This Medical Life

In the 16th century, a curse was foretold about the Scottish MacCrimmon clan that they would cease to be the official (bag) pipers of the chiefs of the Clan MacLeod and would be forced to leave the I…

While I amputated one man’s thigh, there lay at one time thirteen, all beseeching to be taken next… It was a strange thing to feel my clothes stiff with blood, and my arms powerless with the exertion…

This Medical Life is a podcast for GPs, specialists, allied health professionals, and medical students but in this episode we share content related to the Australian Podcast Awards and talkback radio…

Intestinal problems are as ancient as human’s themselves. However, the first case was only documented in the 18th century by a great Italian anatomist Giovanni Battista Morgagni, of a 20 year old man…

The sun has always been special to us. Most cultures, particularly in ancient times, worshipped it as a God to be feared. In modern society, we recognise both the potential life-affirming and life-da…

In the 19th century, a French doctor recognised a subset of patients with joint disease that didn’t fit the traditional diagnoses of gout or osteoarthritis. These patients were predominately female w…

The first ever recorded blood pressure was done by Stephen Hales in 1733 with a glass tube inserted into the artery of a horse. It would be well over a century for us to develop a non-invasive techni…

Streptococcus pyogenes is a critical micro-organism for every doctor to know about.

It is a gram positive coccus that grows in chains and has the potential to cause significant morbidity and even mor…

Marfan syndrome is a disease of connective tissue. Patients who have this condition often have a tall stature, long slender arms, legs and fingers but it is the connective tissue in and around organs…

There are three known transmissible cancers in the mammalian world. Surprisingly, two of the three are found in Tasmanian Devils. They are called the Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) and one Devil …

Ancient Egyptians called it podagra (foot-trap), Hippocrates the unwalkable disease, and the 17th and 18th century it became known as the Disease of Kings. Gout has long been associated with rich foo…

Marijuana has a complex history. It seems every society has grappled with balancing the positive and negative effects. Historical records indicate that Ancient Chinese farmers were the first to grow …

In 1770, in the small German town of Bonn, a child was born that would impact the world on a par with great emperors and conquerors. Yet, it was not with a sword or bloodshed but with imagination and…

In the 1930s, outbreaks of a mysterious febrile illness occurred with abattoir workers in Queensland in Australia. Physicians investigated these patients but no cause was able to be identified. To co…

Pauline Gross was a seamstress in 1895 who had seen family members die at an early age from cancer. At the time, one of her clients was a pathologist by the name of Dr Aldred Scott Warthin and confid…

In 1951, Australian anthropologists reported on a unique neurodegenerative disease from Papua New Guinea. The natives called it ‘Kuru’ which meant to tremble or to be afraid and it certainly struck f…

In 1924, a previously well 20 year old woman presented to hospital with a headache and general fatigue. Her condition rapidly deteriorated and she died in 6 days. Over 6000 cases occurred within 1924…

In 1951, two Haematology fellows, Dr William Harrington and Dr James Hollingsworth, agreed upon an experiment. They would ask the next patient with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) to donate…

In 1347, the European world encountered one of history’s greatest tragedies: the great plague. Today, it is known by many names: the black death, the black plague, or the great mortality. Whatever na…

Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is an under-recognised genetic condition that causes elevated cholesterol in patients and affects approximately 1/250 people in Australia. Approximately 100,000 Au…