Was Medical Knowledge Better in the Stone Age

The Stone Ages are often portrayed as a time when people lived in caves, ate raw meat, and never washed their hands. But is that really true? If you were lucky enough to live in the Stone Age, how would your doctor treat you? The answer might surprise you.

The Stone Age may have seen a lot of innovation.

People had to be clever and inventive in order to survive. They made tools and weapons from stone, wood, and bone. They were able to make fires, take shelter under trees or build their own homes out of mud or clay and live with the animals they hunted for food.

The Stone Age saw many innovations and inventions, but not all of them were improvements. In fact, some of them caused problems for future generations.

Another example of this is agriculture. The development of agriculture led to the spread of diseases and epidemics such as smallpox, measles, and influenza that could wipe out huge numbers of people in a very short time.

If you had a serious illness or injury and were dropped off in the Stone Age, don’t expect to find a doctor. The first thing to consider is that these people did not have access to modern medical tools or methods. They wouldn’t be able to use an X-ray machine, take blood tests, or perform surgery. In fact, many doctors today think that science has gotten too involved with how we treat diseases and injuries — that sometimes we get so caught up in our machines and procedures that we forget about the true cause of illness.

If this sounds crazy to you (because it definitely sounded crazy when I first heard it), let’s look at some examples of what can happen when doctors forget about their patients’ whole beings:

• A doctor may prescribe medication for pain without asking whether there are any underlying issues causing the pain.
• A patient may be given antibiotics because they have a cold even though they should probably just rest instead.
• A person who has cancer might not get treatment if their insurance doesn’t cover it (even though they could lose their life).

Medical knowledge has significantly advanced since the Stone Age, but maybe not always for the better.

Advances in medicine are a double-edged sword. While they have often improved human health and quality of life, they can also cause more harm than good. Many commonly prescribed drugs, such as antibiotics and birth control pills, have unintended negative side effects that affect both individuals and society at large.

Examples of medical advances with unintended consequences include:

• Antibiotic overuse causes drug resistance and infections to become untreatable (a serious concern for public health officials).
• Birth control pills increase the risk for certain cancers such as ovarian cancer by 80% (an important consideration when prescribing hormonal contraception to patients).

Examples of medical advances with unintended consequences include:

Antibiotics overuse causes drug resistance and infections becoming untreatable (a serious concern for public health officials)

We are still trying to figure out how our bodies work, and we’re still making mistakes along the way. So it’s probably best if you don’t go to a Stone Age doctor. At least in today’s day and age, we have a decrease in heart attack deaths.

Twenty-five years ago if someone had a heart attack they would most likely be given something to make them comfortable and numb to wait it out until the end. Now, the fast you get seen the better off your chances are for not having adverse long-term effects.

Written by Sheena Robertson

Sources:

Medpage Today: The Top 10 Medical Advances of the Decade
CNN: Stone Age humans had unexpectedly advanced medical knowledge, new discovery suggests
Nature: Prehistoric child’s amputation is oldest surgery of its kind

Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Gary Todd‘s Flickr Page – Public Domain License
Inset Image Courtesy of PPDC PPDC‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License