Matter Of Life And Death

Magic Moments and Dark Hours in the History of Medicine

A Matter of Life and Death is a riveting new 4-part documentary that chronicles 5000 years in the history of medicine, telling the story of those "magic moments" of groundbreaking discovery along with the "dark hours" when medicine takes a turn in the wrong direction.

From the struggles and triumphs against such deadly killers as smallpox, tuberculosis and the plague through the contemporary challenges of deadly new viruses, this fascinating and informative documentary is filled with tales of courageous doctors breaking social taboos and performing risky experiments in which they put their own lives in jeopardy.

Each part depicts one of the four periods of human life from infancy to old age and is filled with tales of how the typical medical challenges of that stage have been treated since the dawn of medicine. The First Breath focuses on birth, childhood and youth; The Wild Years is devoted to the years following the awakening of sexuality; Mid-Life covers the family and middle age, and Aging and Death examines old age, infirmity and death.

The First Breath:
Pregnancies With Complications
Saving The Premature Infant
The Scourge Of Smallpox
The Breakthroughs Of Louis Pasteur
The Fight Against Tuberculosis
X-Rays And Seeing Into The Human Body

The Wild Years:
The Birth Control Pill Revolution
Syphilis - Cupid´s Poison Arrow
The Rise of AIDS
Searching For The Human Seed
Battlefield Medicine
From Bone Saws And Wound Clamps
Ether, Chloroform And Laughing Gas

Mid-Life:
The Inner Workings Of The Heart
The Deadly Clotting Of Blood
Artificial Kidneys And Dialysis
The Battle Against Diabetes
Unraveling The Stomach Ulcer Mystery
Drugs From Alchemy To Pharmacy
The Miracle Of Penicillin

Aging And Death:
Life Saving Heart Transplants
200 Years Of Cancer Research
Radiation And Chemotherapy
The Fight Against Blindness
Mapping The Brain
Alzheimer´s - The Disease Of The 21st Century
DNA And Gene Therapy

Upplagd i sortimentet: 19 September, 2007