Min Bae
University of St Andrews
Title: The holistic tradition in British medical history and E. W. Lane’s medical theorisation of hygiene
Biography
Min Bae is currently writing a thesis entitled ‘A Medical View of Hygiene in Britain during the 1850s to the 1880s through a Study of E. W. Lane’s Hygienic Medicine’. He used to be a dentist (D.D.S, Yonsei University, 1999 and Master of Clinical Dentistry in Clinical Orthodontics, Hallym University, 2008), but changed his career and has worked as a history teacher at Soongeui Girls’ high school, in Seoul, South Korea. After receiving his second master’s degree (in Medical Humanities and History of Medicine, Seoul National University, South Korea, in 2014), he has taken a leave from his school for study (currently a PhD candidate in Modern History at the University of St Andrews, UK, from October, 2014). His academic interest areas are medical professionalism, an intellectual history of medicine, and the medical market.
Abstract
In British medical history, the nineteenth century was the time when the medical profession was engulfed in constant divisions and disputes. This medical factionalism was partially related to the fluctuating trends of the mainstream medical theories on disease and therapeutics. Medical theorisation particularly in the mid-nineteenth century was extremely controversial regarding the tensions between rationalism and empiricism, or holism and reductionism. E. W. Lane (MD, Edinburgh, 1853), Charles Darwin’s consultant and George Combe’s friend, formulated his own medical philosophies in his book Hydropathy: Or Hygienic Medicine (1859). As hydropathy was adopted as his main therapeutic system, his medical philosophy was ultimately intended to raise the importance of hygiene. In the nineteenth century, the traditional concept of hygiene was going through significant changes, creating the new separate spheres of personal hygiene and public hygiene, both in medical and social aspects. Hygiene for Lane was also no longer the ancient form of medical conceptions that had often been represented by the ‘six non-naturals’. He consistently emphasised the role of physiology as an effort to provide ‘the rational grounds of hygienic medicine’. The analysation of Lane’s medical thinking and the terms that he used, such as the vital force, the quality of the blood and the laws of health, reveal how he tried to harmonise diverse dimensions of medical traditions and contemporary theories. Hence, his medical theory has a certain historical meaning, as it encapsulates the mid-nineteenth century effort of medical rationalism to reintegrate the challenged part of the holistic medical paradigm against the medical interventionism of that time. My argument is that personal hygiene became significantly professionalised and institutionalised through such attempts during the second half of the nineteenth century, leading to the development of a newly organised alternative medical system, naturopathy, at the end of the century.
Natasha Marianne Setiabakti
University of Indonesia ,Indonesia
Title: The Effect of Black Tea Consumption in Reducing Blood Pressure
Biography
Natasha Setiabakti has completed her medical doctor from Universitas Indonesia (2017) and honours degree from Monash University (2015). She is now doing her social service internship in rural areas in Indonesia. She has interest in the cardiovascular system and has two papers in reputed international journal in that topic. Apart from that she is also interested in social and charity work, she had attended more than 30 social works nationally.
Abstract
Hypertension has been the leading risk factor to various cardiovascular diseases. Worldwide, more than one in six people suffer from hypertension. Theory had suggested that black tea, a very popular beverage around the globe, has a positive effect for cardiovascular protection and can reduce blood pressure. Thus, this report focuses on the effect of black tea consumption on blood pressure. Internet-based literature search was done through three electronic databases (Ovid Medline, PubMed, and EBSCOHost. Using the keyword “black tea†and “hypertensionâ€, applying various filters and reviewing the abstract, 2 promising studies were used in this report. One meta-analysis by Liu, et al showed that long-term consumption of black tea significantly reduces the mean average of systolic and diastolic BP. Similar result was also reported by Grassi, et al that stated that intake of two glasses of black tea for eight consecutive days reduces the BP. Black tea had significantly reduces the BP and can be recommended to hypertensive patient. However, consumption of black tea cannot replace anti-hypertensive drug due to its small effect.
