ABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: The present review summarizes the data published in the domestic and foreign literature concerning the history of climatic therapy, the current concepts of the mechanisms of action of the climatic and weather factors on the human body, the modern therapeutic modalities and technologies for health promotion. We consider not only the achievements but also the problems arising from insufficient knowledge of the impacts of current climate and extreme weather conditions on the state of human health and some disputable issues of the new methods and technologies of climatic therapy. IN CONCLUSION: the promising areas of further research and developments pertaining to climatic therapy as practiced under conditions of the Black Sea coast resorts.
Subject(s)
Climatotherapy/methods , Health Resorts , Black Sea , Climatotherapy/adverse effects , Climatotherapy/history , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , RussiaABSTRACT
The materials reported in the present article illustrate the possibility of weather forecasting for the medical purposes in the historical aspect. The main characteristics of the relevant organizational and methodological approaches to meteoprophylaxis based of the standard medical forecasts are presented. The emphasis is laid on the priority of the domestic medical school in the development of the principles of diagnostics and treatment of meteosensitivity and meteotropic complications in the patients presenting with various diseases with special reference to their age-related characteristics.
Subject(s)
Climatotherapy/history , Climatotherapy/methods , Forecasting/methods , Diagnosis, Differential , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Humans , Schools, Medical/historySubject(s)
Climatotherapy/history , History of Medicine , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , PeruSubject(s)
History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , Climatotherapy/history , History of Medicine , PeruABSTRACT
We provide a broad review of the scientific output of Vincenzo Cuomo, general practitioner and health officer on the Isle of Capri. As well as his work as a doctor he was a close observer of the environment and in particular of the island's splendid climate and its benefits not only for the local population in general but also for visitors from northern Europe's colder climes. These mainly included tuberculosis sufferers in search of the beneficial effects of the Mediterranean climate, as well as those suffering from asthma and chronic bronchitis. Vincenzo Cuomo understood the beneficial effects of the island's climate and campaigned successfully to have the island formally recognized as a major health resort. To add scientific rigour to his observations, he installed a fully operational meteorological station at the top of his villa, supplying data as part of Italy's network of meteorological and climatological stations over some 50 years. Given his contribution to science and medicine, we believe it appropriate to consider Vincenzo Cuomo a precursor of modern clinical climatology.
Subject(s)
General Practice/history , Climatotherapy/history , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Italy , Meteorology/historyABSTRACT
Thermal Medicine is now well integrated with other therapies such as pharmacotherapy, surgery, physiotherapy, radiotherapy and so on, in the prevention, cure and rehabilitation of many diseases. The methodology of thermal treatments, now recognized as bona fide therapies with their specific indications, adverse side effects, dosages, applications and administration times, are classified into mineral baths, mudcures and grotto treatments. Thalassotherapy is a therapy that is linked to the sea and is one of the most important of the climatotherapeutic methods. It constitutes a complex of therapeutic effects derived from the meteorological and telluric factors characterising a given climate. Thalassotherapy deals with the therapeutic effects conferred by periods of time spent by the sea, including the modes of action of marine agents, and strives to determine their limitations and in what circumstances a sojourn by the sea can provide effective health benefits. Thalassotherapy is affected by three kinds of main factors: climatotherapeutic factors, eliotherapeutic factors and balneotherapeutic factors. Refraining from normal daily activities and a rigorous observance of general hygiene, and diet in particular must also always be observed.
Subject(s)
Climatotherapy/history , Balneology/history , Heliotherapy/history , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , ItalyABSTRACT
Throughout the ages the interest in the use of sea water in medicine has fluctuated from century to century and from nation to nation. In this paper, the historical development of sea medicine from the ancient Egyptians until the 20th century is given. The medical world has viewed it with different opinions, from very enthusiastic to extremely critical, and from beneficial to harmful. In the last decades, thalassotherapy is receiving renewed attention from many medical specialties and health tourists. The aim of this review is that of offer an update on the real therapeutic possibility of the thalassotherapy. However, the exact therapeutic potential of thalassotherapy still remains largely unknown. Better and more profound scientific evidence for its efficacy is therefore warranted, in particular for its effects on the musculoskeletal system and skin. The main researches belong to the activity of thalassotherapy and the clinic outcomes, namely in osteoarthritis patients, were referred.
Subject(s)
Balneology/history , Climatotherapy/history , Heliotherapy/history , Chronic Disease , Eukaryota , Health Facilities/standards , History, 16th Century , History, 17th Century , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , History, Ancient , History, Medieval , Humans , Italy , Rheumatic Diseases/history , Rheumatic Diseases/therapyABSTRACT
This article is dedicated in remembrance of Friedrich Wilhelm von Halem, a former student of the University Frankfurt-on-Oder (Viadrina) in later eighteenth-century Germany. Friedrich Wilhelm von Halem from Aurich, was the first physician in the period of the German Enlightenment, who had introduced the thalasso-therapy as a part of a new health-conception. His pioneering achievement led to the foundation of the first health resort on the german coast of the North-Sea in Norderney (East Frisian Islands), May 1797.
Subject(s)
Climatotherapy/history , Germany , Health Resorts/history , History, 18th Century , HumansSubject(s)
Climatotherapy/history , Interprofessional Relations , Legg-Calve-Perthes Disease/history , Manuscripts, Medical as Topic/history , Orthopedics/history , Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine/history , Correspondence as Topic , England , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , Humans , Leg/physiopathology , United Kingdom , Wasting Syndrome/diagnosis , Wasting Syndrome/historyABSTRACT
In 1850 a vicar's daughter wanted to cure her lymphadenitis by health sea baths and drinking strengthening salt sea water. In the morning of the eleventh of August she took a bath and emptied three glass of salt sea water. At about 3 hours P.M. she fell ill with intensive watery diarrhoea and died on the following morning at 8 o'clock. Within one month 9 per cent of the population in the port of Malmo fell ill with cholera which killed every third of those affected. Necropsies were performed on some cases but did not reveal any remarkable changes. At the same time cholera attacked Lubeck and other ports of the Baltic sea. The sudden onset and the failure of quarantine precautions suggested intoxication of miasmic orgin. Thus the Swedish Medical Health authorities concluded that the disease was caused by atmospheric and telluric disturbances. Representatives of the Church opposed and considered that the disease was contagious. In 1883 Robert Koch discovered the cholera vibrion. Since then cholera has been considered as an intestinal infection. Cholera was supposed to affect only man, because it was not possible to transfer it to animals. Max von Pettenkofer disapproved the idea of contagiosity. He ingested cholera vibrions without falling ill. Recent findings have confirmed that there is need for at least one hundred billion of vibrions to cause clinical symptoms, whereas only 25 microgram of the toxin is required to produce intensive diarrhoea. Unlike true enteric bacteria, the cholera vibrions prefer aerobic conditions. They do not invade the tissues, and unlike dysentery, cholera disease does not induce inflammatory reactions. In 1855 John Snow proved that cholera was spread by water. All cholera outbreaks in Sweden have been associated with sea ports or inland seaways. Recent investigations have revealed that cholera vibrions are free-living planktonic organisms in sea water in many parts of the world. Human activities may help to spread the vibrions. Man is attacked by their toxin, but the infection takes place in the sea water rather than in the human gut. This is well illustrated by the present sad case report which was described without comments in the contemporary official medical report.
