A Tribute to Canada’s Nurses: Celebrating Nursing Week 2013

The following blog post was written by Museum Curator Dr. Pamela Peacock

In Canada, the hard work and dedication of nurses is formally recognized during National Nursing Week, the second of week of May.  International Nurses Day, designated by the International Council of Nurses in 1974, is celebrated on May 12^th.  This day was chosen as significant because it is Florence Nightingale’s birthday.

For the past several years, the Museum of Health Care has partnered with the Kingston Nursing Education Past and Present group, comprised of alumnae of local nursing schools, to present a public event celebrating Nurses Week.  This year the third annual celebration was held at St. Lawrence College, commemorating the anniversary of the nursing program’s foundation in 1973.

National Stress Awareness Day, 16 April: Managing Stress Then and Now

The following blog post was written by Varsha Jayaraman, Curatorial Assistant 

April 16^th marks National Stress Awareness Day.  Stress often accompanies difficult situations or circumstances that a person undergoes.  Psychological, emotional and mental stress can lead to negative consequences on one’s physiological stability.   As a student at Queen’s University, stress is not a foreign concept to me.  Between volunteering, working, graduate studies applications, studying and keeping up with what some might not even call a social life, stress management can be quite a daunting task.  …and it is not going to get any easier with exams looming.

Short History of the Science of Stress:

The term stress comes from the Middle English term destresse, derived from the Latin stringere, which means “to draw tight.”  Prior to the twentieth century, stress was a term used in physics, referring to the internal distribution of a force exerted on a material body, resulting in strain.  Stress later evolved to describe mental strains or circumstantial disruptions that cause physiological disturbances or illness in the body.

Although the experience of what we now call “stress” predated the term’s entry into medical terminology, scientific studies on the physiological problems caused by mental stress began in the nineteenth century.   Then, French physiologist Claude Bernard recognized the importance of maintaining balance in the internal environment of the body, the milieu interieur.  Bernard described the principles of dynamic equilibrium in the body.  He posited that in order to survive as human beings, our internal states must be in perfect balance to maintain regular functionality.  By this, Bernard meant that one’s mental state must be stable in order for the rest of the body’s physiological mechanisms to function properly.  External changes in the environment force changes that the internal environment then reacts to and compensates for.

Walter Cannon (1915). National Library of Medicine, B030295

Bernard’s milieu interieur was the origin for what Walter Cannon later called “homeostasis”.  Wisconsin-born Cannon popularized the term in his book The Wisdom of the Body in 1932.  He was the first to recognize that stressors could be emotional as well as physical.  According to Cannon, the brain coordinates body systems with the aim of maintaining a set of goal values for key internal variables.  Any internal or external threats to homeostasis that cause large enough deviations from goal values arouse internal nervous and hormone systems.  These induce emotional and motivational states, and then generate externally observable behaviours, which ultimately re-establish a state of homeostasis.  Cannon relates this concept to what he famously called the “fight or flight” response, an animal’s reactionary changes of state during pain, hunger, fear or rage.  Later, scientists found that these bodily reactions Cannon described can be traced to the release of powerful neurotransmitters from a part of the adrenal gland called the medulla.  The adrenal medulla secretes two neurotransmitters in response to stress: epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline).  The release of these transmitters leads to the physiological effects observed during “fight or flight” and in general, in response to stress (i.e. rapid heart rate, increased alertness, etc.).

World Health Day 2013 – A short history of sphygmomanometers and blood pressure measurement

the following blog post was written by Dr.  Pamela Peacock, Museum Curator 

April 7^th marks World Health Day, a day that celebrates the birthday of the World Health Organization (WHO) by drawing attention to a significant health problem affecting the world today.  The focus in 2013 is high blood pressure.

The WHO evolved out of a tradition, first begun in the nineteenth century, of international conferences and organizations that sought to facilitate disease prevention and control through cooperation.  In 1945, the United Nations Conference on International Organizations voted in favour of a new international health organization and, in 1946, the International Health Conference approved a constitution for the WHO.  Between 1946 and 1948 signatures were collected to ratify this constitution and, finally, in 1948 the WHO was established.  The organization established as its priorities malaria, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, nutrition, sanitary engineering, and venereal diseases.  Many of these continue to be priorities for the WHO today.  Additionally, new diseases, such as AIDS, have received sustained focus, as have ‘lifestyle diseases,’ such as heart disease and Type II diabetes.

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a growing problem with significant health risks.  Today, one in three adults worldwide has high blood pressure.  More than 25% of Canadians have hypertension, and 90% will develop it at some point in their lifetime.  Hypertension is the leading risk of premature death in the world.

High blood pressure occurs when blood vessels narrow or become rigid, often because of plaque build up.  This causes the heart to work harder to pump the blood through the narrowed channels, which can lead to heart attack.  If the vessels become weakened or blocked the result can be aneurism, stroke, or dementia.  The health risks of hypertension are serious and life-threatening.

Plaque buildup leads to high blood pressur

The most common causes of high blood pressure are related to lifestyle choices.  Eating high calorie diets with too much sodium and saturated fats, not getting enough exercise, smoking, and drinking more than the recommended weekly limit all contribute to hypertension.  Genes also factor into the equation.  Luckily, we can all make choices to decrease the risk of high blood pressure, by getting at least thirty minutes of exercise a day, eating a low fat, low sodium diet, and managing our stress more effectively.  Medicine may also be prescribed to help individuals manage their high blood pressure.

A healthy lifestyle minimizes your risk of hypertension.

Hypertension is sometimes referred to as the “silent killer” because there are often no outward signs or symptoms until a dangerous health incident, such as stroke, occurs.  Knowing your blood pressure measurement and taking this reading on a regular basis is a key tool in managing risk.  Normal blood pressure is 120/80, while 140/90 is considered high for the average adult.  The first number represents the systolic pressure, the pressure exerted on the walls of the arteries as the heart contracts, while the second is the diastolic pressure, the pressure exerted when the heart relaxes.

Celebrating National Doctor’s Day

The following blog post was written by Collections Assistant Erin Kraus

National Doctor’s Day is celebrated annually in the United States on March 30^th. The holiday originated in the 1930s when a physician’s wife in Georgia organized a lunch for her husband and his fellow doctors to show appreciation for their hard work. March 30^th is significant because it marks the day in 1842 that anesthesia was administered to a patient for the first time.

National Doctor’s Day is celebrated by giving cards to doctors and their families and honoring deceased doctors by placing flowers on their graves.  Hallmark Cards designed a special line of cards for National Doctor’s Day in 2003, after their National Nurse’s Day (May 6) cards proved very popular. In addition to card giving, some hospitals treat their doctors with gifts, lunches, and even spa treatments.

World TB Day 2013: A Fearsome Disease, Hope for New Vaccines

 written by Dr. Pamela Peacock, Museum Curator 

I spent much of 2012 thinking about tuberculosis.  As Curator at the Museum of Health Care, I was tasked with developing an online exhibit on the disease, covering how it works and spreads, as well as how we have worked to prevent, diagnose, and treat TB over time.

When I first started this project, I knew very little about tuberculosis.  The most obvious image I could conjure was of a figure coughing up blood into handkerchief.  The more I learned about TB and how it worked, the more concerned I became.  When people broke out into coughing fits around me, I would cringe a little – what IF they did not have a common cold?  What IF I caught TB?  The thought is disturbing, even if the actuality is highly unlikely.

A TB patient is depicted coughing up blood. Image from the US National Library of Medicine.

TB most commonly infects the lungs, though it can infect almost any part of the body, including the heart, the bones, or the brain.  Typically, the immune system is able to form a protective layer – a tubercle – around the bacterial infection, but in some people the bacteria are able to continue to replicate in the tubercle until it bursts, damaging lung tissue and releasing bacteria that spread further into the lung and body.  In other cases, the bacteria are contained, dormant but not dead, in the tubercle until the immune system is weakened, at which point the bacteria are able to burst out of the weakened tubercle.  The image of bacterial time-bombs in the lungs is frightening.  Even more so, perhaps, when you consider that for most of history there was no effective treatment for TB.  Or, that increasingly tuberculosis bacteria are becoming resistant to the treatments that are currently available.

Statuette of Hua Tuo

‘It is a general truism of this world that anything long divided will surely unite, and anything long united will surely divide.”  – Luo Ghuanzhong, 1300s, CE

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The following blog was written by Curatorial Volunteer Mary Catherine Shea

In 1846, New England dentist, William T.G. Morton, demonstrated to medical students that anaesthesia de-sensitized patients to pain during surgery and minimized the risk of death from shock.  Although his demonstration is considered a pivotal moment in the history of anaesthesiology, Morton’s biography forms only one chapter in the history of individuals who have used anaesthesia to successfully perform surgeries.

Approximately 1600 years before the Boston demonstration, Chinese physician, Hua Tuo, (statuette at left), invented an anaesthetic that he called mafeisan and applied this substance to patients undergoing abdominal surgery.  Rising to fame as a surgeon within the Eastern Han dynasty of 25-220 CE, Hua Tuo had access to the pharmaecopia texts and philosophical traditions of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism that still circulated during the end of the Han dynasty’s golden age.  Hua also witnessed the peasant rebellions, the shanghan epidemic and the military offensives that characterized the beginning of the dynasty’s decline.  Some censuses show a population loss of 34 million between the Eastern Han and the Western Jin dynasties, as warfare and mass migration depleted the population. 

The Evolution of Dentistry

The following blog post has been written by Curatorial Assistant Varsha Jayaraman 

Dentistry is a branch of medicine specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and disorders of the teeth and gums, as well as ailments of the oral cavity and maxillofacial area.  It plays a vital role in health care.

The history of dentistry may be traced back to 7000 BCE in the Indus Valley Civilization (now Pakistan).  Researchers speculate that bead craftsmen used a drill made of flint heads to remove tooth enamel and rotting dental tissue.  Evidence suggests that this procedure was surprisingly effective.

Portable dental treadle drill (1900-1910), Museum of Health Care #010020064

The first professional European “dentists” were known as barber-surgeons.  Guilds of barber-surgeons were prominent in Europe beginning in the thirteenth century.  They were generally responsible for bleeding, cupping, leeching, giving enemas and extracting teeth.  Only in the early eighteenth century did the exclusive profession of dentistry emerge.

Pierre Fauchard of France (1678-1761) is known today as the “Father of Modern Dentistry.”  When he was 15 years old, he began his surgical training in the French navy.  He became particularly interested in diseases of the mouth as he was exposed to various illnesses of sailors while at sea.  Prominent on his voyages was scurvy, the “seaman’s disease”, which occurs due to a deficiency of vitamin C.  Scurvy is characterized by the formation of spots on the skin, spongy gums and bleeding from the mucous membranes.

After leaving the French Navy, Fauchard began working as a professional dentist in France.  His practice flourished and he earned a promising reputation as a dental surgeon, attracting patients from all over the country.  Fauchard composed his own treatise on the foundations of dentistry, Le chirurgien dentiste ou traité des dents (The Surgeon-Dentist, or Treatise on the Teeth), in 1728.  In it, Fauchard described the foundations of oral anatomy and physiology.