How come noone had autism or Alzheimer's 100 years ago?

Question

How come noone had autism or Alzheimer's 100 years ago?

Answer 1

they did, they just didnt know what it was so the children were said to be mad, and the ones with alzheimer's were just said to be suffering from old age. everyone wanted to be normal and no one wanted to understand that people had special needs xx they were just locked up...

Answer 2

I think the way of our lifestyle has a lot to do with it!  I mean, look around at all of the obese people.  Those people have a great risk of getting Alzheimer's sooner.  And autism I think is from parents not having discipline like they used to.

Answer 3

how come we had no cures for many diseases 100 years ago?

it's called medical advances.

we are much smarter than we were 100 years ago.

in other words... it was around... we just didn't know what it was.

Answer 4

Because the main factor that caused the autism epidemic started in 1992.

http://fourfactortheory.blogspot.com/

1. 1992: Infants Supine (back) sleep and pacifiers inhibiting slow wave sleep

2. 1965: Beginning of 500% decline in tonsillectomies for children

3. 1990’s: Increase in “container culture” – i.e. car seats that become stroller seats

4. Increase in air pollution causing increased respiratory distress and less slow wave sleep

These 4 Factors Coalesced in the 1990’s to cause the Autism Epidemic

Note: Males are more susceptible to Upper Airway Pharyngeal Collapse by a 4:1 ratio compared to females.

Answer 5

They had a blanket term back then... crazy

Answer 6

People did have autism 100 years ago, it was just not recognized under the term autism and very little was known about it. People who had it were just thought to be mentally challenged, possessed or eccentric back then, when nobody understood the condition yet.

I don't know about Alzheimer's. I'm sure it existed before too and was just not known well, but longevity has also increased a lot in the past few decades and now that people are living longer I guess age-related illnesses like Alzheimer's are more common than before.

Answer 7

because 100 years ago people wasnt sleeping with there fmily members

Answer 8

doctors weren't aware of the conditions then because they hadn't been understoof, so they couldn't diagnose them and therefore record them

Answer 9

They most certainly did exist 100 years ago, and well before that. In fact, the much revered Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) that is loved by bible-bashers describes a child with autism in his writings, along with the advice that such a child had "no soul" and therefore should be drowned in the nearest river. Many such children were abandoned in forests and this has even happened in more recent times. Some survived and were labeled "feral children" - the assumption being they were withdrawn and without speech because they had been brought up in the wild - in fact these children were left out to die because they had those symptoms to begin with. That was the accepted, Christian way to treat people back then. I'm so glad for my friends and loved ones on the spectrum that we live in a more rational (tho still a bit loopy) world.

Answer 10

People still did have those diseases, doctors just didn't know enough about them to properly diagnose them.  But there is a lot of speculation that what is called autism is really a bunch of disorders, and is perhaps very much over diagnosed.  And with Alzheimers, they have yet to figure out the cause of it, but some people suspect that environmental agents could be the cause, and perhaps these environmental agents weren't as prevalent 100 years ago.

And by the way, children having autsim has NOTHING to do with how their parents discipline them.  That is so far from the truth.

Answer 11

It's a bit like a lot of things, they were probably outcast, put in freak shows or labelled as the village idiots. Obviously now the medical field has advanced we know about different conditions etc. and hopefully don't treat people that way anymore. After all, i've that the salem witch trials were believed to have been caused by women having attacks of hysteria rather than actually being possessed, times change.

Answer 12

I think that because we live longer the effects are more prevalent now.  When people died at an early age, how could they develop Alzheimers?

Answer 13

i belive there were cases as such..however, the development in medical practice together in coordination with allied sciences, they were unable to diagnose and/or report such diseases

Answer 14

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=autism+...