{"id":1353,"date":"2013-08-21T00:37:58","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T00:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mikemalonedds.com\/blog1\/?p=1353"},"modified":"2019-08-08T16:48:31","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T16:48:31","slug":"the-oldest-most-terrible-diseases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.camelliadds.com\/blog1\/the-oldest-most-terrible-diseases\/","title":{"rendered":"The Oldest Known Diseases To Mankind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diseases: humans dealt with them thousands of years ago, and we deal with them again now. Even with all of the money spent on scientific research each year, there is still no cure for cancer, and new unknown illnesses emerge all the time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It truly is fascinating to learn how certain diseases wiped civilizations off the map at one point in our history, but are more or less nonexistent today.\u00a0 Where did these diseases spawn from, and what obliterated them?\u00a0 Thanks to archeologists, much of this information can be determined by the appearance of bones.\u00a0 Based on the lesions on a human skeleton in conjunction with DNA testing, scientists are able to guess how old a disease is — but it doesn\u2019t work for all diseases.\u00a0 While the age of tuberculosis can be estimated in this way, pneumonia relies more on lung tissue which doesn\u2019t preserve as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s examine some of the most ancient diseases that have engendered plagues around the world:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rabies<\/b><\/h3>\n

Who would\u2019ve thought rabies was one of the oldest diseases on the planet?\u00a0 After all, aren\u2019t we still warned today not to approach a dog or raccoon foaming at the mouth?\u00a0 In fact, rabies dates back to 2300 BCE<\/a> when it was first mentioned in the Eshuma Code of Babylon.\u00a0 Rabies is a lethal disease; not only does it attack the host — it takes over the host\u2019s brain so it wants<\/i> to bite everything in sight.\u00a0 Strangely enough, in 2004 a Wisconsin native was the first to survive rabies without getting an immediate vaccination after being bitten by a ferocious bat.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Typhoid Fever<\/b><\/h3>\n

Typhoid first emerged in Athens between 430 and 426 BCE.\u00a0 It is a bacterial disease transmitted by the ingestion of food or water that has been contaminated by the feces of an infected person.\u00a0 Because we live in a society where sanitation and cleanliness are highly valued, Typhoid is a rarity these days in most countries.\u00a0 However back in the day, nobody would think twice to dive into a river in order to \u2018cool off\u2019 the fever.\u00a0 In reality, the river would be infected with the bacterium from an infected person\u2019s feces — thus easily spreading the illness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cholera<\/b><\/h3>\n

The cholera plague likely occurred well before the time of Typhoid, even though the disease was first recorded later in 400 BCE by Hippocrates, an Athenian physician.\u00a0 \u00a0 Cholera likely comes from the Ganges River of India and Bangladesh, though scientists believe cholera exists in many water sources around the world even today.\u00a0 The Ganges River supported a massive population at the time, perhaps the most densely populated area of the world at the time.\u00a0 This heavy usage of the river allowed the disease to spread like wildfire.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Leprosy<\/b><\/h3>\n

People used to think the Bible passage Leviticus 13:2 was the first text to mention this disease.\u00a0 But leprosy is older than we previously thought; the symptoms are written in the Egyptian \u2018Ebers Papyrus\u2019 which dates back to 1550 BCE.\u00a0 Leprosy was misunderstood back in the day, and misdiagnosed often for two reasons.\u00a0 One, leprosy spread throughout the body in a dormant state.\u00a0 One could be infected for a length of time and not even know it.\u00a0 Also, people who had syphilis and psoriasis would be diagnosed with leprosy and sent off to leper colonies where they would eventually die anyway even if they just had a skin condition.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tuberculosis<\/b><\/h3>\n

A few years ago, scientists excavated an ancient city off the coast of Israel to find the skeleton of a mother and child who showed evident signs of Tuberculosis.\u00a0 This allows us to confirm that TB is 9000 years old.\u00a0 New research also has shed new light on the origins of TB:\u00a0 while we originally thought cows carried the disease and transferred it to humans, it seems this is not so.\u00a0 TB is a nasty illness that still affects people today, though not in the numbers it once did.\u00a0 It\u2019s transferred much in the way a cold is — through an infected person coughing or sneezing the bacteria into the air.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Malaria<\/b><\/h3>\n

According to the Wall Street Journal, malaria can be attributed as the cause of half of all human deaths since the Stone Age.\u00a0 Can you believe it?\u00a0 And it\u2019s still a huge problem today in Africa and Central America.\u00a0 It was first recorded in the Chinese \u2018Canon of Medicine\u2019 around 2700 BCE.\u00a0 \u201cThe disease<\/a> continues to infect 300 million people every year, killing 1 million of them.\u201d\u00a0 Sure people traveling to countries with disease-carrying mosquitos can get vaccinated beforehand, but the sad truth is that people living in these developing countries can\u2019t afford the care to fight the disease once infected.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are more ancient illnesses we didn\u2019t discuss here — pneumonia, smallpox, the Spanish flu, the black plague.\u00a0 If you liked this post and are as fascinated with ancient illnesses as we are, leave us a comment and we\u2019ll continue our discussion in another blog post!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"about_doc_\"<\/a>Dr. Mike Malone\u00a0and his\u00a0team<\/a>\u00a0practice expert cosmetic dentistry in Lafayette, LA. Dr. Malone is the former president and current accredited member of the\u00a0American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry<\/a>. He\u00a0is also the official Cosmetic Dentist of the Miss Louisiana USA and Miss Louisiana Teen USA pageants. Check out his\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0for more information.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diseases: humans dealt with them thousands of years ago, and we deal with them again now. 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