[History of conservative spinal therapy]. / Geschichte der konservativen Wirbelsäulentherapie.

Hippocrates was the first to intensively describe and document the principles for the treatment of injuries and diseases of the spine. His principles for abrupt treatment of the "hunchback" were followed by physicians even up to the end of the nineteenth century. The non-operative treatment of scoliosis was improved in the beginning of the sixteenth century by the introduction of mechanical devices that started the development of corsets which are still in use in modern scoliosis treatment. Stretching beds were only in temporary use. With the beginning of the nineteenth century gymnastics and physiotherapy became more and more important. Manual therapy was exercised by physicians until the late Middle Ages. After a long period of time in which bonesetters and other laymen performed manual therapy it was professionalized at the end of the nineteenth century again by the introduction of osteopathy and chiropractic. In Germany the development and introduction of manual treatment started relatively late in the twentieth century, predominantly as manual medicine.

Conservative Treatment of Stress Urinary Incontinence In Women: A 10-Year (2004-2013) Scoping Review of the Literature.

Stress urinary incontinence is a serious threat to the well-being of women world-wide. In this scoping review of the literature, we examined the most prominent research foci between the years 2004 and 2013. In this article, conservative treat-ment is operationalized as any non-surgical or non-pharmacological treatment modalities that could be carried out by specially trained nurses, physiotherapists, or physicians to treat stress urinary incontinence in women. The two most frequently described or systematically investigated treatment options identified in our review were 1) strengthening pelvic floor muscles with pelvic floor muscle training, including biofeedback and weighted vaginal cones; and 2) the use of intravaginal support devices, such as incontinence pessaries. Other treatment modalities were also explored in the literature review, such as intraurethral devices, behavioral and lifestyle interventions, products, and alternative therapies, such as acupuncture and acupressure. However, the focus of this article is on the two most frequently described options.

[Strength training at the beginning of the 19th century]. / Les thérapies de la vigueur au début du XIXème siècle.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the therapies of strength had part task to revive vital energy and thus to restore the body forces. Under the method assigned with this objective, there were the baths, body exercises and a continuation of preservation recommended by hygiene. On a general level, the doctor had in hearth to harder the body and to make it robust and healthy. He is to the sick of the head could benefit from this care. Electrification made demonstration of its curative action and its interest to treat the languid state. Considered under this angle, strength could not be then the prerogative of the only muscles.

Nineteenth century exercise clinics for the treatment of scoliosis.

Scoliosis is the abnormal lateral curvature and rotation of the spine. In the past this deformity has been linked with moral depravity, as in the case of Richard III. Treatment for scoliosis began with Hippocrates's use of boards and axial distortion. Today, bracing and surgery are used either to correct the deformity or to prevent further progression. In the past, however, exercise regimens have been used in the belief that strengthening back muscles would reduce curvature progression. This approach was pioneered by Per Henrik Ling in the early nineteenth century and was continued by his followers Mathius Roth and Franz Berwald and, most notably, by Gustav Zander. Even today a few clinics, particularly in Eastern Europe, still use exercise in the treatment of scoliosis. Whether it is effective remains debatable, but even if progression is not prevented the patient's general health will benefit from an exercise regimen.

The history of "Exercise Is Medicine" in ancient civilizations.

In 2007, the American College of Sports Medicine, with endorsement from the American Medical Association and the Office of the Surgeon General, launched a global initiative to mobilize physicians, healthcare professionals and providers, and educators to promote exercise in their practice or activities to prevent, reduce, manage, or treat diseases that impact health and the quality of life in humans. Emerging from this initiative, termed Exercise Is Medicine, has been an extensively documented position stand by the American College of Sports Medicine that recommended healthy adults perform 150 min of moderate dynamic exercise per week. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the foundation for this global initiative and its exercise prescription for health and disease prevention has roots that began in antiquity more than two millennia ago. Individuals and concepts to remember are that Susruta of India was the first "recorded" physician to prescribe moderate daily exercise, Hippocrates of Greece was the first "recorded" physician to provide a written exercise prescription for a patient suffering from consumption, and the global influence of Galen from Rome combined with his recommendation on the use of exercise for patients in the management of disease prevailed until the 16th century. Historically intertwined with these concepts was exercise being advocated by select physicians to minimize the health problems associated with obesity, diabetes, and inactivity.

Exercises in therapy--neurological gymnastics between Kurort and hospital medicine, 1880-1945.

This article focuses on the convergence of sports and medicine in the practice of neurological gymnastics (Übungstherapie) in the German-speaking world at the turn of the twentieth century. It shows how Übungstherapie first found receptive ground within the peripheral medical space of the spa town (Kurort). Übungstherapie appealed to Kurort patients because, as a form of neurological gymnastics, it drew on the cultural capital of the broader German gymnastics movement. Only later did Übungstherapie find a place in more mainstream medicine, recasting itself as an integral part of neurological practice. Recuperating the therapeutic aspects of neurology, this article suggests that the development of Übungstherapie contributed to the formation of neurology as an independent specialty, distinct from psychiatry and internal medicine. It thus demonstrates the importance of expanding the scope of historical study beyond the traditional boundaries of the mainstream in order to understand clinical, institutional, and disciplinary change.

[Multiple sclerosis and physical activity: an historical perspective]. / Multiple Sklerose und körperliche Aktivität : Eine historische Betrachtung.

Uncertainties concerning the pathology of multiple sclerosis have in the past led to numerous theories about the cause and therapy of the disease. In the last 40 years technological progress and the use of scientific research methods have contributed to a considerably enlarged body of medical and scientific knowledge, a process that has not yet come to an end. The attitude towards physical activity has also changed tremendously over time. There was a paradigm shift from the fear of triggering and aggravating the disease towards therapeutic benefits of physical activity and exercise. The first evidence for beneficial effects of exercise on symptoms and the course of the disease originated in the 1960s; however, a growing scientific interest in the topic was not recognizable until the 1990s when the number of exercise studies finally started to increase. Nowadays, the positive effects of physical activity and exercise are well established; nevertheless, high-quality research reports are still lacking. As a consequence there are still many unresolved questions concerning specific training effects and recommendations.

The development of cardiac rehabilitation: a historical critical approach.

Cardiac rehabilitation is an interdisciplinary and multidimensional process aimed at preventing and containing cardiovascular mortality, morbidity and disability, and promoting health in subjects with cardiocirculatory pathologies. A body of scientific evidence is today available with regard to the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation in terms of the containment of the progression of atherosclerosis, the increase in physical work ability, the reduction in symptomatology, the improvement in psychological well being and social re-adaptation, and the lowering in hospitalization rates and in recurrent clinical cardiac events. Cardiac rehabilitation derives its origin from the application of physical activity to the therapy of ischemic heart disease, and in this paper the historical evolution of the concept of angina pectoris and myocardial infarction as also the major progress in therapeutic exercise are discussed. Cardiac rehabilitation has become through time a multi-faceted process implemented in hospitals, in outpatient clinics and at home in a variety of models. However, recent data indicate that, in the USA, no more than 20% of eligible patients per year enter cardiac rehabilitation programs, and in Europe no more than 30% participate in them. The historical perception of cardiac rehabilitation provides knowledge of the fact that, through a long and articulated process, this health intervention has achieved relevant medical and social results and it also generates the awareness of the further advantages to be obtained in future cardiovascular patients.

[Gymnastics and therapeutic gymnastics in 19th century Hungary]. / Torna és gyógytorna a 19. században Magyarországon.

Gymnastics as a way of healing and of preserving health spread in Hungary--almost exclusively among higher classes--only in the first half of the 19th century. The movement was inspired by naturopathic theories of the time, first of all by Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland's macrobiotics, by Vinzenz Priessnitz's hydrotherapy and by his healing gymnastics. Gymnastics has been utilized from the 30ies by a new bough of medicine, orthopaedy. The so called Swedish Gymnastics invented by Per Henrik Ling and by his son Hjalmar Ling or the method of the German gymnast Adolf Spiess were well known in Hungary as well. The pediatrist Agost Schöp-Merei founded the first Institute for Gymnastics in Pest in 1835. As orthopaedy developed, gymnastics was more and more utilized in curing locomotor disorders. Gymnastics however stood in close connection with hydropathy as well. Several institutes for hydropathy and gymnastics were founded in the 50ies and 60ies throughout the country. The most popular of them were those of Károly Siklósy and Sámuel Batizfalvy. Preventive gymnastics gained popularity only in the second half of the 19th century, as 1830 the French gymnast Ignatius Clair moved to Pest and founded the "Pester gymnastische Schule" (Gymnastics School of Pest). This private school flourished till 1863. The Gymnastic Federation of Pest (later National Gymnastics Federation), the first Hungarian sport club was founded in 1866. Tivadar Bakody played an important role in its creation. Gymnastics and sport at the beginning were closely connected with fire-service, so gymnastics clubs often functioned also as fire-guard-bodies. In the 70ies and 80ies the social basis of sport movement was slowly broadened out. The end of the century saw already 44 gymnastics-clubs in Hungary united in a single union, the National Federation of Gymnasts, which organized the education of the profession as well. The trend of development didn't cease up to the Great War. This time the movement was headed by Sándor Hegedus and by Albert Berzeviczy, latter being also the president of the Hungarian Olympic Committee.

A brief history of pulmonary rehabilitation.

Pulmonary rehabilitation is widely accepted as effective therapy for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This paper presents a brief (and somewhat subjective) history of pulmonary rehabilitation, and stresses the development of the exercise component. Until the middle of the 20th century, patients with COPD were advised to avoid the dyspnea that activity brings. Barach can be credited with positing that patients with COPD should strive to be more active. In the 1960s Petty created the multi-disciplinary team that was found to be effective in delivering pulmonary rehabilitation. In the 1980s doubts surfaced as to the ability of rehabilitative exercise to improve muscle function in COPD, but in the 1990s studies showed that well-designed exercise programs caused beneficial physiologic adaptations. The current decade has yielded studies that exploited those insights to design interventions that boost the effectiveness of rehabilitative exercise.

History and principles of exercise-based therapy: how they inform our current treatment.

Exercises designed to strengthen muscles involved in respiration, phonation, and articulation play a key role in the remediation of voice and swallowing disorders. This article presents exercise physiology principles that are beginning to be used by a small group of speech and swallowing researchers to undergird their efficacy-based studies of exercise-based therapy. Three principles--contraction type, task specificity, and overload--are used to compare past exercise-based therapies with present therapies. Comparisons are made between today's methods and Oskar Guttmann's (1893) principles for strengthening muscles of respiration, Emil Froeschels' (1944) therapy to improve laryngeal function, and the myofunctional therapy of the 1960s to improve swallowing and articulation.

Male pelvic floor: history and update.

Our understanding of the male pelvic floor has evolved over more than 2,000 years. Gradually medical science has sought to dispel ancient myths and untruths. The male pelvic floor has many diverse functions. Importantly, it helps to support the abdominal contents, maintains urinary and fecal continence, and plays a major role in gaining and maintaining penile erection. Weakness of the male pelvic floor muscles may cause urinary and fecal incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Function may be restored in each of these areas by a comprehensive pelvic floor muscle training program. Spasm of the pelvic floor muscles may produce pain and require relaxation techniques. Additional research is needed to add further evidence to our knowledge base.

[The fight against tuberculosis and developments in public health from 1890 to 1930 in Italy]. / La nascita dei sanatori e lo sviluppo socio-sanitario in Europa ed in Italia. La lotta alla tubercolosi dal periodo post-risorgimentale al 1930.

The author presents the developments in society and public health that paved the way, thanks to the birth of social and scientific associations and later to state intervention, for the establishment of hospitals for tuberculosis in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century. From 1890 onwards many fruitful meetings, conferences and debates ultimately led to the passing of a specific law on public health care; in 1927 this law covered about half the population. The First World War was undoubtedly the prime cause that stopped the downward trend in mortality and morbidity from the tuberculosis epidemic in the early 20th century. Early on, Bologna, together with other cities in Tuscany and Lombardy, developed plans for therapy (i.e. hospitals for tuberculosis) and prevention (i.e. holiday camps). However, in Italy in the 1930s tuberculosis continued to be a major problem despite such improvements in public health. In Europe, Germany was the nation that pioneered the fight against tuberculosis by social, scientific and legislative means. Since 1883 there had been a specific law for insurance against illnesses and a network of sanatoria had been established.