Conclusion

Conclusion

           

            Living is what living beings are made for, and staying healthy is something basic in order to achieve it. Humanity is always looking for new methods to protect our bodies, but unfortunately, everyday new diseases appear, and the evolution of medical science is barely enough to handle some of these diseases. Now, what we find in nature is not enough, and scientists have developed some more advanced substances, commonly developed from others found in nature, in order to heal and protect ourselves from all pain we should embrace. Life expectancy is much greater than what it used to be, but we constantly hear about epidemics killing thousands and spreading at an incredible speed. But as we can see with the example of anesthetics, medicine evolves and spreads also with an amazing rate.

            Pain is felt in the spot where the injury or tissue damage is located, but it is not created there. The nerves in the tissue send a signal throw our Nervous System that acts like a communication net so that the information will get to the brain. The brain processes the damage and sends the signal of pain to the injured zone. Pain could be categorized in many ways, but the most common one is dividing it into nociceptive, neuropathic and psychogenic pain. The first one is felt when you suffer an injury. The second one occurs by changes in the Nervous System and the last one is imaginary. Pain is stopped by cutting the neural impulses so that the brain does not receive the signal of pain, or by healing or treating the disease or injury causing the pain.

            The first medical procedures were developed in Mesopotamia. These procedures vary, but the most common one is trepanation. There are records proving that some of these were successful, so it is understandable that some sort of pain-killers should have been used in order to succeed. Ancient civilizations used many species of plants to decrease the amount of pain. Opium is a hallucinogen that blocks the nervous signals, while coca leafs were chewed and spit in the wound so in would numb it. Also, some clays and soils were used medically, they were ingested and were highly useful in treating acid problems in the stomach.

            Anesthesia was discovered by Dr. William Morton in 1846, and it revolutionized the medical worlds, turning it into what it is today. With the passing years, the formula of some anesthetics was perfected, ending up with our modern anesthesia. Modern anesthesia is categorized into local and general anesthesia. Local anesthesia is more concentrated, and is effect is localized in a certain area. It is used by dentists and in order to perform minor surgeries. On the other hand, general anesthesia has a complete effect over our body, inducing us into an unconscious state. General anesthesia is better because it is more powerful and controllable, but local anesthesia is better in the aspect that it has no secondary effects and you don’t need resting after been numbed. 

            Ancient pain-killers could be compared with modern anesthesia and everyone must agree that modern medicine is simply better, but this is useless. Of course modern anesthesia is better. It is modern, and pain-killers are ancient. But the fact that must be considered is that these two are not that different. As it was already proved in my research, modern anesthetics are made of substances used anciently. The future is better than the past, but it is not completely apart from it, just an improvement of the previous one. So, we could conclude that modern anesthetics are not different from ancient pain-killers, but their evolution, their future.