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Disease has always been a very dynamic unpredictable character. Every time we humans think we have solved the mystery behind disease a new problem always arises. Before we can fully understand disease, we must first ask ourselves what makes disease so dynamic? The answer to that question is very simple; it’s us. Since the beginning of time we have evolved as a species becoming better and more genetically suited to our environments. While we busy becoming all that we can be, disease has been doing the same. Disease evolves to our bodies like we evolve for the environment. To best see how the dynamics of disease is affected we must see how social structure has changed the environment for disease.
One of the biggest changes in human history has been the transition from hunting and gathering to an agriculture-based system. This major paradigm shift meant that man began to live closer to his animal counterpart. By living closer to animals, humans effectively introduced to themselves a new method by which disease could jump species. With the agriculture-based system came a larger population that lived in more densely packed environment further facilitating the spread of disease. The invention of a new type of society allowed for the disease to become the disease we now know today.
Larry Kramer is an activist that understands that the dynamics of disease are best understood as a society. Kramer alludes to the fact that because AIDS was first seen as a gay disease no one particularly paid any attention to AIDS. He also stated the United States government had $8 million dollars available for AIDS research, but they would release the funds. However, when there was a Tylenol scare the government released $10 million dollars for ...
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...andemic and the Fall of the Great Indian Empires." Biological Consequences of European Expansion: 1450-1800. Ed. Kenneth F. Kiple. Aldershot: Ashgate [u.a., 1997. Print.
Diamond, Jared M. "Leathal Gift of Livestock." Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton &. 196. Print.
Gutterman, Steve, and Gleb Bryanski. "Russia Bans EU Vegetables over E.coli, EU Protests | Reuters." Business & Financial News, Breaking US & International News | Reuters.com. Reuters, 02 June 2011. Web. 09 June 2011. .
Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf: Zwei Bände in Einem Band. Vol. 1. Bottom of the Hill, 1938. Print.
Mirsky, Jonathan. "How the Chinese Spread SARS." 30 Apr. 2003. Print.
Proctor, Robert. Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1988. Print.
Before discussing how disease has shaped history and altered cultures, it is important to understand how they themselves have developed and changed throughout history. Disease, in the broadest definition of the word, has been present since the beginning of humanity. Even ...
I first read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel in the Fall 2003 based on a recommendation from a friend. Many chapters of the book are truly fascinating, but I had criticisms of the book back then and hold even more now. Chief among these is the preponderance of analysis devoted to Papua New Guinea, as opposed to, say, an explanation of the greatly disparate levels of wealth and development among Eurasian nations. I will therefore attempt to confine this review on the "meat and potatoes" of his book: the dramatic Spanish conquest of the Incas; the impact of continental geography on food production; and finally, the origins of the Eurasian development of guns, germs, and steel. In terms of structure, I will first summarize the book's arguments, then critically assess the book's evidentiary base, and conclude with an analysis of how Guns, Germs, and Steel ultimately helps to address the wealth question.
After reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, the five main points are domestication of plants and animals, food production, government, innovation, and germs. The domestication of plants and animals helped determine a society's supply of food. First of all, there is the domestication of plants. Domesticated plants were used for food, clothing, and traction. There is about 200,000 wild plant species, but human only eat only a few thousands of those wild plant species, and on top of that, only a few hundred are even domesticated. Many wild plant species do not quality because the vast majority of wild plants are unsuitable for domestication: they have a woody structure, they are unable to produce edible food, and roots and leaves are also inedible. The Fertile Cresent, containing comparatively moist and fertile soil, had the olive, fig, and grape. These plants were among the easiest to cultivate out of all the wild fruit species. The Fertile Cresent was the center of food production in the world, the rise of agriculture, and one of the earliest places of independent domestication. It was the site of origin of many of the world's major crops and most of the major domesticated animals. Thoughout the world, there are only 14 species of big terrestrial mammals that were domesticated. For instance, the Fertile Cresent had four species: the goat, sheep, pig, and cow. These four species happened to be four out of the five major species of large domestic mammals. Domesticated animals were used for food, clothing, and transportation. The domestication of plants and animals held food supplies to maintain the food supplies, large sedentary societies, and technology. These things further progressed into food production, political organizations, ideas...
With the diagnosis of disease comes many life altering events. Someone’s world can be turned upside down at the moment it is recognized and these people have no choice but to adjust. Sometimes, the disease has the power to inhibit even the most simple activities, or in some lucky cases, inhibit almost none.
3. Jackson J. Spielvogel. Western Civilization Third Edition, A Brief History volume 1: to 1715. 2005 Belmont CA. Wadsworth Publishing
Europeans first touched the shores of America, Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and turnips had not moved west across the Atlantic, and New World crops such as maize, potatoes, and sweet potatoes had not traveled east to Europe. Americas, there were no livestock, all animals of Old World creation. Except for the llama, alpaca, dog, and guinea pig, the New World was not identical to the trained animals associated with the Old World, nor did it have the viruses associated with the Old World’s small populations of humans and such associated animals as chickens, cattle, black rats, and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Among these germs were those that brought smallpox, measles, chickenpox, influenza, malaria, and yellow fever. The Columbian exchange of crops affected both the Old World and the New. Amerindian crops that have crossed oceans for example, maize to China and the white potato to Ireland has been incentive to population growth in the Old World. The latter’s crops and livestock have had much the same outcome in the Americas. The full story of the trade is very long, so for the hope of shortness and sharpness let us focus on a certain area, the east...
1) Diamond, Jared, "Ch. 11: Lethal gift of livestock," in "Guns, Germs, and Steel" W.W. Norton & Co, 1997, ISBN 0-393-03891-2, pp. 195-214
Social Determinants of health is the “conditions in which people are born, live, work and age that affect their health” Healthypeople.gov. (2017). Social Determinants of Health | Healthy People 2020. [online] Available at: https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/social-determinants-of-health [Accessed 22 Sep. 2017]. The determinants of health are important because it helps create policies to make changes, as well as improving public health conditions by addressing the different health outcomes an individual can face and improving the need for healthier conditions. Healthy People 2020 organizes the determinants of health in both a social and physical determinant which has an impact on health.
Addiction can be defined as the use of a drug or stimulus that has unreasonably taken control of a person’s behaviour. (Scollo & Winstanley 2012). It is a serious and complex issue hence the social determinants of health need to be addressed to the community and be used to guide nurses with knowledge to use in the nursing practice. Addiction to drug use has contributed to thousands of deaths, social and family disruption, violence, crime and workplace issues. In 2013, over 40% of Australians consumed alcohol, smoked tobacco or used illicit drugs at risky levels making them more likely to become addicted. (Claydon et. al 2014) The population in remote areas were found to be, twice as likely to have an addiction to tobacco, alcohol and drugs
A person’s health along with the health of a community are influenced heavily by the social determinants of health. These determinants create a strong foundation for a healthy and proper development of a community (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2013). Further, a proper foundation will allow the children within the community to develop properly, which will foster their potential for intellectual and physical intelligence. This paper will explore the effects of healthy childhood development, personal health practices and coping skills, health services and income and social statuses with in the Maple Leaf neighbourhood. Further, this paper will explore how the above social determinants of health directly affect the students of St. Fidelis school. Lastly, this paper will explain how the rise in cavities within these children is an issue as well as approached to overcome this issue.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W. W.
William H. McNeill makes a monumental contribution to the knowledge of humanity in his book Plagues and Peoples. He looks at the history of the world from an ecological point of view. From this viewpoint the history of human civilization is greatly impacted by changing patterns of epidemic infection. Plagues and Peoples suggests that "the time scale of world history...should [be] viewed [through] the "domestication" of epidemic disease that occurred between 1300 and 1700" (page 232). "Domestication" is perceived "as a fundamental breakthrough, directly resulting from the two great transportation revolutions of that age - one by land, initiated by the Mongols, and one by sea, initiated by Europeans" (page 232). This book illustrates how man's environment and its resident diseases have controlled human migration, as well as societal successes and failures. McNeill discusses the political, demographical, and psychological effects of disease on the human race. He informs his audience that epidemics are still a viable threat to society, and warns of potential future consequences.
Hitler, Adolf. “Mein Kampf.” The Human Record . By Alfred J. Andrea and James H. Overfield. Vol. 2. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2011. 2 vols. 401-404.
The postcontact Indian was a far different creature than the pre-contact Indian, and the aberrations of those later societies can be laid to the effects of decimating diseases, and the pressures of war, alcohol, and technology.(Sale,321)
When looking back on history, it is evident to see that humans by nature are warriors. Humans often find themselves fighting mysterious battles against disguised enemies. Throughout history the earth has been afflicted with mysterious diseases, which tend to invisibly cause the preponderance of civilizations to perish. The evolution of infectious diseases has and always will provide challenges for humankind (Hoff, Smith, and Calisher 6-7). Over the course of time, humans gradually developed a preference to live in large urban settings. Urbanization and the cross-cultural interaction of civilizations have both strongly provoked widespread illness, which is known as an epidemic or pandemic based upon size. An epidemic is when a common disease affects a large number of people within a particular region (Lamb). A pandemic is similar to an epidemic but is even more widespread than an epidemic, and spreads throughout entire continents or even the world. Despite the slight variation in meaning, most pandemics are interchangeably denoted as epidemics (Friendlander 13-14). Epidemics and pandemics have formed the course of human history by inflicting lifestyle alterations and abruptly killing large masses of people. When one thinks of widespread disease it is easy to think that pandemics and epidemics are things of the past. Unfortunately, epidemics are commonly found today in poorer countries and major pandemics are still on the rise, such as the modern disease AIDS (Lampton 12-15). Nonetheless, epidemics and pandemics affect large portions of the world’s population; thus, these ongoing diseases will always influence the history of mankind because they force transformation amongst even the strongest civilizations.