WINTRODUCTION hat if you could get a medical checkup without visiting a clinic Imagine simply touching your finger to a small device that draws a tiny amount of blood and promptly runs 2,000 different tests The device sends the results to a computer which sorts through a vast amount of information about your blood organs genes and the way in which the environment is affecting your body The results are e-mailed to you and your doctor Checkup complete Next the doctor looks at the data from your blood to see whether you are at risk for certain health problems Then he or she might prescribe medicine to help prevent these conditions from developing Such a medical checkup seems far-fetched today but as technology improves we might indeed be able to undergo exams that are that quick and thorough Throughout history doctors and scientists have steadily improved medical treatments from killing germs and developing disease-fighting drugs to performing life saving surgery A century ago most people probably would not have believed that doctors would ever be able to transplant organs such as kidneys hearts and livers from one person to another But the knowledge necessary for these surgeries accumulated quickly during the 20th century suggesting the likelihood of more great leaps in the next century Although we’ll have to settle for traditional office visits for a while a future of personalized medicine in which a patient receives treatment according to the data provided by his or her own blood awaits 4
Medical experts predict a future in which doctors will be able to read a person’s cells illustrated above and DNA illustrated right to better anticipate problems
edical treatment among the earliest civilizations often involved sorcery and the supernatural People blamed evil spirits for causing disease Archaeologists have found ancient skulls show ing evidence of trepanation a procedure in which holes are drilled into a living person’s skull Although this surgery has been used in more modern times to relieve pressure from internal bleeding inside the skull researchers believe that early doctors performed trepana tion to release evil spirits from patients suffering from headaches or seizures or those exhibiting bizarre behavior In India surgeons sometimes concluded operations with the help of large Bengali ants After surgery the doctor would place the ants next to each other at the site of an incision After the insects clamped their powerful jaws down on the patient’s skin the doctor cut away the ant bodies leaving the heads as stitches that eventually dissolved Ancient societies also used plants to treat illnesses Medicine men who used these plants probably didn’t know why certain plants helped specific ailments but could observe how people felt after eating the plants Opium and black cohosh were found to ease pain while figs were effective laxatives Aloe helps to soothe skin condi tions and pomegranate kills parasitic worms in the intestines These plants contain powerful healing substances and many of today’s drugs still include their ingredients Ancient Egyptians were particularly skilled at using plants for healing sickness In fact the M C H A P T E R O N E C HAPTER O N E 1 DISCOVERING GERMS DEVELOPING DRUGS 6
The natural world has long offered medicines including pomegranate left and aloe below to cultures that were attentive and inquisitive enough to take notice
