{"id":518,"date":"2017-11-20T14:56:44","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T14:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/?p=518"},"modified":"2017-12-13T21:28:35","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T21:28:35","slug":"medical-advancements-in-the-1950s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/medical-advancements-in-the-1950s\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical Advancements in the 1950s"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Amanda Babbitt<\/p>\n

The 1950s were an important time for the advancement of medicine. Many large accomplishments took place, many of them keeping people alive. President Truman supported health care legislation in his Fair Deal. \u201cTruman called for more medical facilities, both to expand health care and to train new physicians, dentists, and nurses,\u201d (Dunnar 32-33). Truman also supported national health insurance. This was a very controversial part of his plan which was attacked by the American Medical Association. <\/p>\n

One of the widely known about things was the polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk. The polio epidemic had been sweeping the United States affecting so many people. Polio is a virus that is able to invade the person\u2019s brain and spinal cord causing paralysis. Jonas Salk was able to develop an injected vaccine for this virus. Although it was not completely effective it still played a large role in the beginning of wiping out this disease. Albert Sabin was able to develop an oral polio vaccine that was much more effective and more convenient but the later half of the decade was spent perfecting and testing it before it was put into use. <\/p>\n

During this decade, huge changes in cardiology were put into place. The first open heart surgery took place in 1954. This was able to happen because \u201cheart surgeons could stop the blood flow within the human body, allowing them to repair faulty hearts,\u201d (The 1950s Medicine and Health: Overview). Now that open heart surgeries were now possible, heart problems that had once lead to death were sometimes able to be fixed. <\/p>\n

During the 1950s the first birth control pill for women was tested widely. This pill called Enovid, was tested on women mainly in Puerto Rico. Although it took many people and a long process of development, Gregory Pincus and Margaret Sanger were the first to create the product in Worcester, Ma. In 1957 Enovid was \u201cput on the market for the treatment of gynecological disorders but was used off-label for birth control,\u201d (Buttar, Seward) until 1960 when it was approved by the FDA to be used to prevent pregnancy.

<\/a>

This is a photo of the Enovid pills. Unlike birth control pills today that come in a pack with pills separated out by day, these came in a normal pill bottle<\/em><\/p><\/div> <\/p>\n

Something that is extremely useful for many people to know today was discovered in the 1950s. Medical professionals found out that smoking cigarettes is remarkably detrimental to one\u2019s health. Cigarettes are specifically horrible for a person’s lungs. They are a large reason for the development of lung cancer. A large percent of the population today knows that cigarettes are very unhealthy and are sometimes the reason some people die. People know this today because of the research and discoveries made in the 1950s. <\/p>\n

Many major advances in the medical field are made every decade. A few large ones were made in the 1950s and it is clear to see that they had a huge impact on lives at the time and also lives now almost 70 years later. To see more things that were discovered or developed in the 50s or other decades this timeline<\/a> shows many important advances. <\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/strong><\/p>\n

Buttar, Aliya,, Seward, Sheraden, “Enovid: The First Hormonal Birth Control Pill”. Embryo Project Encyclopedia<\/em> (2009-01-20). ISSN: 1940-5030 <\/p>\n

Dunar, Andrew J. America in the Fifties<\/em>. Syracuse University Press, 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedicine and Madison Avenue.\u201d Duke Digital Collections, Duke University Libraries, library.duke.edu\/digitalcollections\/mma\/timeline\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The 1950s Medicine and Health: Overview.” UXL American Decades<\/em>, edited by Julie L. Carnagie, et al., vol. 6: 1950-1959, UXL, 2003, pp. 116-117. U.S. History in Context<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Amanda Babbitt The 1950s were an important time for the advancement of medicine. Many large accomplishments took place, many of them keeping people alive. President Truman supported health care legislation in his Fair Deal. \u201cTruman called for more medical facilities, both to expand health care and to train new physicians, dentists, and nurses,\u201d (Dunnar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-blogposts","tag-fall17"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":523,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions\/523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}