How Valuable Is It To Study The History Of Medicine?

[Raidergal2022]

Do you think it is useful at all for healthcare professionals to study the history of medicine - I am talking when bizarre treatments were used like blood letting and leeches

Or does having a knowledge of history serve no purpose in modern medicine?

[pastafreak]

Not a medic, but I did an OU course on the history of medicine years ago...utterly fascinating.
Bloodletting and the use of leeches is or has returned to be accepted. I think there might be much to be learned from history...and modern medicine might make use of some of it.

[Aircooledfool]

Can’t see how regressing to historical methods and treatments would be of any use today , likewise a knowledge of them . Mind you, the way things are right now , it could be the only treatment available , back to the barber shop.

[Aircooledfool]

Pastafreak, why would bloodletting be acceptable then?

[vulcan42]

This might be of interest.
https://www.medicinenet.com/is_bloodletting_still_used_today/article.htm

[Aircooledfool]

Having said that, I did one try acupuncture, which is obvs ancient, but the results were not curative at all , perhaps because I am not Chinese and maybe sceptical

[Buenchico]

Leeches are still used within the NHS, particularly in association with plastic surgery:
https://www.uhcw.nhs.uk/download/clientfiles/files/leech%20therapy(1).pdf

[Aircooledfool]

I can understand how maggots will usefully remove infected tissue and clean wounds, I did read the link from Vulcan, looks like quackery to me, how would removing small amounts of blood be beneficial?

[Aircooledfool]

Signing off battery in iPad down to zero, 73s all

[gness]

I’m not Chinese, Aircooled. I was sceptical til I was pushed into trying acupuncture. Best pain relief there is. Years since I took a pill for pain but then I’ve had two excellent acupuncturists.
Pasta is correct. We need to look at past ways of healing. Maybe because my great gran was a Doctress and I’ve inherited some of her ways. :-)

[Canary42]

Bloodletting is still used - but after treatment it is put back again (I refer of course to dialysis).

[Thisoldbird]

My late husband had treatment via a leech about 25 yrs ago. He had an accident at home, chopping almost through a finger. A lengthy time in surgery fixed it on again. During recovery a nurse produced a box the size of a matchbox..inside was a leech. She placed it on a small blister that had appeared on the wound. Blister disappeared having the blood sucked out by the leech..it was placed back in the box to dispose of.
He was told they were bred for the medical purpose in Wales.
That would have been 1997.

[pastafreak]

https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/library-and-publications/library/blog/why-you-should-love-a-leech/

https://www.medicinenet.com/is_bloodletting_still_used_today/article.htm

[Thisoldbird]

Thank you pasta freak. That's most interesting

I'm not sure I fancy one of those put on me but they definitely do a good job.

[barry1010]

Funnily enough, blood letting and leeches are still used in the UK

[satprof]

All history serves a number of useful purposes, but these can work both ways. Sometimes we can refine the old, perhaps bizarre, ways. There are also instances of learning the things that were definitely disastrous and to be avoided at all costs in the future.

As we can’t predict the future career of any individual who starts to study medicine, a knowledge of medicine’s history will help them put their studies into perspective. If they move into most of the medical career paths, they won’t need much more. For those who want to do some (or a lot of) research, a good knowledge of the history of medicine will be very useful to them.

An example might be the conversion of Jenner’s work on cowpox into modern day vaccinations against many diseases, including smallpox & Covid.

[Khandro]

This is an excellent book which touches on a wide variety of subjects, including some of which you speak (make a great Christmas present).
I must declare an interest though, he is a friend of mine;

Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

[Aircooledfool]

I guess the OP was about “learning from history” so I can only agree with satprof’s response . It appears that it is all about adaptation and improvement of older techniques. However, I think we can’t just use them as they were once used. There is an odd thing about treatments of any kind, in that, if you believe it will work you may well convince yourself that it has done, and importantly, vice versa. As to whether medical students should study ancient practices, there is a place for that I suppose, but I would be happier if they used the modern methods that may have been based on older practices. Having said all of that, if I could believe that there was an ancient practice (practise?) that could rid me of my constant back pain, I would dive straight in. Doubt my GP is going to come up with one though. Maybe he did not study historical methods.

[THECORBYLOON]

"As to whether medical students should study ancient practices, there is a place for that I suppose, but I would be happier if they used the modern methods that may have been based on older practices."

Those modern methods might have taken longer to discover, if at all, were it not for studying older practices.

It might be that further improvements will be discovered after studying other older methods.