Best plant ever or just one of many?

The contributor of the day is an object that is small in stature and, green in color. You can buy it in stores such as Home Depot and Lowes. However, when you look at it around your home you most likely won’t stand there and say, “So this is what has my skin so soft.” So may I present the contributor of the day, Aloe Vera (A.barbadensis L.), a small plant of many uses. One of Mother Nature’s most famous plants, that I personally use the most out of any other in my life and maybe yours too. Aloe Vera is a plant that has been used for over thousands of years.

 Aloe Vera is grown in warm climates, which is why it makes sense that most of the species of Aloe are native to Africa (Chopra, 576). Early records record uses of aloe as medicine for skin and other disorders in the ancient times (Iqubal, M. Khan, Z. Khan, 1). The earliest pharmaceutical use of Aloe Vera recorded was in ancient Sumeria 1750 B.C (Chopra, 575). Early Egyptians referred to this plant as, “the plant of immortality,” because of its many health healing abilities. The use of Aloe Vera today has become both cosmetic and medical. In this day and age we have found a way to turn Aloe Vera into gel. In this state the plant can be used on burns and ulcers.

Aloe Vera is widely known for its uses on the skin. Why is Aloe Vera so useful on the skin you may ask? Aloe Vera has properties that allows rapid healing of the epithelial tissue (Iqubal, M. Khan, Z. Khan, 1). As I was searching for the history and uses of the Aloe Vera plant I come across a wellness site where a woman posted a list of forty uses of Aloe Vera. To see this list will take your breath away because I for one could only name at the most three uses of Aloe Vera and the first one would obviously be the fact that it is in lotion.  Aloe Vera has had such a positive impact in the advancement of medicine. When first used by the ancient Sumerians it was used to relieve stomach aches and nausea, then as time progressed it was used as ointment on burn wounds.  

Now Aloe Vera is not only being used in medical field but now in cosmetology, because of this discovery there came my love of lotion and other skin products. Though this is a very help and giving plant we as human can cause it to harm us. As we have power plants and factories and etc. we contaminate the soil in which the plant gathers nutrients. If the plant takes in too much pollution and in turn is used for medicine in a human the beneficial nutrients become toxic to us. With that knowledge to keep the Aloe Vera plant around we must take care of the plants soil home so that in the future when we need the plant it will be able to treat us instead of poison us.

A. K. Chopra, et al. "Concentration Of The Heavy Metals In Aloe Vera L. (Aloe Barbadensis Miller) Leaves Collected From Different Geographical Locations Of India." Annals Of Biological Research 2.6 (2011): 575-579. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.

IQBAL, SABA, M. MASROOR A. KHAN, and ZEBA H. KHAN. "Combined Application Of Tria And Potassium Stimulates The Gel Content, Morphological And Biochemical Characteristics Of Aloe Vera." Golden Research Thoughts 2.6 (2012): 1-6. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.

The Main Man

To start off my blog about contributors to medicine I thought it was appropriate to begin with Hippocrates, “the Father of Medicine.”  Hippocrates was a Greek physician. He practiced medicine all around Greece. His first light of fame came from creating the medical school on the Greek island Cos. While working at the medical school Hippocrates created about seventy documents on the prevention diagnosis and treatment of diseases (Schneider, 5). This medical work was called Corpus Hippocraticum.  This is kind of like the nursing diagnosis reference manual textbook I have now. This manual has over a thousand pages of different nursing diagnosis not medical diagnosis. A nurse cannot give a patient a medical diagnosis only a physician can. It tells you the signs and symptoms that a patient can or will be exhibiting. The textbook present ways to cure or control the diagnosis the patient is given. The manual gives short term and long term goals for the diagnosis to achieve for the benefit of the patient. So, yes this work by Hippocrates has a rather large influence on the medical field all over the world. Hippocrates established the basis of a medical ethic code. The Hippocratic Oath is recited by new physicians and nurses at school graduations. Only it is a modernized version now because the original version mentions abortion and assisted in suicide. Here is the link to both the modern and original versions of the oath http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html . The teaching style of Hippocrates has been used and passed down through the years. He taught students that having detailed observations was a critical part of diagnosing a patient (Schneider, 5). This is actually very important in a physician and nurses job.  The first thing a nurse does when he or she opens the door to a patients room is make sure they are breathing and not bleeding. After which she begins the verbal communication with the patient. Hippocrates believed that the knowledge of science could be used as a resource to figure out what causes diseases. Hippocrates taught, “Proper diet, fresh air, a moderate climate, and attention to habits and living condition were necessary for healthy living (Schneider, 5).” From these teachings alone anyone can see that Hippocrates was ahead of his time. Proper diet is a continual issue of this day and age. It may have not been that much of a problem back then because Chipotle and McDonalds were not around the corner or on every corner of the roads in Greece. Although the moderate climate is a bit out of our physical abilities to control seeing how for the past two days we have woken up it has been two degrees outside. Hippocrates made a large impact in the lives of medical workers and patients. His influence and will forever be around and never forgotten.

Schneider, Dona, and David E. Lilienfeld. Public Health Volume 1, From The Age Of Hippocrates To The Progressive Era : The Development Of A Discipline. n.p.: Rutgers University Press, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 23 Jan. 2013.

Start up/Welcome

It was very difficult coming up with a blog topic for myself. I don’t blog; I never have and probably will not after this class. Blogging is not a bad thing to me, it is just something I was never fond of. I do however use social networks. I have a Facebook and Twitter but rarely do I ever stay on one topic and I think that’s the point. I could post a picture of me watching TV and then in another status post write I am going to make French fries. The point is one post for the most part is never related to the next post. In blogging or having a blog you are focusing in on one single topic. I personally found this hard because what I have to say about a particular topic I can get it out in a two to three page essay and be done with the single topic all together because that’s what I am use to. I never really liked stretching a topic out like the high school graduation requirement of a five full page research paper. Really not fun. Through the many Google searches I did of “blog post topic” every single pulled response said the same thing, “Write about something that interest you.” From that simple and annoying advice I began to think about all the things that interest me. I thought I could write about me becoming a nurse but I knew that I could not make sixteen blog posts about that topic without repeating myself a few times throughout the many weeks. Also, I started my long track to becoming a registered nurse started in high school so the majority of what I said would be about stuff not really relevant to nursing at times. The next idea I had was to talk about four places I wanted to travel to and write four blogs about each place but I could not put any personal comments in to the posts because I have never been to any of the places. The research I did of the places and blogs I did find that I could have used as resource in the blogs had the options of other people so I said that would not work either. Finally I thought I need to just stick to something that has to do with the health field, because this is where majority of my interest lies. This is where I came up with the idea of “Contributors to Medicine.” The one post I really was anticipating writing about is the use of snake venom. Along with the research I found many other species you thought didn’t do anything for humans that actually do. I personally find this topic very interesting and I hope that you will too.