History of Asthma
The first known recording of the symptoms was about 3,500 years ago in an ancient Egyptian manuscript called Ebers Papyrus. Some sources state that this problem was treated as far back as 2000 BC by Chinese doctors with the herb Ma Huang. Without the tools and techniques that allow modern physicians to explore inside the body, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Greco-Roman physicians and healers in other early civilizations practiced close observation of their patients. Through observation and experience, they became experts at interpreting their patients' symptoms. Most believed breathlessness¬ like all sickness¬ resulted from internal imbalances and that a healthy balance could be restored by diet, plant and animal remedies, prayer, or lifestyle change.
The word 'asthma' is derived from the Greek aazein, meaning "sharp breath." Others translate it as “gasping, breathlessness or panting”. The word first appears in Homer's Iliad. Hippocrates was the first to use it in reference to the medical condition, in 450 BC. Hippocrates thought that the spasms associated with asthma were more likely to occur in tailors, anglers, and metalworkers. Six centuries later, Galen wrote much about asthma, noting that it was caused by partial or complete bronchial obstruction. In 1190 AD, Moses Maimondes, an influential medieval rabbi, philosopher, and physician, wrote a treatise on asthma, describing its prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. In the 17th century, Bernardino Ramazzini noted a connection between asthma and organic dust. Van Helmont (early 17th Century) claimed that asthma was epilepsy of the lungs due to the sudden and unpredictable nature of an attack. Lavoisier (18th century) provided the first real account of the functioning of the lungs, thereby providing the basis of modern-day understanding of the respiratory system. Prior to this, it was commonly believed that air was drawn into the lungs to cool the body. Lavoisier’s contribution was that air is drawn in to be converted to energy by the metabolism, and that carbon dioxide and heat are produced as end products of the process. Lavoisier’s work recognised that oxygen is essential to sustaining life.
Over the centuries, there has been different theories about the causes of asthma, and so an eclectic range of remedies has been advised, including horse riding, strong coffee, tobacco, faith healing, chloroform and even drinking the blood of owls in wine, as practised by the ancient Romans. The use of bronchodilators started in 1901. Not until the 1960s that the inflammatory component of asthma was recognized, and anti-inflammatory medications were added to the regimens.Famous people who were or are asthmatic, including Russian Tzar Peter the Great, actors Liza Minnelli, Jason Alexander and Elizabeth Taylor, revolutionary Che Guevara, and former US presidents John F Kennedy, Calvin Coolidge and Theodore Roosevelt.
