Bladder Cancer Treatment Is Rooted In History!

A common ailment throughout time is the blockage of bladders due to stones or venereal diseases such as syphilis.

In my case blockages have been due to bleeding into the bladder, caused in the main by rupture of blood vessels in my much enlarged prostate gland, the blood then forms clots in the bladder which block the urethra causing extreme pain as fluid builds up in the bladder.

Only intervention can solve this problem.

Medieval ingenuity led to the invention and use of the urinary catheter, a metal rod inserted through the urethra into the bladder, in the 1300s.

But there have always been surgical procedures to remove stones by way of cutting since ancient times, from the Egyptians in 4900 BCE to the Ancient Greeks via Hippocrates; all extremely painful.

There is even a portrait of a Jan de Doot, Dutch blacksmith, holding an egg-sized bladder stone he himself cut out in 1652. Very grisly indeed.

It is interesting to note that investigation of mummified remains of Pharonic Egypt are thought to show signs of prostate cancer in many cases though I would contend that in view of the young age of morbidity this may not be prostate cancer per se but is more likely to be bladder cancer.

This would be consistent with the belief that one of the causes of bladder cancer may be exposure to trace arsenic on a regular basis – be this from such sources as ground arsenics or arsenic used in the preservation of woor to which carpenters can be widely exposed.

However let us not forget that in Pharonic Egypt arsenic was widely used in cosmetics which were themselves used to lighten the skin for fashion and sociological reasons.