Pediatric endocrine diseases in pre-Hispanic Aztecs.
Aztec medical and religious knowledge derived from Olmecs (800 BC), Teotihuacans (100 BC) and Toltecs (1100-1521 AC); however, there is no unique source that accurately presents Aztec medicine. Sahagfin combines naturalism and religion but not magic ("First Memorials", "Matritense Codex", "Florentine Codex" and "General History of New Spain"); Hernández gives a naturalistic image but is full of mistakes ("Natural History of the New Spain"); Badiano tries to match Aztecs with contemporary Europeans and with the first century medicine of the Romans ("Badiano Codex"), and Ruiz de Alarcón contains plenty of magical concepts ("Book of Superstition"). For the Aztecs, surveillance of growth was very important and represented a balance between body and soul. They described the different steps of pubertal development. They had specific treatments for thyroid disease in children, mainly hypothyroidism and goiter. There are no references to rickets, nor to type 1 or 2 diabetes mellitus.
Calzada León
Raúl
R
Pediatric Endocrinology Service, Instituto Nacional de Pediatría, México. raulcalzada@yahoo.com
D002648:Child; D004700:Endocrine System Diseases / Q000266:history*; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000266:history*; D008800:Mexico; D012068:Religion and Medicine