10 most important medical discoveries

The medicine does not stand still and develops more and more every day. Many of the latest discoveries never cease to amaze people. Thanks to medicine, diseases have been eradicated, and what used to kill people one after another is now a mere trifle. But no matter how many breakthroughs were made, there are ten that to this day shock everyone, and once completely changed human thinking.

10. Anesthesia

If you have ever been to a museum of naval history, then most likely you have heard or even seen in the images how surgical procedures were used on board ships in the 1800s. Amputations were performed right on the table, and the patient, in order not to scream, bit something, be it a piece of wood or a rag. You are probably shaking right now.

Fortunately, already at the end of the 19th, doctors came up with anesthesia, the purpose of which was to muffle pain. Initially, cocaine was used as an anesthetic. It was overwhelming, but as you and I know, it is also a drug that is addictive and encourages people to abuse it. Around the same time, chloroform was also used as a pain reliever (as demonstrated by Jon Snow during the birth of Queen Victoria). But this was often accompanied by various side effects, or even killed a person. Fortunately, in the modern world, we do not risk our lives by taking an anesthetic. But I think that medicine will not stop there either.

9. Birth control

Another change associated with discoveries in medicine was the decline in fertility. In Great Britain, for example, the fertility rate was 35.5 births per 1000 in 1870, and already in 1900 to 29. This was partly due to improved education in relation to gender and reproduction, but also new methods of birth control played a significant role in this.

In the United States, the "birth control movement" began a few years later, when a group of radicals led by Emma Goodman decided to train their colleagues to use contraceptives to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Their idea was successfully promoted to the press, and in 1942 the Planned Parenthood Federation of America was formed. Some religious groups still try to bypass these innovations, but despite this, birth control remains an indispensable thing in our daily life.

8.MMR

Another controversial issue: the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. In 1971, Maurice Hilleman licensed the MMR vaccine and it immediately had a significant impact on the number of reported measles cases. Hundreds of thousands of sick people in the United States in the 1960s had dwindled to several thousand by the 1980s.

Much later, in 1998, Andrew Wakefield began looking for a way to discredit MMR. He got his way by publishing an article claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Since then, his research has been completely overturned, but the consequences for vaccination were devastating, and the officially eradicated disease re-emerged in the United States. Similarly, in the UK, the number of measles cases fell to 56 in 1998 and rose again to 1,348 in 2008. MMR rates are now on the rise again thanks to emergency vaccination programs, and it is safe to say that MMR is a significant medical breakthrough.

7. X-ray

The X-ray, which had already become an indispensable part of medicine, was invented by Wilhelm Konrad when he discovered on November 8, 1895 that his cathode ray tube could create unusual images. He took a picture of his wife's hand, and, as he expected, her bones and wedding ring were clearly visible, but the flesh was not. He called it "X-Ray", where X is "unknown" and ray is the ray. Konrad received his first Nobel Prize in 1901. His invention is actively used to this day and is universally used in every hospital.

6. Insulin

An equally important discovery that is used daily by diabetics is insulin. This hormone, one might say, saves our lives, keeping blood sugar under control. Diabetics either do not pass this hormone at all (with type 1 diabetes), or they miss it, but cannot use it for its intended purpose (type 2). It was discovered in 1921 by scientists from the University of Toronto, who were later awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery. The following year, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson became the first person to receive artificial insulin after approaching a diabetic coma. Only after the second dose did he come to his senses and lived for another 13 years.

It's hard to imagine, but type 1 diabetes used to be considered a fatal disease. Apart from diet management, there was nothing that could be done to combat this disease. It is still not curable at this time, but is controlled by insulin. Perhaps it is he who will become the most useful medicine in the world ...

5. IVF

While birth control was gaining traction, its opposite was not far behind either. IVF is a way of creating pregnancy for people who have no other option to conceive. It was discovered back in the 1950s, but it was not until 1978 that the first "test tube baby" was born. The second was born a year later in Scotland.

Like any invention that implies interference with the natural course of events, IVF has become the cause of much controversy. It is still prohibited by the Catholic Church. IVF babies are described as “commodities”. But for childless couples, IVF is a miracle, and it should be recognized as an amazing discovery.

4. Microbial theory

The discovery of microbes was such a significant event in the history of medicine that it completely changed human life. Previously, patients were advised to carry things that smelled badly to ward off "bad air" or miasma, particles of decaying matter that got into the air and caused illness. The actual cause of disease - germs - had been discovered earlier, but the breakthrough came in 1854 when John Snow discovered a cholera outbreak in a water pump in Broad Street, London.

Having identified the source of the disease, he was able to analyze what was harmful in the water. When he reached the old cesspool, over which the pump was built, he noticed a child's diaper, which became a provocateur of the multiplication of cholera bacteria. However, his work was rejected by the government. Several years later, Louis Pasteur was able to prove the theory of microbes in the laboratory. Overall, the work of both men consisted of significantly improved sanitation and, as a consequence, lower incidence rates.

3. Penicillin

Another innovative drug that has become so widely used that it seems commonplace. Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928 by accident - a Petri dish left overnight showed that the mold was actively poisoning the bacteria around it. Fleming developed an antibiotic and it is now used to treat a range of viruses and infections.

2. Vaccination of smallpox

This is a true vaccination success story. Smallpox was once considered, perhaps, the most terrible disease - it killed tens of millions of people, but, fortunately, it was completely eradicated thanks to the vaccine. The last recorded case was in 1977, but the global figures for the 20th century are still around 30 million deaths. It is also known that thousands of people died in the colonies, as the colonists brought smallpox with them and passed them on to the natives.The vaccine was discovered by Edward Jenner, who noticed that milkmaids were immune to the disease because they had previously been exposed to vaccinia. Jenner decided to use it as a vaccine and was right. This continues to be one of the greatest advances in medical history.

1.DNA

No matter how many achievements are made and breakthroughs are made, the most memorable and most important discovery is and will be DNA. Its molecule stores biological information about us in the form of a genetic code. It is there, from the very birth, that our characteristics are laid, ranging from eye color to diseases that are inherited. Like many on our list, the discovery was the work of several people, but it was Francis Crick and James Watson who gave a clear view of DNA with the double helix model and subsequently won the Nobel Prize. An amazing view of what we are made of.