slowly but steadily through the last millennium. Experts
intentional and is forgotten when health returns. It is not
say the drop will occur when the current generation of
passed on to future generations.
obese and overweight adults reaches old age, and will
worsen when obese and overweight children hit middle
Primitive Medicine
age. Life expectancy in the US will likely continue to rise
Early human medicine going back hundreds of millennia
for the next five to 10 years but level off and decline
ago was mostly trial and error experimentation but
as the next generation of more obese children reached
early hunter-gatherer tribes developed myths around
adulthood.
the use of plants, which were passed along to the next
Obesity has been shown to reduce the length of life
generation. As the use of plants expanded, medicine took
by about five to 20 years. About 68% of Australian men
on a cosmology as to why these plants worked but much
and 52% of Australian women are overweight or obese,
of this was based on metaphysical or mystical thinking.
which puts them at an elevated risk of Type 2 diabetes,
It was not rational or logical. Superstition and medicine
heart disease and cancer.
were closely aligned and it was called shamanism. A
While all these are of great concern, it is not fair to
person got a disease because of a curse of the gods or
condemn medical science for all these failings. There are
spirits, an evil eye or an evil wind. The shaman or priest
historical breakthroughs that have enhanced health and
would cast spells, rattle drums as well as provide potions
well-being but a new paradigm of medicine is needed.
to drink.
The future of medicine will incorporate not only the best
Medicine also developed regionally, based upon
of current medical science but also the rich history of
the plants available in that area and the local tribal
ancient and natural medicines.
cosmological and spirit beliefs. No one knew what
A synthesis
worked, if indeed it did work, but over time certain
activities were found to be effective. Shamanism and
To see the future of medicine one needs to understand the
superstition were the basis for early treatments and there
history of medicine, how it developed over time. Humans
was little separation between ritual, magical invocations
are the only animals that consciously and intentionally use
to the gods and the use of plants to treat disease. This
medicine. Sure, some animals instinctively seek grasses
is the earliest stage of medicine and today is called folk
and barks from plants to heal themselves but it is not
medicine.
ODYSSEY 43
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DIGIMAG