Understanding the mechanism of disease has been one of the great driving forces of medicine and fields such as pathology and at Unilabs, we are heirs to this history. Click To Tweet
At Unilabs, our mission is to give answers that help provide the best care, but behind this motto, is a millennium of knowledge accumulated, supported by people who passionately conducted research with a single purpose: to discover the origin of the disease.
Understanding the mechanism of disease has been one of the great driving forces of medicine, including the field of pathology.
Science and understanding of diseases have progressed and dispelled incorrect and in some instances, damming false ideologies in health care and diagnosis capabilities. Join us on this journey.
The body’s disturbance
There was a time when illness always had an external cause that poisoned the body. Sometimes caused by the environment and sometimes by gods or spirits that harm or punished the human organism.
However, it is curious how already in ancient Egypt they were aware that there existed certain vital gases and fluids (air, blood, bile, mucus, urine, semen) and that even if it was due to the action of evil entities, they identified that if there was an obstruction or decrease in any of them; the body suffered.
With no extensive knowledge of physiology or anatomy, their experience in observing mostly stemmed from the decomposition of corpses, dealing with work and military accidents and the techniques of mummification, requiring a level of ability and initiative, to find ways of healing a body, even if it was accompanied by a prayer to the appropriate deity.
For example, applying the correct mixture and amount of an unguent to a sting could be as relevant as praying to Selkis (goddess of scorpions who protected against stings).
A similar logic reached Hippocrates, known as one of the founders of medicine, who established in his theory of the four humours that disease had its origin in the excess, defect or separation of the four basic substances: phlegm, blood, yellow bile and black bile.
This imbalance was starting to be associated with physiological rather than external causes.
The body’s anatomy and the autopsy taboo
During the Hellenistic period (from 323 b.C with Alexander’s death to 31 b.C) medicine became professionalised and independent, as did other sciences, from philosophy. The presence of cities dedicated to knowledge such as Alexandria gave a powerful impulse in medicine, as it was the only city where autopsies were allowed.
There, Herophilus of Chalcedon and Erasistratus of Ceos established the foundations of anatomy, naming for the first time many parts of the body. Together, they studied the brain, the eyes, the heart, and the uterus. Differentiating for the first time veins, arteries, nerves and ligaments, which Aristotle had not differentiated from tendons.
They were the first to establish that the pulse depended on the activity of the heart, that intelligence resided in the brain and not in the heart, as had been thought since Aristotle, and that diseases were localised in specific organs.
But their works did not survive because of the burning of the library of Alexandria, and the taboo on autopsies remained until the Renaissance.
So it was not until almost the 18th century that the anatomical concept of disease and the idea of “tissues” was established. This, with the development of inventions such as the microscope, finally settled the field of histology.
The body’s cells and disease understanding
During the 19th century, the cellular theory arrived, basing the origin of diseases on disorders of the body’s cells and their functions. A new field appeared, cytology, which replaced many concepts that had been maintained from olden times, and pathology was established as a major discipline in medicine.
From there, significant advances well-known to current disciplines would come, including electronic microscopy, immunopathology, molecular biology, digital pathology and even the introduction of artificial intelligence that add a previously unseen accuracy to the human eye.
Make a difference
Providing answers is not always easy, but if we have come this far, thanks to all those who have preceded us and who, above all, have transmitted a way of thinking that is indispensable in healthcare: at the end of the diagnosis there is always a patient.
We are part of something much bigger than ourselves, but acknowledging the history allows us to see the future with much more enthusiasm when approaching the challenges ahead and how through our work we are able to improve lives every day.
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