Is the world's oldest disease that affected humans en masse TB or leprosy or smallpox or.... (and I don't mean the cold or flu)
oh and before you say trauma isnt a disease some definitions from google: Definitions of disease on the Web (not posted the ones which related to extranious things like songs and TV episodes): -an impairment of health or a condition of abnormal functioning -A disease is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions and can be deadly. It is also defined as a way of the body harming itself in an abnormal way, associated with specific symptoms and signs. http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=...WKr_z4BA&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title oh and if you dont like that one then "shock"
You can be such a tool. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Yeah, ok, thanks for your less than valuable input. Trauma and shock as diseases...uh-huh. duly noted.
well it is, get over it. Anyway if you want to know what the oldest PATHOGEN is who knows, it would have to be a virus because once apon a time we were all bacteria so bacterial infections wouldnt have been possable. as far as the human population is concered TB is very old to the point that they have found egyption mummies with evidence of TB infection but as we have very poor epidemological data pre 1800's and no tissue\blood samples its very hard to give you the answer you want.
actually the oldest pathogen would have to be mitocondrial bacteria because without the wide spread infection by that early in development none of us would even be alive
Why don’t you mean cold or flu? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! That’s a very odd specification because the various picornaviruses and coronaviruses that are the causes of the “common cold” are almost certainly the answer to your question.
I do not know the name and am not sure it is strictly a "diesase" but very likely the oldest known "malidy" is one Lucy suffered from. I don't think any one can beat 3.18 million years old record of a "disease" Lucy must have been a good looking or strong woman as she very likely ate a lot of liver. Liver tend to concentrate vitamine A. An excess of that will cause certain scaring of the bones where the ligaments attach - probably some chronic pain. Lucy looked something like this: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Beautiful ain’t she. Read more at: http://archaeology.about.com/od/lterms/qt/lucy.htm
Arthritis, rheumatism, lumbar spine problems or RSI, at a guess--think of all those women leaning down over querns, grinding corn to flour; physical evidence of lumbar spine problems has been found in many ancient female skeletons. The ancient Parthians had what they called the 'Parthian Shot'--which is BTW where we get the phrase 'parting shot'--where they would turn around in their saddles as they were riding away from an enemy, and send him the gift of a final arrow. So I daresay they had the world's first bad-back specialists to look after their soldiers...Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Alternately there'd be rickets, caused by vitamin D deficiency--dark skin not allowing enough Vit-D to form--which would have afflicted the original settlers of ice-age Europe as they came up from Africa (and probably afflicted the pre-Neanderthals as well, because they also came from Africa to Europe) Another earlier problem would've been hypervitaminosis--poisoning from too many vitamins--caused by a too-rich meat diet. Here's a link to the symptoms of the various types of illness... http://www.patient.uk./showdoc/40001604/
Very good post Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Most likely, though, the earliest disease was something we adapted to. If given enough time organisms usually adapt to one-another so as to not cause/contract a disease.
With adaptation, the disease adapts to the host, becoming milder and less lethal in its effects even if it's utterly ruthless in its initial attack. Also, those people who survive their brush with a disease live on to harbour the milder form of the pathogen, and in surviving they pass on the genes for resistence to their offspring. Thus, in turn, the later generations become more and more resiliant to the attacks of the originally murderous pathogen--look at the history of disease and its effects on the Amerindian Empires, or the Roman Empire in the 3rd and 4th Century, when big epidemics wiped out millions. Now those same diseases still afflict millions each year, I'd guess; but I'll say they haven't brought down any empires lately.
That's true, I stand corrected. But you wouldn't say that there were diseases out there that have since disappeared ?
because I figured those two would be it and it seemed easier to exclude them than to ask for the 3rd, 4th oldest. Then if I asked for the 3rd oldest, Asguard would list all the kinds of flu and then say I needed to ask for the 112th oldest, etc. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! So it just seemed easier to say not the cold or flu.
ooo, never thought of that. That would have to be fairly high on the list. Wouldn't a low sugar diet make it rarer than it is today?
