Parkinson’s Disease is a terribly UNDER-funded disease as far as research goes. One in a hundred people around the world over 60 have Parkinson’s disease; that was 9 million people in 2015—the last time they did a world census.
In 2015 one in eight people were over 60, by 2030 one in six will be. By 2030 there will be more people over 60 in the world than there will be children 0-9. In addition, for some as yet unknown reason the rate of Parkinson’s disease is increasing every year. This problem will only get worse, we’ve got to make some progress on this thing now.
The James Parkinson Tulip by J.W.S. Van der Wereld
In 1980, J.W.S. Van der Wereld, a Dutch horticulturalist with Parkinson’s disease (PD), developed a red and white tulip to honor Dr. James Parkinson. At the 9th World Parkinson’s Disease Day Conference in Luxembourg on April 11, 2005, the new red and white tulip was launched as the official symbol of PD.
The tulip is described in detail as the exterior being a glowing cardinal red, small feathered white edge, the outer base whitish; the inside, a currant-red to turkey-red, broad feathered white edge, anthers pale yellow”.
Not only did the tulip receive the Award of Merit that year from the Royal Horticultural Society in England, but it also was the recipient of the Trial Garden Award from the Royal General Bulb Growers of Holland.
Medicine has a lot of “fathers” of various things; and many of the “50 most influential physicians of all time” we’ve been talking about have been considered “fathers” of one thing or another.
Dr. David L. Sackett is no exception—A “father” of evidenced based medicine, number 30 on our list. Read more →
Much of medicine is uncertainty, but one thing you can be sure of is that: ANYTHING that is discovered is HARD WORK and NOTHING worthwhile just pops into existence! However, that being said, in this series of articles I’ve described more than a few times what I’m calling Brilliant-Serendipity. The amazing things which continually seem to occur and alter the course of human suffering and change its practice forever. Read more →
The road to discoveries in medicine is anything BUT the scenic route. It is convoluted and littered with failure; however, it does contain more than its fair share of brilliant serendipity which continually alter the course of human suffering and change its practice forever. Read more →
NASA seems to do it’s job so well-thought-out and planned down to the second that, for most of us, our mental image of science has taken on an “uncluttered, pristine, direct” feel full of stainless steel and glassware.
But, those of us who’ve peeked behind the curtain of “the Great and Powerful OZ” know that real science is most often anything and everything EXCEPT those adjectives. Read more →
Truly, much (if not most) of what we do in medicine has had its roots in shear GUTS, DETERMINATION, OCD behavior, STUBBORNESS and… absolute SERENDIPITY! Don’t just take my word for it, ask their discoverers or inventors.
When I think back on it, to me it’s sheer mind-boggling! I wrote about a few of them, but soon realized these posts need to be put in a series so they can be noticed and thought about.
That’s what the posts listed below are: a list of fifteen or more discoveries which: 1- clearly changed the way the entire practice of medicine worked; 2- benefited all of humanity; and 3- nearly all of humanity has already heard about, but probably dismissed as commonplace.
If you don’t believe me, just think of these words: penicillin, diabetes, pacemakers, X-Ray, ulcer and… Viagra. Got’cha, right? And these are just a few. Read on!
4 Posts in "Accidental Discoveries" Series
Accidental Discoveries: Intro/Index – 2 Mar 2018 I have to say that the discoveries this series of posts cover are near miraculous. Truly sheer guts, determination, grit, OCD behavior and… let's just say it… sheer accidental luck! Yet they're here and humankind are better off because of them: the Accidental Medical Discoveries Curated Series of posts
Part 1: Microscopes, Vaccination, Anesthesia, Bacteria Cultures, Viagra – 3 Mar 2018 It's mind-boggling just how many MAJOR discoveries in medicine, indeed all science, are attributed BY THEIR INVENTORS to mear, schmear LUCK! To name just a few: here are the first five (of at least twelve) I can think of. Microscopes, Vaccination, Anesthesia, cultures of bacteria and… Viagra.
Part 2: Penicillin, Warfarin, Eye Lens, Benzodiazepines, Interventional Radiology, Ulcers – 13 Mar 2018 The path to a medical discovery is anything but "straight and narrow"! More than any scientist likes to believe or talk about, these "discoveries" take the scenic route. Such was the case with penicillin, anti-coagulants, replacement eye lenses, anti-anxiety drugs, heart surgery and ulcer treatment. Many invented in time to save lives during war.
Part 3: X-Rays, PAPs, Pacemakers, Rogaine, Antabuse, Pancreas-Diabetes – 15 Mar 2018 It's amazing no one was actually killed when these things were invented! From a device which was supposed to record the heart but instead accidentally sparked; to double-dealing by a pharmaceutical company and filing a police report. X-Rays, vaginal cancer, hair growth, alcoholism treatment and the diabetes–pancreas relation. These all had to be "the-grace-of-God" discoveries.
If you’d like to know more about medical discoveries, I’ve written posts about many important physicians throughout time in a large continuing series.
Old man death has not had such an easy time since these next two “most influential doctors of all time” came on the scene.
Dr. E. Donnall Thomas and Dr. Joseph E Murry, both received the 1990 Nobel prize for their independent lifetime of work against cancer and the life-saving techniques they developed and pioneered. Read more →
I got a kick discovering an “atlas” of parenting and discipline types (according to Laura Hamilton at UC-Merced CA) who tallied three categories: Bystander parents with limited kid contact; Paramedics swooping in for major problems; and, Helicopters always hovering all the time.
I say a kick because although entertainingly descriptive (and perhaps embarrassingly accurate to a degree) it just seems to leave a WHOLE LOT out of the equation—and ignore half of it entirely: the kid! Read more →
We’ve been following a list of the 50 most influential physicians in history compiled by a medical magazine and have reached number 32 with Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell.
A lot has been written about her, I suppose mostly due to the fact that she was the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. No small feat; but, it’s difficult to describe how to call it: serendipity? Chance? Accidental? Stubbornness? Tenacity? Luck? Read more →
Despite dealing with it—and often even causing it—the medical profession woefully neglected the slightest consideration of “dying” until 1969 when Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross wrote “On Death and Dying” about her experiences with terminal patients. Read more →
“Discipline,” that’s a 200-pound-gorilla-in-the-room topic if I ever heard one!
These days the so-called “do-gooders,” “haters” and “conspiracy theorists” all over the internet have made poor parents fear even the word “discipline”… let alone actually giving it to their child. But “discipline” is different than “punishment” you know. Read more →
The “discovery” of how DNA is constructed is a complicated story best told elsewhere; but, the two men who concluded just how it is done are number 34 in our list of the 50 most influential doctors in history: Francis Crick and James Watson—except neither of them are medical doctors; so perhaps, shouldn’t be included in this particular list at all. Read more →
