads to the rest of the family, resulting in the destruction of the entire family. And children who were quarantined to limit the spread of the disease grew up in hospitals rather than their parents’ homes. In such difficult circumstances, people were quick to welcome treatments and preventive measures that became available.
Many resources were devoted to these efforts, and doctors and researchers desperately sought ways to reduce the burden of disease. The 1920s saw important advances in dealing with childhood diseases that were common at the time, such as scarlet fever and measles. By the end of the decade, researchers had discovered antivenoms for both of these conditions. Researchers were also working hard to find ways to prevent tuberculosis, another deadly disease common at the time. The development of the vaccine in 1921 was a major advance that led to lower infection rates around the world.
Over time, many diseases have been eradicated or controlled, and the fear factor for these diseases has been removed. But today, with the growing movement against vaccines and medical interventions, we are facing a resurgence of these diseases.
“We’re facing a strange problem right now where people have access to so much information that they almost distrust it,” said the museum’s director of human health and evolutionary medicine. Curator Dr. Nicole Burt says: “This can lead to people rejecting good science or misusing science to make bad arguments.”
micronutrients
Today it seems very basic to everyday health, but it was not that long ago that many vitamins and supplements were discovered. In fact, many of these substances were discovered in the last 100 years.
The discovery of vitamins D, E, and K was reported in the 1920s, and other vitamins were also successfully isolated for the first time. Scientists were also beginning to recognize the role of vitamins in preventing diseases such as scurvy, rickets, and infertility. Vitamins are so important to our health that manufacturers have developed a variety of over-the-counter supplements and have begun to fortify foods such as cereals. However, while supplements are very useful, it is also important to remember that these vitamins are naturally present within a normal, balanced diet.
“This is very interesting because people tend to look for a special silver bullet to solve a problem,” says Dr. Burt. “But everyone’s system is different. There’s no one magical thing you have to ingest or eat to be healthy. Diversity in your diet allows you to get the micronutrients you need to survive. It becomes possible to ingest all sorts of small things.
breakthrough in diabetes
“Before 1910, most people with diabetes died from diabetes because we didn’t understand diabetes at all,” Dr. Burt says. “Until insulin was discovered in the 1920s, these people really suffered.”
In fact, back then, diabetes was well known as a death sentence. The discovery of the hormone insulin changed the situation. We still use insulin today, but the biggest obstacle to its use is that it is not temperature stable. Insulin requires refrigeration, which poses some problems for people who live in areas without reliable electricity. Fortunately, in the years since this drug was developed, researchers have invented synthetic insulin, making it easier for people in disadvantaged communities to manage their condition.
Thanks to these advances, diabetes is no longer a death sentence and is usually manageable with proper care. Although this progress is positive, it has made people a little complacent in recent decades.
“People have less of a sense of urgency,” says Dr. Burt. “There is much more of a fearful danger than a slowly creeping danger. And with advances in diabetes treatment, that danger is becoming more slowly creeping.”
The future of human health
Many people are starting to take charge of their own health, turning to over-the-counter options, genetic testing, and microbiome analysis to address health concerns. However, many of these options have not been available until the past 5-10 years.
Thanks in part to the Human Genome Project, which began in 1999 and ended in 2003, the public began to understand the potential of evolutionary medicine. And in 2007 he launched his Human Microbiome Project. This large-scale study examined the microorganisms present in the body to uncover their role in human health and disease. Once again, the world witnessed the incredible potential of medicine.
These studies were immediately followed by an explosion of Silicon Valley startups and innovative technologies, allowing private companies to take risks and leverage this research. At-home genetic testing has become such a novelty that almost every wellness blog mentions the microbiome. And now you can have vitamins tailored to your specific needs delivered right to your door.
In a sense, these advances have enabled the emergence of personalized medicine. Many people who are dissatisfied with the health care system are bypassing the usual medical channels and turning to these over-the-counter options. Is this the best answer?
“Personalized medicine is all the rage right now, but there was a bit of a misunderstanding about the Human Genome Project,” says Dr. Burt. “I would caution that, while this is great, medical researchers are working with very large data sets, and by the time we get to the point where we can use them effectively, treatments may be a long way off. That means I can’t do it.”
One reason personalized medicine is difficult is because it attempts to assign causation to correlation, which violates the golden law of scientific research. A single gene can play multiple roles in an individual’s health, while other genes may do nothing at all. Environmental conditions can also make a big difference in how genes are expressed from one individual to the next. All these variables make it difficult to use genetic information in a meaningful way. The microbiome faces similar challenges.
“People always want self-service medicine,” says Dr. Burt. “But I think this pushes people away and is a problem for public health. It’s good to have personalized care, but it’s also good to think about what you can do to improve the health of your community.” is.”
After all, taking responsibility for improving public health has helped build herd immunity against once devastating childhood diseases. There is certainly a lot of potential for positive health outcomes in personalized medicine if we use technology appropriately and recognize our place in society. But how can we get there?
“My research focuses on stable isotopes as biomarkers of dietary risk,” says Dr. Burt. “Some sort of approach to setting dietary cut-offs for sufficiently regular obesity-causing meals and low dietary diversity so that we can start making dietary recommendations a little more robust than what’s currently available. I’m trying to get a stable range of .
However, even as these recommendations become more reliable, there is still a long way to go to ensure the responsible use of personalized medicine. And failure to do so can have dire consequences. We have come a long way as a society since the advances of the 1920s. Collectively, we have a responsibility to continue to improve public health. As we look to the future, there are some simple ways to protect the medical field.
“As we look ahead to the next 100 years, one of the biggest things we can do is make sure that we educate people, individually, about science and how it affects them,” Dr. Burt said. Masu. “We also need to humanize the system. Doctors are humans, patients are humans too. Everyone should have a voice.”
